Leonore’s Suite is a workthat probably won’t get the attention it deserves, which is ashame, because it is a fascinating, well-written story that shedslight on an almost unknown facet of the Second World War: theinternment of civilian Allied citizens by Japanese forces in theoccupied Philippines. (This reviewer, who has studied that conflicthis entire life, had no idea this had taken place.) Mary Beth Kleeclosely bases her novel on the reminiscences of her mother, Leonore(Lee) Iserson Klee, who spent three and a half years of her teenyears imprisoned in the Santo Tomas camp in Manila. This story isboth an illuminating picture of actual life in a prisoner of war campas well as a relatable coming-of-age story of Lee, her friends, andtheir families.

Kleeis a superb storyteller, drawing the reader into Lee’s life andtrials from her perspective. Told in the first person, the storybrings to life accounts provided by Lee herself to her children. Anovelization of the true events was a good choice on Klee’s part,enabling her to hew to the foundational actual events while addingdetails that bring the characters to vivid life. This techniquereminded me of how Rose Wilder encouraged her mother Laura IngallsWilder to write down her memories of her frontier childhood, thuscreating the classic Little Housebooks. Klee accomplishes a similar feat with Leonore’sSuite, bringing her readers intothe harsh reality of POW life that gets more brutal as the months ofcaptivity stretch into years. It is hard to remain dispassionatewhile reading this book – such is the quality of Klee’sstorytelling that the reader is drawn into the prisoner’sexperiences, walking beside them as their conditions becomeincreasingly desperate.

Yetall is not desperation. There are trials and struggles, but there isalso faith, hope, and resilient human spirits. Nothing was easy inthe prison camp, and that reality comes through in the story.Ultimately, the story is uplifting, not because Lee or her daughterare Pollyannas, but because real endurance ultimately triumphs overevil. For me, Leonore’s Suiteprovided a refreshing and stabilizing reorientation to reality. In anage when social media posts can be called “aggression”, andunpleasant encounters at a supermarket can engender breathless onlinevideos filled with huffing about “aggression”, it was groundingfor me to read accounts of people who’d experienced actualaggression and oppression, and had ultimately responded with courageand nobility rather than petulance.

Leonore’sSuite takes the reader throughthe entire internment period, walking with the prisoners through thedarkest years of the war to their ultimate liberation and return toAmerica. It’s a long, gritty journey, but that’s part of thestory – the reader endures alongside the characters the setbacks,hopes, disappointments, fears, and triumphs of the bitterimprisonment. The book is well worth the effort, and the reader willbe rewarded by being reminded that the human spirit can aspire to,and achieve, nobility in even the worst circumstances.

Leonore's Suite can be found on Amazon.