The Women in the Castle

De: Jessica Shattuck

Narrado por: Cassandra Campbell

The Women in the Castle has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Talk like a woman, please

Any additional comments?

Such strong female characters, such breathy portrayals. Cassandra Campbell performs every single woman in this book by going way up high and adding lots of air -- even the main character, who as written is forceful, driven and uncompromising. Drove me crazy.

The End - The Afterwards - The Blindspots

An excellent, provoking novel which manages to capture the complexities of the afterlives of the second world war.

An interesting book

I liked the book. I enjoyed seeing the story of the war told from a different perspective and if I could I would have given it a 3.5 star. I just didn't love the book. I didn't feel like I connected with characters, something that happens in books I thoroughly enjoy. in this case I believe this was due to the way the story was written and not the subject matter

Hard to like these characters

This was a hard book to listen to. There is so much sorrow and hardship and I wish there could have somehow been a reassurance from the ASPCA.

But for the most part, it was just so irritating that people kept getting in their own way.

Like they do in life. But still.

I was fascinated by some of the insights into WWII from the German standpoint. What I could not finally understand though, was the actual point. I felt as if I were dragged through a lot of awfulness just so we could have a few pages of reconciliation at the end. All of these women crossed a line for me at one point or another. All of them did things that were unforgivable.

There was much about this book that I couldn't enjoy, but I did manage to hang on until the end. It could be that it's just not my cuppa. I'd rather laugh. And there was nothing to laugh at here. It is rather unrelentingly sad.

The language was sometimes stilted as if Ms. Shattuck wanted us to be hearing a stiff translation from the German. Ms. Campbell read the entire thing with German accents, something I'll never understand. They are speaking German most of the time, right? This may have been directed so I can't fault her for that. Probably.
Also - she seems to have a sinus that pops at the end of every sentence. It's really distracting.

This one was definitely not for me. But it could be just right for someone else.

A Big To Do About . . . not much

The long and short of it is . . . it's long . . . a bit pointless. A lot of build up, for not much pay off. Maybe none. The 'star' of the show was not the friend you'd like to have. In fact, she is a cool cucumber AND judgmental to the lives of the friends she claims. Nevertheless, the main reason I saw it though to the end, was to get a glimpse at life for the women left behind in Germany after WWII; and to learn a bit about their way of life and how they needed to tick along to move forward. If you are looking for how 3 women could have bonded raising their children while living in a delapidated castle after the war . . . try another book. If you want another account of life in Germany after the war, and have nearly 13 hours to spend . . . well, you be the judge.