The Effects Of War

The Dressmaker Of Dachau by Mary Chamberlain is a heart-wrenching read focusing on a young woman caught up in World War II.

The reader witnesses both her naivety and her strength of character to survive. As a vulnerable young woman, she finds it hard to separate the lies from the truth, believing everything she is told. Consequently her choices prove to send her life spiralling out of control. “When you make a lie… you have to live it and sooner or later, the truth comes out.” Only with hindsight can she see and say she wishes “to have made a different choice that night.”

Given a reason to survive the lead character develops a strength that will keep her going against the odds. She has a reason to survive Dachau, a reason to survive all that life throws at her. Without hope, we would perish and die. We see that war brings a new set of rules, a different moral code as people do what they do to survive.

Mary Chamberlain has drawn a very believable character in her leading lady. Her morals are questionable but her strength of character is huge. In contrast, the male characters are parasites, preying on the weak, innocent and vulnerable. They are also well drawn but elicit feelings of intense dislike and disgust from the reader.