Book Report: At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf

13. Tara Ison, At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf (2023) (9/8/26)

Tara Ison was a mentor in my MFA program at Antioch University. We didn't work together, but I attended her workshop, her reading. So when this book was published, I bought it. And finally I've read it.

I found it interesting, especially for the unusual perspective it gives, on unoccupied France during WWII. A France that was being fed stories from Vichy—collaborators, if you will, with the Germans.

The story is of 12-year-old Danielle, a Jewish girl in Paris, whose father is killed after the Germans roll in. Her mother decides the safest haven for her is in a village near Limoges, with a Catholic couple who once worked for Danielle's grandparents. There, she becomes Marie-Jeanne—Jeanne d'Arc becoming her own namesake savior.

I could say what there's too much of: Catholic liturgy, Marie-Jeanne's thoughts. Yeah, mostly those two.

But that doesn't get at what irritates me about the book. 

Partly the writing: so many run-on sentences. Too much in-the-head.

But that's not it either.

The fact that the protagonist was 12? By the end she's 15, but a sheltered 15. In any case, she sounds much more worldly than she could have been.

I honestly can't say just what the irritant was, but I do know that it's something I'll be looking for in my own book about a different WWII situation.

I love Tara Ison, her smile, her hats. I kind of love this book, even though it just rankles me. I won't forget it. I guess that's a testament of sorts.