Secrets of a Charmed Life

Compare Emmy’s and Julia’s struggles with their lives and identities after the war. How are their character arcs similar? How are they different? How does the novel implement bildungsroman throughout their perspectives? Explain.

Isabel concludes the interview and novel with the assertion that war absolves people of faults, and that one only has so much control over circumstances. What faults do the characters display, and in what ways might war manage or fail to absolve them? Where do the characters exert control over their own lives?

How does Susan Meissner’s decision to divide the narrative into three parts affect the novel’s plot and structure? What is the impact of this choice, and how does it relate to the narration style?