The Secret Purposes

by David Baddiel

Book Overview

Fleeing the only home they've ever known in East Prussia after the flood of Nazism enters their lives, Isaac and Lulu Fabian assume that in Cambridge, in the apparent haven of Great Britain, they have... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060765828
• ISBN13: 9780060765828
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Internment on the Isle of Man

David Baddiel's The Secret Purposes reveals a little known occurrence during World War II: the British internment of Germans, both Jews and suspected Nazis, on the Isle of Man. Isaac Fabian, the son of a rabbi and a professed Communist, and his German Christian wife Lulu emigrate from Königsberg to Cambridge during the beginning of the Nazi persecution of Jews. There, they and their young daughter Rebekka try to fit into the British culture that has rules almost as anti-Semitic as the country of their birth. Isaac is branded a class C, or dangerous, refugee for his Communist beliefs and Lulu, because she is non-Jewish and speaks better English, is classified as an A. As a result of this difference in status, the family is separated when the war escalates, and Isaac and thousands of other Jews and Germans are sent to an internment camp on the Isle of Man. Lulu is left behind to search for a way to gain his release. Meanwhile, an otherwise insignificant translator in the Ministry of Information, June Murray, decides to interview the Jews on the Isle of Man to uncover the truth about the atrocities being committed in their native land. There, she meets Isaac. Meanwhile, in Cambridge, Lulu tries to gather another set of very different testimonials; she needs three from upstanding British citizens that attest to Isaac's good character so that he can be released from custody. Baddiel's writing is best when it describes the details of everyday life within the context of the times; however, despite his meticulous descriptions and the complexity of who his characters are, the author never manages to give his characters life except briefly, as in this early description of June: "She'd also had her hair cut, slightly longer than her usual high bob (she had been considering one of those finger waves that all the film stars had now, but had panicked at the last minute, thinking that it would be thought too attention-seeking for the Ministry)." Too often we are told what the characters think and what they feel ("guilt" is ever-present), and the result is a mechanical manipulation of characters we are supposed to like but can't quite connect with. There is flatness where there should be a spark. That's not to say that this book is not interesting--it is--but that it doesn't fully realize its potential. While the plights of Isaac, Lulu, and June might not move us, certainly the plights of their real-life counterparts do. This basis in historical fact gives this novel its significance because of what it reveals about racism, anti-Semitism, wrongful persecution, and the intentional withholding of information during wartime, issues that are as relevant today as they were during World War II. Readers of historical fiction will probably appreciate this more than those simply looking for a compelling story.