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Green Book Campaign: Season of Suffering-Coming of Age in Occupied France

November 10, 2010 in book review, environment, history by Kim | 4 comments

The Green Books Campaign

This review is part of the Green Books campaign.Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on “green” books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

Season of Suffering-Coming of Age in Occupied France by Nicole H. Taflinger

Since this is Green Book Campaign Day, it’s appropriate to note that Washington State University Press published Season of Suffering on pH neutral, acid-free paper.  Taflinger’s memoir is perfect for a university press because it is more a memory document than a contemporary juicy tell-all.  It reads like a transcribed interview without the questions.  I picked this book because I have thought repeatedly about Nemirovsky’s telling of the German occupation of France in Suite Francaise.  Season of Suffering would be the type of book Nemirovsky, or any other author, could use as source material for a novel.

While there isn’t a story arc in the book apart from the dramatic historic events, Taflinger’s life experience is important.  Taflinger’s family wasn’t Jewish or bombed, it was an ordinary French Catholic family.  What was life like for ordinary non-Jewish French citizens?  Was there enough food?  Who was brave and who were collaborators?  (This was a question that frequently wasn’t answered until after the war.)  What did the citizens of Nancy know of the world outside their town?  Taflinger described a life of little food where electricity, coal, wood were all scarce and unreliable.

I found the period right after the occupation interesting.  Her father was a POW the entire war and the years of listening to German propaganda ruined him.  He returned more pro-German than pro-American or  Allied forces.  Despite being sent to a farm as slave labor for years, he walked home refusing all offers of assistance from American officers.  He believed his wife and child had an enjoyable life with German boyfriends while he was gone.  American readers have an awareness of PTSD and brainwashing from our own soldiers returning home from our current wars, this was a view of the WWII European experience. Reading Taflinger’s worry over her father’s life during the entire war, then the joy in seeing him alive, immediately followed by the shock of who he became was a heartbreaking aspect of the book.

Taflinger married an American officer, the first pilot to land in Nancy, a scene she describes vividly even including the size of his feet.  She relayed the populations mixed feelings about the Americans.  They were certainly heroic liberators initially greeted with hugs and kisses, but they also were dangerous.  She said no woman ever feared being raped by the German soldiers, but women could not safely walk alone while the Americans were in town, incidents of rape and overall bad behavior were too common.

Season of Suffering documents an important aspect of German occupation that will be useful for all of us who only experience it through history and novels.

Interested in reading Season of Suffering yourself?  Leave a comment with your e-mail by Sunday, November 28 at 11PM and I’ll pick one winner.

10 Activities for the Green Reader

Want to incorporate your green lifestyle with your reading habits?  Eco-Libris has 10 suggestions:

1. Check the reviews of books on the campaign’s list that look interesting to you and add your comments to their reviews.
2. Tweet the campaign (you can also follow it on twitter).
3. Post it in your Facebook status update and join the conversation on the campaign’s Facebook page.
4. Learn more about the green agenda of some of the participating publishers on Eco-Libris blog. Read the rest of this entry »

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Hey Kermit – It Is Easy to be Green

February 13, 2010 in environment, gifts, giveaway by Kim | No comments

Claire and I work at being green.  We both buy our veggies from the same organic service (ParadiseO, tell them we sent you!) and strive to reduce, re-use and recycle.  Truthfully though, Claire is in a different league.  When she re-landscaped, she chose succulents and water tolerant plants; when you see my garden, you’ll think “English.”  When they stripped out the grass to replace it with a more environmentally-friendly type, she watered the dirt and waited for the weeds to grow and be pulled rather than use a herbicide.  Let’s just say that never would have occurred to me.  She composts; when I mentioned composting to our landscaper she laughed, patted me on the shoulder, and said “let’s work on watering the pots regularly.”  Claire gave up meat for a year for environmental reasons; I try not to have any meat until dinner, but mostly for caloric purposes.

We’ve talked about the used book quandary – they’re better for the environment because a book is being reused, but not so good for the author who doesn’t get a cut of that transaction.  Claire is an author.  Eco-Libris provides the answer, buy a tree for every book you read to balance out the paper used to manufacture the book.  Eco-Libris also works with publishers to promote the sustainable production of books.  Now, they are combing the two and adding an extra incentive for readers to participate:

  • Customers who balance out 25 books at Eco-Libris will receive a $10 gift card for Strand Bookstore in New York City (one of the world’s best independent bookstores). These cards are good for any in-store or online purchases and they never expire.
  • For customers who will balance out 50 books, Eco-Libris will send a gift - a choice of “green” book, printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. Customers will be offered to choose from a list of 5-6 books that will be changing occasionally.  The books are from last November’s green campaign; we loved our copy of From Green to Gold by Harold Enrico.
  • Customers who will balance 100 books will receive a$25 gift card for BookSwim, a Netflix-style book rental library service, lending you paperbacks, hardcovers and college textbooks.

Help the environment and get rewarded for it, what could be better?

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