Parkin paints a vivid
picture of Guernsey under Nazi occupation through the citizens that we explore
there and some of the Nazi’s who are stationed there. First is Ma Doras, the woman in charge of a
boarding house that has to house the Nazis as well as the Doctor and
friends. She knows that she is in a bad
situation as she commits passive resistance to the Nazis while still trying to
live her life. She is the example of a
British woman with a stiff upper lip and the hope that the war is going to be
won eventually, but the realism that things will be getting darker before they
get lighter. She serves her purpose and
Parkin knows that she needs to leave the story as the focus becomes on the
other characters. One of the Nazis
staying on Guernsey with Ma Doras is Gerhard Flur who is a young man who
enlisted with that classic sense of patriotism and nationalism. He believes what the Nazis are doing are
right and just, as is the war, but Parkin writes him as a real person. He falls in love with Benny early on in the
novel of course before he realizes that she isn’t going to be compliant to the
Nazis and he gets himself killed. It is
an event that shatters Benny which I will get to later when I discuss her, but
his dead body still has another bit of purpose in the novel later on. The villains of the story are Oskar Steinmann
and Joachim Wolff who are two ruthless Nazis who have to be the evil ones for
the main characters.
Speaking of the main
characters, they are split up into three groups with Chris and Roz being
undercover agents in London going against the Nazis from Canada and South
Africa respectively, Benny being on Guernsey before being taken to a Nazi
prison to be tortured and the Doctor actually becoming a Nazi. So there is a lot of ground to cover with
these characters and to be honest Chris is probably the weakest of the group this
novel. He is sent on a suicide mission
and eventually meets up with the Doctor and is partially responsible for how
the novel actually concludes. His
character however is much clearer here than in some of the other novels as here
he feels like a little kid in a candy shop surrounded by history. He researched movies from the time period and
history textbooks yet still has a lot of things to go through before he
realizes how screwed up the world of 1941 actually is. He really is there to make things quite a bit
lighter and also to ask the moral dilemma as why can’t they just kill all the
Nazis?
Roz is the one of the
pair used much better as she has to go through the sexism and the racism of the
era while she ends up getting engaged.
She has to be the one to try and find a solution to the problems of the
war while Kendrick, her boss in this story doesn’t really take her seriously. It becomes an interesting dynamic as Roz is
forced to take things when really she is a no nonsense type of person in all
respects. She also delves in to the
sexual repression of the period as she falls in love with Reed, a lieutenant
who is obsessed with African culture. It’s
really something that is interesting as she has to let down her defenses and
create a lasting relationship with someone.
It was very possible that she could have been left behind as she agrees
to marry Reed and Parkin doesn’t make the misstep of killing off Reed. Roz really feels like a well thought out
character here as it is nice to let her have the spotlight again.
The Doctor actually shows
just why I have the Seventh Doctor as my favorite Doctor. He can stay in the background and still do
detestable things and actually be in the right here. He has to become a Nazi to get information
and signs himself over to the Third Reich and I can’t help but love it. He is doing all this for two reasons. First he is guilty that he let Ma Doras’s own
daughter die of an illness in 1913 and second just before the events of Dragonfire he and Mel met the German who
was using the technology to let the Nazi’s win and they became friends. Mel made him promise that if that German went
anywhere he would be there to stop it.
He and Mel both have a stake in events and are portrayed great. The Doctor’s plotline also is responsible for
the villain of Oskar Steinmann who is a power hungry Nazi who wants to even
surpass Hitler and spread information about the “glorious” cause. He is the one to convince the Doctor to
become a Nazi by treating him like a friend and treating him to secrets. The Doctor knows too much not to become a
Nazi.
Finally we have Benny who
is the real star of the show here. She
kills a man and gets captured and tortured by Joachim Wolff and his sympathetic
nurse. These scenes of torture are
brutal as we get to see Benny broken down and almost become a normal twentieth
century girl. It is a very good writing
for Benny and is an easy plotline to convert into a Benny standalone, helped by
the fact that the plotlines are kept very separate from each other which is honestly
a good thing. Benny also has to be Celia
Doras in Guernsey as she takes an identity which really doesn’t have a lot of
light moments. She acts very much like a
conman here which is something that also shines through. I don’t want to ruin anything else from this
novel as it is brilliant.
To summarize, Just War is a novel there to ask the
hard questions about political ideas, the spread of power, racism, sexism and
just plain character drama. It is a
story that everyone should have the chance to read quickly and immediately.
100/100
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