Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner – 400 pages
ARC from Berkley Pub and Netgalley for an honest review
Book Blurb:
Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner: California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant. Banished by the Calverts, Rosanne believes she is bound for a home for unwed mothers, and having lost her family she treasures her pregnancy as the chance for a future one. But she soon finds out she is not going to a home of any kind, but to a place far worse than anything she could have imagined. Austria, 1947—After witnessing firsthand Adolf Hitler’s brutal pursuit of hereditary purity—especially with regard to “different children”—Helen Calvert, Truman’s sister, is ready to return to America for good. But when she arrives at her brother’s peaceful vineyard after decades working abroad, she is shocked to learn what really happened nine years earlier to the vinedresser’s daughter, a girl whom Helen had long ago befriended. In her determination to find Rosanne, Helen discovers that while the war had been won in Europe, there are still terrifying battles to be fought at home.
My Review: 4.5 stars
Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner was an incredible story that takes on the horrific practice of eugenics in both 1930s California and 1940s Austria. Eugenics is the practice of sterilization for those who are considered inferior in a quest to make a stronger race. As the book shows however, who is to decide what is a weakness?
The book features two storylines, each with their own protagonist. Although the timelines are about ten years apart and takes place on different continents, the characters have met before which adds depth to the book’s structure.
Rosanne was sent away due to her synesthesia, a condition in which someone has a neurological condition that causes involuntarily miscommunication between the senses. For example, someone with this condition would hear a word and see an associated color or listening to birdsong could cause a shape to appear. Keeping this condition a secret was her mother’s dying wish because not everyone would accept her as “normal”.
Helen, who has lived overseas for years, tries to protect children from being taken away from their loving families due to any disability these children may have. A lame hand or a speech impediment was enough for the Austrian government to have these children removed.
Meissner is an incredible storyteller. This story jumps from the page into a mental movie as you imagine what is happening to these two women. Each of these women have suffered much and fought for themselves and others. I think this topic of physical, mental and racial betterment to be obscene, yet sadly, much of this book is based on truth.
I’ve truly loved all of Meissner’s backlist so I urge you check those books out as well.
Quotes I liked:
I can taste the fear on my tongue and feel its weight on my chest.”
“Who defines what is a weakness? Isn’t it only the strong who get to decide that?”
“Air can’t be fenced or kept back or held in. It goes wherever it wants. Air is free. Someday I will be, too, though not soon enough.”
“I think I understand now that a person doesn’t stop being a mother just because her child is taken from her.”
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