Book Review: Under Two Flags by Janis Robinson Daly

*This is another book that I reviewed for The Historical Novel Society’s May issue. The August issue is coming out soon, and I will share more reviews then. I must note that the German flag graphic I used on the image above is not correct. Back during WWI, Germany used a black, white, and red flag, but I couldn’t find a graphic of it. At the time, the US flag was also different, having only 48 stars.

Book Review

  In Fall 1916, prior to America entering The Great War, Josephine Therese Marzynski travels to Germany from Boston to study music. She is met with suspicion and even strip-searched before being allowed into the country, but they never find the American flag sewn into the hem of her skirt.  She is living with family friends, the Müllers, who have made it possible for her to pursue a career as a professional opera singer, a dream she thought had died with her father in America. Josephine begins her training, but by April 1917, America and Germany are at war, and Josephine has been summoned to the police station and put under regular monitoring.
            This is a fictionalized version of Marzynski’s memoir, With Old Glory in Berlin, which may have been ghostwritten by the author’s grandfather.  It is the compelling story of a Jewish American student trapped in WWI Berlin. Josephine’s musical training lasted about a year, but the story is centered less on music and more on Germany’s war-centered culture at the time, including propaganda, oppression, and rationing. The author has blended more music into it by effectively adding snippets of operas that relate to Josephine’s experiences. The chapters are laid out as an opera would be, with an overture, acts, scenes, an intermission, and a finale.  
            After America enters the war, the novel is focused mostly on Josephine’s monitoring by the police and her attempts to leave, using influential contacts. 
            The original work is available in the public domain, and it is interesting to compare the two.  The author has taken a simple retelling and breathed new life into it by adding emotion, dialogue, and music.  The result is a well-woven tale of a talented young woman attempting to escape a perilous situation.  My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option. Recommended.

About the Author

Splitting her time between Cape Cod, NH, NJ, and snowbird destinations, a tablet becomes Janis Robinson Daly’s library and desk, packed for reading and writing, wherever she might land. Inspired by the discovery that an ancestor founded the Woman’s Medical College of PA, Daly’s first novel, The Unlocked Path, celebrates pioneering women doctors at the turn of the 20th century. Its sequel, The Path Beneath Her Feet, honors the work of the American Women’s Hospitals in rural America during the 1930s. Her third book with Black Rose Writing, Under Two Flags, is a retelling of a memoir of a young Boston woman who travels to Berlin in 1916 to study opera. Daly’s grandfather, Eliot H. Robinson, Sr. ghost-wrote the original memoir in 1918.

Daly graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College, at the time, a women’s college. At Wheaton, she developed a heightened awareness of female-centric issues. Her annual literary citizenship program, #31titleswomeninhistory, has gained recognition as an innovative way to celebrate Women’s History Month in March.

A presentation of how her genealogy research inspired her to begin writing has made Daly a sought-after speaker for book clubs, women’s groups, libraries, and writers’ groups. Her monthly newsletter includes updates on her writing, book reviews and recommendations, tips for book clubs, upcoming events, and a book giveaway. Learn more at her website, JanisRDaly.

Visit Janis R. Daly’s Website

Purchase Links

*Click on cover for Amazon Link

**This book is on Kindle Unlimited, so subscribers can read it for free.