Lisa Shoemaker

I wish I could say I enjoyed this attempt by Benedict and Murray to bring to life the relationship between two very admirable American women. But I can’t say that I did. The characters were drawn stiffly (almost stereotypically), and the dialogue was often so bland and predictable that reading through this book became a kind of plodding. The conversations between Mary and Eleanor are often what we might read as captions on posters, not the talk of two women forging a deep friendship. Eleanor and Mary giggle about subjects that aren’t funny, and they constantly and awkwardly drop names in the narrative in order to explain who are the key operators in Mary’s world and Eleanor’s. I wanted to enjoy this read; I really did. It reads like a historical novel well-researched, but not adeptly brought to life by two supposedly accomplished authors. I read this book for my book club, but honestly, if I didn’t feel the need to finish it before discussing it with others, I would have put it down before Chapter 20.

Well. While this book has garnered some rave reviews as "inspirational" and a "must read," I could barely get through it. The sections that dealt with Irena Sendler were fascinating; I agree she is a Holocaust hero who needs to be recognized. However, the sections about these three high school girls were so sappy I could hardly read them. Their insights were--well, high school insights, which is fine if I were a high-schooler. I am a mature adult reader, and I found this part of Mayer's writing quite weak. I even highlighted some narrative and character comments in my Kindle, just because they were so weak and cliched. The ending needed editing; in fact, just to get myself through the ending, I mentally edited the book as I was reading.