June 28, 2019
Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical Fiction, Pre WW11, WW11, Resistance, Jewish, Germany
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My Summary:
Mildred Fish, an American College graduate, meets the love of her life, Arvid Harnack. After they fall in love, they marry and make their home in Arvid’s homeland of Germany. Mildred and Arvid thrive there, forming new friendships, and enjoying the intellectual and artistic offerings of 1930s Berlin. As Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party become more popular and powerful, Mildred and Arvid and their friends are compelled to resist. For years, Mildred and Arvid and their cohorts risk their lives to gather intelligence to bring down the Third Reich from within. Sadly, their sincere efforts don’t result in the help they desired or envisioned. This is a story of everyday people who, while they should be enjoying their carefree youth, give their best efforts to fighting evil and saving their country.
My Thoughts:
Jennifer Chiaverini puts history back into historical fiction!
Pacing: Most of Resistance Women is focused on prewar Germany. Many WW11 books drop the reader right into the middle of the war action and atrocities. In contrast, Jennifer Chiaverini devotes approximately 60% of the story tracing the fascinating buildup to WW11. For the most part, this is a quiet story that focuses on the lives of everyday, patriotic, sincere, and likable people and the difficult circumstances in which they find themselves. Although Resistance Women is not a page-turner, the suffering, quiet desperation, and stealthy efforts of the characters are engaging. As the conspirators continue to live their lives as best they can, they quietly find others who share their concern and are also willing to take risks. These risks do not produce many rewards, and as Mildred and her friends suffer dire consequences, the pace of the story quickens.
Writing: Resistance Women is well-researched and thoughtfully written, and I can picture the author writing the story with all of her notecards spread out around her. In this 600 page story, there’s a significant amount of time devoted to the build-up of the war. If the focus on this time in history interests you, you will appreciate the read. The author includes a great deal of “reporting” of the events, a lot of “telling” and minimal “showing.” It’s like reading a history book where we hear about the events but we do not experience them alongside the character. So even though it’s easy reading, the writing isn’t as engaging or page turning as some other historical fiction books that I’ve read over the past years. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Resistance Women because the prewar history and details about the lives of real people fascinate me. If there had been more specific details about the characters’ activities (more intrigue), I would have bumped this up to a full five stars. In summary, this is a “quiet” story that’s heavily character driven with a great deal of emphasis on the build-up to the war.
Characters: Resistance Women shares the experiences of three courageous souls and their resistance efforts: Mildred (an American married to a German man), Greta, and Sara. These three unforgettable and everyday women risk their lives to fight evil. It is especially interesting to read about the American, Mildred, and her commitment to the resistance movement. (trigger warning: disturbing details in the following article) Mildred is a fascinating character to me because she is an American who grew to love her husband’s homeland and risked her life to fight against the Nazis. (Although there are some gruesome details in the article, the book doesn’t include the most disturbing details.) There is a memorial honoring Mildred in Madison, Wisconsin (USA). In Wisconsin schools, Sept. 16 is celebrated as Mildred Harnack Day. It’s her birthday.

An additional note of historical interest is that Mildred Harnack was married to the cousin of the famous theologian, Detrich Bonhoeffer who is mentioned at the beginning of the book. Some of you may recognize the name. This is a book recommendation about Bonhoeffer’s life and his part in the resistance movement.
Themes: Thoughtful themes include hope, friendship, bravery, courage, risk-taking, patriotism, and everyday people doing extraordinary things in the most impossible and difficult circumstances. These themes would contribute to a great book club discussion.
Recommended: Jennifer Chiaverini puts the history into historical fiction! If you are ever frustrated by historical fiction that reads like women’s fiction in a historical setting, you can be assured that there’s an abundance of history in Resistance Women. I recommend this story for readers who love a quieter, character-driven story with lots of historical detail, for those who might be interested in the prewar buildup in Germany, and for fans of Jennifer Chiaverini (and, of course, histfic). This story would provide thoughtful discussion topics for a book club.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Meet the Author, Jennifer Chiaverini
Jennifer Chiaverini is the New York Times bestselling author of FATES AND TRAITORS, MRS. LINCOLN’S DRESSMAKER, MRS. LINCOLN’S RIVAL, THE SPYMISTRESS, MRS. GRANT AND MADAME JULE, and other acclaimed historical novels. She also wrote the beloved Elm Creek Quilts series, as well as six collections of quilt patterns inspired by her books. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin. About her historical fiction, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, “In addition to simply being fascinating stories, these novels go a long way in capturing the texture of life for women, rich and poor, black and white, in those perilous years.”
QOTD!
Have you read any other titles by Jennifer Chiaverini?
Is Resistance Women on your TBR or have you read it?
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love the cover art and topic but i wonder if i’d find my attention wavering perhaps. thanks for such a thorough review!
Joy at The Joyous Living
It’s definitely history intensive and not a typical page turner spy story….. but the history of the build up is fascinating! Thanks so much for stopping in and commenting!
Great review. I love historical fictio, but I haven’t read any of hers yet.
Thanks! I think you might enjoy it!
Sounds like a good book
I certainly learned a lot! Thanks for commenting!
[…] 5 Stars. Ordinary women choose to risk their lives in support of the resistance (WW11). Full review here. […]
[…] Review here […]
I love historical fiction and I actually don’t mind a book that’s a bit heavy on the facts, so I’d probably enjoy this one. #abitofeverything
I hope it’s a good read for you! 👍😍 you might also enjoy Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
The publisher offered me this book but I didn’t have time to read it, so I turned it down. I didn’t realize it was also biographical. Maybe I made a mistake! Thanks.
It’s a hefty read at almost 600 pages…..and it’s character driven so not a page turner. It took me some time to read it so maybe your instincts were right! My request for an arc was declined!
Ah… yes… I remember seeing the page count and thinking… OY! I don’t know why the publisher approached me about this one – it just came out of the blue. But… on second thought – an American Jew living in Israel reading historical fiction (and a great deal surrounding WWI and WWII), yeah, it should have been my thing.
I hope you get to read this someday Davida!
This is the kind of book that very much appeals to me, I like to focus on ordinary people and also love reading about parts if history that aren’t routinely covered in books.
#abitofeverything
I hope it’s a great read for you! 👍
I just stumbled on your site (really awesome!) and followed you on Goodreads. Your review of Resistance Women is just awesome and I’m with you 100% in your rating and review. I look forward to perusing your reads and reviews from the last few years to add new books to my list! Sher
[…] Full review here. […]
[…] Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini paired with Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas […]
[…] and/or the amount of dense historical details. Some examples are Prairie Fires, Ribbons of Scarlet, Resistance Women, and Island of Sea Women. (titles are links to my […]
[…] Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini Genre: Histfic (biographical) 4 Stars […]
[…] Brave women in the German resistance movement before and during WW11. (histfic) Full Review Here […]
[…] My Summary: “Mildred Fish, an American College graduate, meets the love of her life, Arvid Harnack. After they fall in love, they marry and make their home in Arvid’s homeland of Germany. Mildred and Arvid thrive there, forming new friendships, and enjoying the intellectual and artistic offerings of 1930s Berlin. As Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party become more popular and powerful, Mildred and Arvid and their friends are compelled to resist. For years, Mildred and Arvid and their cohorts risk their lives to gather intelligence to bring down the Third Reich from within. Sadly, their sincere efforts don’t result in the help they desired or envisioned. This is a story of ordinary people who, while they should be enjoying their carefree youth, give their best efforts to fighting evil and saving their country.” My Review. […]
[…] Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverinipaired withBonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas […]
[…] Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini […]
[…] I’ve read about women spies and/or the resistance movement in WW11 include Code Name Helene, Resistance Women, The Alice Network, The Last Train to London, The Book of Lost Names, and The Lost Girls of […]
[…] In 2020, I decided to systematically revisit my older review posts and update them. On Thursdays, I’ll be re-sharing a few of these great reads. Today, I’m re-sharing a review of an inspirational and memorable historical fiction, Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini. […]
The interwar years in Germany is very interesting. It puts context on how Hitler and the Nazi party were able to rise to power. I love historical fiction, particularly ones that are well-researched. I’ll be adding this to my very long TBR list. You are becoming my go-to girl for WW2 historical novels LOL.
I certainly learned a lot reading Resistance Women! It always makes me wonder what I would have done! Thanks for commenting!
I know it’s a weird thing to fix on but I love this author’s bio, its cool that she writes and quilts and interchanges the two!
Right?! Author bios are fun to read!
This sounds like a wonderful and powerful story. I have cut back a bit on historical fiction because I was reading so much of it, but I am back at it and this sounds like a good one. I agree, Carol, there are few books about the build up to WWII in historical fiction. I have Jennifer Chiaverini’s most recent book on audio to listen to, but am going to add this one to my TBR. Great review Carol.
Thanks Carla! I hope you enjoy Resistance Women! It makes me wonder what I would have done.
That is always a huge question whenever I read Historical Fiction.
[…] Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverinipaired withBonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas […]
[…] Related: Another story that begins during pre-World War 11 Germany and features a few courageous women is Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini. […]
[…] brave women spies or women in resistance movements include Code Name Helene, The Invisible Woman, Resistance Women, The Alice Network, and Sisters of Night and […]
[…] Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini […]