A highlighting habit

Yes, I’m a highlighter! Are you? I highlight physical books, I highlight e-books, which annoys my husband because he often reads a novel I’ve already finished. I highlight fiction and non-fiction. I suppose I would highlight audiobooks too!

Why do I highlight?

Case in point: Skylark by Paula McLain

Paula McLain’s novels are always eagerly anticipated. I admire her writing style, the subjects she chooses, and the stories she tells. Often, those stories have something to say about today, even if they’re set in the past.

According to the blurb: The New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife weaves a mesmerizing tale of Paris above and below—where a woman’s quest for artistic freedom in 1664 intertwines with a doctor’s dangerous mission during the German occupation in the 1940s, revealing a story of courage and resistance that transcends time.

Writing inspiration – future projects:

“How revolutionaries and refugees left signs for one another, symbols oof birds carved into the limestone to help guide them through the dark to hard-won freedom.”

I had been musing about the next novel to write for my grandchildren. The eldest asked me for a novel set during WWII and I’d been playing with an idea featuring the resistance – rather cliche but they will love being heroes. Suddenly, this sentence made me think of the catacombs in Paris and how they might be used during that war.

“Copies of de Gaulle’s speech were secretly printed and passed hand to hand.”

Another idea for the next children’s book. Perhaps the older two will participate in distributing de Gaulle’s speech?

Lessons for today:

“Where the Germans and even these marionette gendarmes have given away their humanity, and nothing in the world feels powerful enough to reverse the tide.”

To me, this sentence is a reminder of the way Donald Trump’s ICE force has targeted immigrants and others who are people of colour, people who don’t speak ‘the language’ and nothing seems to stop them.

“The discrimination makes no sense to Kristof. The idea that anyone is more ‘pure’ or ‘chosen’ than someone else – what does that even mean? Hitler’s hierarchies are absurd enough, but what stuns him more is how easily the French have adopted them.”

Is this where some of today’s governments, including the US, are heading?

Ideas about life:

“To follow the rules is to be kept small forever.”

Such an interesting sentiment. I can imagine a character in the novel I’m currently writing saying something like this. I can also imagine such a thought applying to me!

Writing craft:

“There is a moment of sharpness, a gasp of surprise, and then the pain ebbs, dissolving into an urge to press closer, to have nothing at all between them. It’s as if something tidal is moving through her, with her, as constant and inescapable as the pull of the moon.”

What an interesting way to describe a woman’s first experience with sex. We get the message without all the detail.

“The sky above purples with thickening dusk, while her thoughts whirl like rabbling blackbirds.”

An image that appeals to me. Seven words set the scene. Another seven illuminate the character. I wonder if Paula McLain planned that? The kind of writing I’d like to emulate.

“Falling pebbles echo like gunshots.”

Another example to emulate.

Are you a highlighter? Let me know!

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These are just a few of the highlights I made while reading Skylark. A few thoughts on the novel itself.

Skylark is constructed with two timelines. In one we follow Alouette, a young woman who is the daughter of a master dyer for the Gobelins tapestry company. We are in the 17th century and the lives of working class people like Alouette are miserable. When she dares to create her own dye – a vivid blue – she is sent to Salpêtrière, a hospital where women were incarcerated for all manner of perceived faults including poverty, mental illness, disabilities and in Alouette’s case, daring to do what only select men were chosen to do. Alouette’s lover works underground mining for stone in what is now part of the catacombs.

The second timeline is set during WWII. It too features a hospital and a doctor who is a psychiatrist. The doctor – Kristof – learns of plans to eliminate mentally ill patients who are deemed unsuitable. This timeline also features the underground tunnels beneath Paris. Other characters include Sasha, a Jewish teenager whose family is taken by the Nazis, and a man working for the resistance.

I found the 17th century timeline when Alouette was incarcerated at Salpêtrière difficult to read given the brutal way women prisoners were treated. But the parallel stories weave together well and the characters are vividly portrayed. Another Paula McLain success!

Skylark by Paula McLain

1664: Alouette Voland is the daughter of a master dyer at the famed Gobelin Tapestry Works, who secretly dreams of escaping her circumstances and creating her own masterpiece. When her father is unjustly imprisoned, Alouette’s efforts to save him lead to her own confinement in the notorious Salpêtrière asylum, where thousands of women are held captive and cruelly treated. But within its grim walls, she discovers a small group of brave allies, and the possibility of a life bigger than she ever imagined.

1939: Kristof Larson is a medical student beginning his psychiatric residency in Paris, whose neighbors on the Rue de Gobelins are a Jewish family who have fled Poland. When Nazi forces descend on the city, Kristof becomes their only hope for survival, even as his work as a doctor is jeopardized.

A spellbinding and transportive look at a side of Paris known to very few—the underground city that is a mirror reflection of the glories above—Paula McLain’s unforgettable new novel chronicles two parallel journeys of defiance and rescue that connect in ways both surprising and deeply moving.

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M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.