Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2011
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Inspired by the wartime experiences of her late father-in-law, award-winning author Bobbie Ann Mason has written an unforgettable novel about an American World War II pilot shot down in Occupied Europe.
When Marshall Stone returns to his crash site decades later, he finds himself drawn back in time to the brave people who helped him escape from the Nazis. He especially recalls one intrepid girl guide who risked her life to help him - the girl in the blue beret.
At twenty-three, Marshall Stone was a U.S. flyboy stationed in England. Headstrong and cocksure, he had nine exhilarating bombing raids under his belt when enemy fighters forced his B-17 to crash-land in a Belgian field near the border of France. The memories of what happened next - the frantic moments right after the fiery crash, the guilt of leaving his wounded crewmates and fleeing into the woods to escape German troops, the terror of being alone in a foreign country - all come rushing back when Marshall sets foot on that Belgian field again.
Marshall was saved only by the kindness of ordinary citizens who, as part of the Resistance, moved downed Allied airmen through clandestine, often outrageous routes (over the Pyrenees to Spain) to get them back to their bases in England. Even though Marshall shared a close bond with several of the Resistance members who risked their lives for him, after the war he did not look back. But now he wants to find them again - to thank them and renew their ties. Most of all, Marshall wants to find the courageous woman who guided him through Paris. She was a mere teenager at the time, one link in the underground line to freedom.
Marshall's search becomes a wrenching odyssey of discovery that threatens to break his heart - and also sets him on a new course for the rest of his life. In his journey, he finds astonishing revelations about the people he knew during the war - none more electrifying and inspiring than the story of the girl in the blue beret.
Intimate and haunting, The Girl in the Blue Beret is a beautiful and affecting story of love and courage, war and redemption, and the startling promise of second chances.
"Bobbie Ann Mason's The Girl in the Blue Beret is lackluster and ultimately disappointing. The premise of the novel is an interesting one, but the main character, Marshall Stone, a retired airline pilot who returns to France to reconnect with the people who helped him during WWII, is not. The incidents surrounding Marshall - the stories of the people who helped him, the history of WWII - are fascinating, but Marshall fails to convince the reader. In short, his character does not feel authentic. At points he appears overly feminine, at others a hardened battle hero, and he never quite comes into focus. His relationships, elements in the story that can help define or focus a character, are also confusing. How did he feel about his wife? What is his real purpose in seeking the girl in the blue beret? He begins the novel as a man looking for a purpose. At the end of the novel, the reader is still wondering what that is." - BookBrowse, Sarah Dollacker
"[A] haunting novel [with] rich setting, detail, and intimate character nuances... for fans of the award-winning author, World War II fiction, and novels with French settings. Highly recommended." - Library Journal
"Fascinating and intensely intimate... a touching novel about love, loss, war, and memory [that] profoundly reveal[s] how the past haunts the present." - Publishers Weekly
"Like Marshall himself, the novel maintains a reserved, laconic, even pedantic tone - off-putting at times yet often moving." - Kirkus Reviews
"An emotionally powerful story." - Booklist
This information about The Girl in the Blue Beret was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bobbie Ann Mason is the author of In Country, Shiloh and Other Stories, An Atomic Romance, Nancy Culpepper, and a memoir, Clear Springs. She is the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, two Southern Book Awards, and numerous other prizes, including the O. Henry and the Pushcart. She was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the American Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. She is writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky. You can visit her online at www.bobbieannmason.net.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
