Irresistible

It is 2AM Tuesday night and I am still wide awake. I can’t put this book down. Just a few pages more.

Reading Anita Shreve is one the best escapes one can have. An escape from the torments of this tragic world into another world that is demarcated by loss, longing and personal wreckage beyond the limits of the human spirit.

In Resistance, Shreve meticulously designs a romantic tragedy amidst the atrocious fabric of war. It is 1943 and Europe is in the height of devastation. In a Nazi-occupied Belgian village, an American bomber plane fell from the skies like a cursed gift from heaven. The pilot was rescued and sheltered by the wife of a resistance worker in the secret room of their house. An impossible bond unfolds as the wife and the pilot learns to feed off each other’s needs, both physical and spiritual. But this pure accidental relationship will soon be tainted with betrayal, desperation and the greater repercussions of war. While a doomed ending is inevitable, the reader will marvel at the sacrifices and secret pain that the characters endure.

In her signature fashion, Shreve punishes her readers in their search for the character’s redemption. Resistance is at its exquisite best when you realize that there are only a few pages left and still there are a thousand loose ends to the story. In the last ten pages, she scrupulously wraps it up but leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination. So you have the urge to haunt Shreve down and demand the details.

Taken lightly, Resistance tells the story of resistance workers in Belgium. In local history, they can be compared to the propagandistas of Rizal’s time. Taken deeply, Resistance is a test of courage and commitment. It is a search for hope in circumstances so terrible; for dignity in such disreputable times.

In this book, Shreve reiterates that she is an intelligent and skilled writer. She has mastered simplistic yet delicate prose that does not insult the readers. She knows how to plunge her characters in dilemma and let their spirit and frailty lift them up.

I have devoured four Shreve books so far and I can still remember each of them vividly. That’s how remarkable they are. It is only Fortune’s Rock that I can’t get past the first two chapters. Next on my reading list: Light On Snow.