Another book review!

Guys this book has under taken my judgment. Only read this book if your options for reading are horrible.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE GARDEN

This is an interesting book that talks about WW2, or at least the end of it. The thing that makes it interesting for me is that is written from a German's point of view. I don’t see this often because I am Canadian (so any history we get of WW2 is from the Canadian point of view).

The author does a not-often-used tactic of getting one character to tell the story to other characters, so that the author can put breaks in the story. In this case it was an old lady who was in a nursing home who wanted people to know her story, and the reason she was telling it to these certain people was because the boy had the same name as her brother  (the boy's mom was her nurse).

Through the book they go through the difficulties that you would have when traveling in WW2.

Here is what happened in the book.

In the beginning they had a pretty happy life until the war came along, but when it did hit the father, who was a very kind man, had to leave. Nearing the end of the war they were always the fear that they would be bombed (because they were in a big city (Dresden), all of the cities had been bombed). 

 One evening the mom decided that they would go on a walk with the elephant that they kind of adopted. The reason they had this elephant was because the mother worked at the zoo, she became bonded with it. And when she heard that they were going to shoot the dangerous animals when the bombing came she knew that she must find a way to save the elephant. 

Conveniently the bombing happened when they were walking, so they decided to head towards their aunt and uncle's home. It takes them a few days of walking all day and night to get there. But they do it eventually. When they get there they immediately start looking for their aunt and uncle, but it turns out they have left, so they have to smash a window to get in. 

The elephant needed food so they went inside the barn and found Peter, a Canadian navigator that knew how to speak perfect German because of his mom, another coincidence? Well the mom the goes on a sociopathic rampage deciding that she will kill this navigator because he helped the bombers that destroyed the city. Wait. Isn’t she supposed to be some kind of saint? Or did the author decide that she was too nice?

Luckily her daughter is able to save the airman by telling her mom that she has no right to kill him and etc. etc. etc. The mom finally trusts him after he saves her son when the son fell through the ice on the lake while he was walking across it to an island. The thing I find improbable is that somehow a man who probably weighed at least three times the kid’s weight didn’t fall through. Interesting. The author even says that, “…Peter was on his knees right beside the hole…” Peter should have broken through also, because the ice would be way too thin to hold his weight.

Anyways he saves the kid so the mom becomes very trusting of him. She doesn’t want him to come with them but he points out that he can get them to safety because of his compass and his skills.

So then they stay off the main road and Karli teaches Peter how to cough and wheeze so that he has that cover story of an asthmatic brother (to explain why he’s not a soldier, all the young men were soldiers at that time). The only time they hit trouble is at a sanctuary where Karli gets very sick. They stay there for a while but then the butler (WHY BUTLER WHY ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE THAT NOTICED THAT PETER DOESN’T HAVE A GERMAN ACCENT!) tells the cops that there is a Canadian in their midst. But the lady of the house pulls rank on the officer and they are allowed to leave. After a long time they finally make it to the American line.

Even though Peter tells the Allies that the German family is good, they get thrown into a camp. Then Peter seems to be lost but after a year he comes marching back to their town and finds them. The daughter (Lizzie) and Peter marry and everybody lives happily ever after.

Karli

Young boy who has asthma, although he might slow them down he always brightens the mood with his tricks and jokes.

Karl

A young boy that the elderly woman tells him her story because of his name. 

Mom of Karl

She takes care of the old woman in a nursing home.

Lizzie Old woman

She is the main character in the story. She tells the story from her nursing home bed.

Lizzie Old woman in her youth

She faces many hardships, and has to do a lot to help the family.

Peter

A charming young man who helps the German family a great deal by leading them, finding shelter and getting food.

Mother of Lizzie (from Dresden)

She is a nice woman and works hard to get the family money and keep them safe.