While Still We Live [Mass Market Paperback]

Now I have a well-worn paperback again & re-read this simple, hopeful story at least once a year.

It's about a young English woman in Poland during the long, phoney-war summer of 1939. When she finally decides to leave for the safety of England, she can't go, she's half in love with Poland & curious about why so many people seem to know her.

When Hitler's planes & army invade Poland, she is cast into the dangers & intrigues of the Polish underground. There she finds courage & love & must prove herself.

Originally published in 1944, it was quite a daring book for its day. We modern readers, used to coarse, repetitive language & explicit sex & violence, must sit back & become familiar with a different time with different priorities.

I've always enjoyed Helen MacInnes' books - they are well written, thought-provoking & well-researched.

I don't need to summarize the story, since others have already done that - but, I would like to point out a feature that I found truly satisfying. Some of the publisher blurbs and book-cover artwork might lead the reader to expect this book to be a romance novel with a wartime setting, but it is not. The initial suggestion of a romance is quickly lost in the catastrophe of the German invasion, and the heroine stays pretty much uninvolved romantically till near the very end of this long novel. When romance finally does come, it comes convincingly as an adjunct to the plot and not in a way to supercede it. I thought it was masterfully handled.

IN 1939, HITLER INVADED POLAND AND WORLD WAR II BEGAN. THIS IS THE STORY OF A YOUNG ENGLISH WOMAN WHO IS VISITING POLAND AND STAYING WITH A POLISH FAMILY. SHE'S ENCOURAGED TO LEAVE BECAUSE THE NAZIS ARE INVADING, BUT GIVES UP HER OPPORTUNITY TO GO BECAUSE SHE'S BECOME SO INVOLVED WITH HER FRIENDS AND POLAND'S STRUGGLE TO REMAIN FREE.

THROUGH THE STORY, SOME OF THE HISTORY OF POLAND IS REVEALED AND THE CONSTANT FIGHT THAT COUNTRY HAS HAD TO MAINTAIN INDEPENDENCE FROM FOREIGN AGGRESSION. SHEILA MATTHEWS, THE MAIN CHARACTER, JOINS THE POLISH UNDERGROUND AND WORKS AGAINST THE NAZIS. THE TRAGEDY OF THE POLISH PEOPLE WHO ARE FIGHTING ALONE AND WAITING FOR HELP FROM THEIR ALLIES IS SAD, BUT VERY COURAGEOUS. SHEILA IS ALSO INVOLVED IN A ROMANCE WITH ADAM WISNIEWSKI, A WEALTHY LANDOWNER WHO IS ALSO A RESISTANCE FIGHTER.

THE PACE OF THIS BOOK IS A LITTLE SLOWER THAN WE MODERN DAY READERS ARE ACCUSTOMED TO, BUT THE AUTHOR REWARDS US WITH THE METHODICAL MANNER IN WHICH THE STORY AND PLOT ARE REVEALED. I HAD THE FEELING OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE LIVING IN WARSAW AS THE CITY IS EXPERIENCING BOMBARDMENT. THE DAILY EXPLODING BOMBS, THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF FRIENDS, THE LACK OF HEAT, ELECTRICITY AND WATER WERE ALL A PART OF THE RUIN OF WARSAW. FINALLY, STARVATION AND THEN THE INVADING GERMAN ARMY MARCHED INTO THE CITY.

THE TITLE OF THE BOOK COMES FROM THE OPENING WORDS OF THE SONG OF THE POLISH LEGIONS WHICH LATER BECAME THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OF POLAND. THE POLISH ARE ACTUALLY SAYING THAT "AS LONG AS I'M ALIVE, POLAND WILL NOT DIE." THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE ENDURED!

THIS NOVEL WAS WRITTEN IN 1944, AND I FOUND IT INTERESTING TO LEARN THAT THE AUTHOR, HELEN MacINNES WAS THE WIFE OF A BRITISH INTELLIGENCE OFFICER. TO MY KNOWLEDGE, THERE'S NOT A LOT OF STORIES WRITTEN THAT DEAL WITH THE SUBJECT OF THE POLISH UNDERGROUND. THIS STORY IS WELL WORTH READING AND A GOOD BOOK FOR AMERICANS WHO WANT TO READ SOMETHING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF POLAND IN THE EARLY PART OF WORLD WAR II.