THE WAR BEGINS IN PARIS

Historical fiction about an American journalist turned Fascist combines the smoky, morally complex, romantic atmosphere of WWII–era films with the sternly enthusiastic tone of their accompanying newsreels.

Wheeler traces the intense, sexually charged friendship of two American reporters from their first meeting in a Paris café in 1938 and through the ensuing war. The prologue describes Jane Anderson, nicknamed the Georgia Peach, and Marthe Hess, called Mielle, with ominous matter-of-factness so reminiscent of an Orson Welles narration that readers will rush to Google their names to see if either actually existed. Unscrambling which characters are real or fictional here, let alone trustworthy or villainous, is difficult because so many of the real figures are long forgotten, though not the war correspondents. Reports from William L. Shirer and Edward R. Murrow, among others, introduce chapters, while various real and imaginary correspondents play important roles in the storyline. Mielle, who mostly works for “a syndicate of ladies’ journals in the Great Plains,” agrees with the correspondents’ ideals, but their pretentious self-assurance intimidates her. Instead, she is emotionally drawn to flamboyant, pro-Fascist Jane. They meet on Mielle’s 24th birthday; Jane is 50, though claiming to be 36. After great success reporting on WWI, Jane has led an increasingly dissolute life. Now a Franco devotee, she declares, “Fascists represent the law….History is on their side.” Wheeler’s depiction of Jane shows how dangerously appealing authoritarianism can be and how corrosive it is to one's character. Soon Jane is pushing Mielle toward uncomfortable ethical choices that peak after Kristallnacht. The novel then skips ahead three years and shifts into a Hitchcock-like plot. (An unnecessary, unfortunate subplot gives Mielle “visions.”) Mielle becomes more than a fictional witness to history when an American army intelligence officer who’s probably in love with her (think Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman) enlists her for a dangerous spy mission to 1942 Berlin. There her reunion with Jane, now broadcasting Nazi propaganda to America, is brief but life-changing.

This retro yet oddly fresh take on WWII captures the romance of wartime, but also the decadence and desperation.