Book Review: The Lost Girls of Paris
Written by Pam Jenoff (The Orphan's Tale), The Lost Girls of Paris is a historical fiction novel set in Europe just prior to the D-Day invasion of 1944. The book follows a division of British special forces comprised entirely of women, who operated a secret radio circuit in Nazi occupied France. The novel is a loosely based on actual events, although the characters and story is fictionalized. The Lost Girls of Paris has already received high critical praise, and was selected by Cosmopolitan Magazine as the “Best Book Club Book of 2019.”
Shortly after losing her husband in an automobile accident, Grace Healey finds herself living alone in New York City. New York (and the world at large) is still reeling from the aftermath of the Second World War. After seeing an opportunity to make a bit of a difference, Grace takes a job as an assistant for a lawyer who provides services to immigrants from Europe. One day, while running late for work, Grace takes a shortcut through Grand Central Station. She notices an abandoned suitcase, and on an impulse opens it up to see who it belongs to. Inside, she discovers various photographs of women, though no indication as to who the owner is. Grace takes it upon herself to discover who the women in the photos are, and what their story was.
The Lost Girls of Paris follows various storylines simultaneously, and frequently jumps around between characters. While Grace is uncovering the secret behind the women in the photographs, the novel uses first person narratives to fill the reader in on all of the details. At the height of the war, Eleanor Trigg, a secretary for British SOE, comes up with the idea to use female agents as radio operators throughout France. Her immediate commander is not keen on the plan, but ultimately agrees, putting Eleanor in charge of the female-led division. Marie Roux, a widowed mother, is recruited early on by Eleanor, and begins military and intelligence training.
As a writer, Pam Jenoff appears to have a clear purpose for the characters she has created, and within the first couple of chapters I noticed parallels between the women. For example, while each woman comes from a different walk of life, they have suffered a loss or heartbreaking experience, which seems to drive each character in a unique way. Jenoff understands that ordinary people who are content with their position rarely volunteer for the type of dangerous missions described in the novel, and the well-crafted histories not only incite the characters to action, but help connect each character emotionally to the reader.
Jenoff’s style makes the book seem to fly by. At 384 pages, Lost Girls is not particularly long to begin with, and Jenoff keeps the pace steady throughout its entirety. Jenoff is less visually descriptive in her writing, which I think works to her advantage with this book. The storytelling itself is very selective, and few details are given that do not serve to advance the plot. For the majority of the book this accomplishes exactly what I believe she is setting out to do. On occasion, I felt that a few extra details would have added clarity to the story, although these moments were very rare.
For a story set in World War II, The Lost Girls of Paris feels like something I haven’t read or seen on screen before. Most of the action takes place in a relatively peaceful town outside of Paris. The espionage and intelligence gathering done by Marie and the other female agents is probably a more accurate portrayal, but it is nothing like a Bond film or Mission: Impossible. To me this was an interesting aspect of the book that never got explored quite the way I wanted it to. In an effort to keep the story going, Jenoff only brushes the surface of life in occupied France as an allied spy.
In general, the setting and time period receive less attention throughout the novel, leaving much of each scene up to my imagination. Periodically, references to pop culture of the time (e.g. The Wizard of Oz) were thrown in, but these attempts often failed to give the novel the appropriate vintage feel. Other outdated practices and technology (e.g. the radio transmitters used in the field) could have used a bit more detail in order to educate the modern reader on how they worked.
Prior to her writing career, I was interested to learn that Jenoff worked for the Pentagon and for the State Department. Her knowledge of the inner workings of military organizations was evident throughout Lost Girls, which gave her story more authenticity. She does not completely avoid plot holes though. The most noticeable errors, in my opinion, occur after Marie has landed in France. During her training, she and the other girls are given strict guidelines for conduct after deployment. These are heavily stressed early on, yet soon after her mission begins, Marie, as well as other superior officers, bend and even break these rules. Nothing catastrophic occurs as a result of these actions, yet it still seemed inconsistent across the book.
Admittedly, in the middle of the novel I found myself wondering why all three of these stories were contained in one book. The connection was not always obvious, and one story seemed completely irrelevant to what the rest of the book was trying to say. I give a lot of credit to Jenoff though. By the end of the book, I understood not only that the stories were connected, but that each was essential to the broader purpose of the novel. The conclusion was surprisingly satisfying and poignant, and revealed that the novel had been meticulously planned in a way I had not noticed before.
The tale of a forgotten group of heroes, The Lost Girls of Paris does a tremendous job of telling us why these types of stories matter. In a genre dominated by violent war stories, this felt fresh and optimistic. I am somewhat ashamed to say that I was previously unfamiliar with contributions made by this particular group of female agents, and would recommend this to anyone. Jenoff seems constantly aware that this is a story about female empowerment, and the book is both informative and enlightening. Perhaps most importantly, her matter-of-fact approach seems to imply that brave women like these are more common than not.
Final Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Lost Girls of Paris is available now in hardcover and eBook
