Code Name Verity--Lynn Becker's Book Picks

I'm going to try to introduce CODE NAME VERITY, by Elizabeth Wein, intelligently, but I have just been crying my way through the last quarter of it, so let's see how I do.

"Verity," a spy for the British during World War II, is captured by the Nazi's when she looks the wrong way crossing a street in France. To buy herself some time, and perhaps avoid more brutal interrogation tactics in prison, she writes her confession. This includes information on the British war effort, but also describes her close friendship with Mattie Brodatt, a pilot who flies for the Air Transport Auxiliary. This is a very human take on World War II--the story concerns the lives of some of the pilots who flew for the British, as well as the French Resistance, but especially the effect of the war on these two outstanding female main characters, who were operating in a man's world. (Or, more specifically, as the Jamaican rear gunner says near the end, "It's a white man's world.") Verity and Maddie prove their competence and heroism over and over again through the course of this very complex novel.

I am so in awe of this book. The pieces of the puzzle all fit together perfectly. There are hints placed throughout the story, which all point the way to a more complete understanding, if you pay enough attention.

Which brings me to my main point that I'd like to make in this post: the joy of reading a really good book for the second time. For me, the first time through, I'm mostly caught up in the plot. I'm paying attention to what's going on on the surface, but the subtexts are not always apparent, at least not completely. When I read through a second time, since I already know where the plot is going, I can pick up on all of the clues I missed. In an artfully constructed novel, there is a lot to pay attention to the second time around--especially in a book like Code Name Verity, where the true story is partially obscured, and fittingly so, because of the spy aspect. I have also just finished reading NAVIGATING EARLY, by Newbery medalist Clare Vanderpool, and the complexity of that story led me to an immediate, and entirely rewarding, second read. Better the second time around, for sure! (I will talk more about Navigating Early when I post my next column, in a couple of weeks.)

As writers, I think we can learn a lot about the process of structuring a novel by reading it through a second time. It's so much easier to study the craft when you already know where the plot is going--you can to go back and have lots of "aha!" moments, seeing why the author put this point here or that statement there, to construct a wholly satisfying story.

Lynn

Comments

[Joyce Moyer Hostetter]

I do like the idea of reading a novel the second time - especially doing so close to the time of the first reading. And yet, I am so far behind in my reading that I really don't do this.

Code Name Verity sounds like a book I could learn from though. And Navigating Early does too.