Susan Meissner’s latest novel, “The Last Year of the War” is set against the backdrop of World War II, but it could easily be written about today’s plight of immigrants around the world.
Elise Sontag Dove is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. She knows the dark pall is rapidly descending upon her, taking everything—and everybody---she has loved. Before it’s too late, Elise wants to find her friend, Mariko, whom she hasn’t seen since their families were housed near each other in an American-government sanctioned internment camp in Crystal City, Texas, in 1943-1944.
Through a series of fortunate events, Elise locates her friend who is now living in San Francisco. Will her disease rob her of her friend before she can see her again? Elise doesn’t know, but it’s urgent that she see her as soon as possible.
As Elise makes her way to meet her friend, she recalls growing up in Davenport, Iowa. Her parents had emigrated from Germany twenty years earlier. Although they were registered aliens, they had never applied for citizenship. They always thought there would be time. Davenport, Iowa, is not exactly a hotbed of Nazi sympathizers, but fear of the German war machine is racing across America. Suddenly, Elise’s father, Otto, is arrested and sent to an American-government internment camp. Elise is stunned but not quite as stunned as when her friends and their parents begin to shun the Sontags.
Otto requests, and is granted, relocation to a family internment camp in Crystal City, Texas. There she meets the Japanese-American girl, Mariko. The two become best friends, planning a future move to New York to become journalists after the war is over and they turn eighteen.
That dream dies when the families are pulled apart. Elise and her family are sent back to Germany while Mariko and her family are sent to Japan. Neither country is a welcome place in the middle of a world war. The girls are forced to stop having contact with each other, but Elise has never forgotten her friend.
“The Last Year of the War” is a fascinating look at fear of people who might be different than you and the unbreakable bonds of friendship. The dueling timelines, one of my favorite plot structures, is well done. I would estimate that ninety percent of the book takes place from 1943 on, which gives readers an opportunity to get to know Elise as she was before the Alzheimer’s begins to rob her.
It does drag a bit in the middle. That is the reason “The Last Year of the War” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.
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