Customer Reviews

When the Warflowers Bloomed

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When The Warflowers Bloomed by Calvin Vraa

I bought the book because I know the author; I read the book because I couldn't put it down.

Captain Mark Brayden, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and seasoned veteran of WWII's European theater leads his command in the heart of Germany. A German ambush against his unit suggests the war is not over, even in the spring of 1945. Hints that a concentration camp is close by make us wonder why the GI's are so ignorant of the signs. And Brayden's oft-read "Dear John" letter suggests the story question: would Mark love again? I had picked up the book to burn through a war story: it fulfilled my expectations. What surprised me was that I became hooked into a love story-and I enjoyed the adventure.

Liese Weissman "straggled" into the story; vulnerable, accomplished, and human. She had survived years in the camps, but her enemies were fierce, powerful, and unrelenting-and they had designs on her future. The dual story line of Liese's racing to her freedom and her enemies racing to create Liese's outcome is complicated by Liese's meeting Mark.

Liese's enemies, Camp Commandant SS Major Klaus Trummer and Camp Wardress Hannah Grinze plague Liese and her two friends, the other key characters in the novel, until the end.

Vraa's characterization made me want to know more about the characters: I turned the pages to find out. His plot was believable and unique. His use of point of view was effective in helping me understand what was happening-he provided insights into the effects of liberating a concentration camp from the viewpoint of rescuer and rescued. (I think Vraa's 35 years experience as a practicing psychologist as well as years in the military aided in telling his story.) And the story question held my interest.

I recommend this book to all who would enjoy a story about the close of WWII: a story about people, about love, and about what happens to people when they are pushed to life's extremes and dare to challenge their own limits.

When the Warflowers Bloomed by Calvin Vraa
Reviewed by Thomas R. Cuthbert, Jr., November 21, 2007

I bought the book because of a chance meeting with the author and his wife on a Key West vacation. I ordered and then read the book several weeks later and found it to be a hauntingly interesting story. I recommend the two previous Amazon reviews for their outline of the story, so I will confine my remarks to the impact this fascinating history-based fiction had upon me and probably many others.

When the Warflowers Bloomed is a love story but not a tale of romance due to the unrelenting horrors of war visited on each of the many interesting characters. Those of us who personally read and heard news accounts of the European fronts during World War II recall all too well the Nazi atrocities and the mayhem confronting the invading Allied troops. One of those soldiers was American farm boy Captain Mark Brayden who fell in love with German Jewish girl Liese Weissman, an accomplished and educated artist imprisoned in concentration camps. Without giving away the ending, there is a chasm between these personalities that eventually will compete with their hair-raising wartime escapades.

Another attraction to this story is the use of several familiar historical figures, for example Generals Eisenhower and Beetle Smith and Swedish Count Bernadotte, well known for his wartime Red Cross relief work. They are meaningfully involved with the two main characters and their individual and mutual challenges. Another familiar historical fact is the involvement of several of the story's male characters of diverse nationality and rank with attractive European women. Readers also are treated to how wartime military command really functions in combat, including a wide range of personalities to enliven many critical incidents. Professor Vraa clearly used his post-wartime army officer service in Germany to great advantage in this story.

Most of the characters in this story are complex and imbued with a range of flaws ranging from greed, lust, and indecision to the horrific cruelty prevalent in the Nazi extermination campaign. Readers will need to adapt to this violent environment, which continuously shocks and frustrates with the heavy action throughout these nearly 500 pages. In fact, that is what makes When the Warflowers Bloomed one of the best stories I have read in my many years, and I highly recommend it to others.