Rachel and Aleks: A Historical Novel of Life, Love and WWII

Sylvia Smoller
iUniverse (2007)
ISBN 9780595417278
Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (1/08)


In “Rachel and Aleks,” author Sylvia Smoller beautifully weaves a tale of family, betrayal, independence and love.  Though the title of this book is “Rachel and Aleks,” this tale is Rachel’s alone.  All other stories within are filtered through Rachel’s world.

When we first meet her, Rachel is a teenager in pre-Hitler Poland.  She is spirited, intelligent, and already desires more than the traditional life of other women in her community. Though she does want to marry and have a family, she also is fiercely independent and doesn’t want to be “kept,” but to be an equal.  She meets and marries Aleks, an opinionated political journalist, and thus begins the story. 

Rachel and Aleks are both so focused on their own individual interests there feels to be no true connection between them. At times I wondered why they even bothered with the farce of a marriage, only to figure that they each had found the only person in the world who was more self-involved than they were.  They were able to be selfish because they allowed each other to be.  I don’t mean to say they were awful people.  They cared greatly for others and did what they could for their family and their community.  While Aleks is an intellectual and uses words and thoughts to implement change, Rachel is a fierce woman who takes action any way she sees fit.  She may be selfish, she may be unfaithful, but she protects her family at all costs. 

Throughout this story, Rachel’s growth as a person is the main focus.  She starts as an idealistic teenager and we see her grow into a woman who puts her ideals into action.  She and Aleks go on to have a child and Rachel’s love for her daughter is the one pure thing in her life.  When the Nazi invasion becomes a reality, Rachel and her family start a journey of escape that ultimately brings them to America.

Rachel’s development is a bit uncomfortable at times.  She is supposed to be growing up, yet consistently does childish things. She becomes more focused on material things at a certain point and it seems that making money is no longer about survival for her, but status.  She not only has an affair, but at one point introduces her husband and her lover under business pretenses.  An act like this is unforgivable to me, and it was things like that which made me dislike her a bit.  However, I have to admire her tenacity and determination to get what she wanted and to make sure her family was taken care of.

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