Are the Hills Alive with Danielle Steel’s New WWII Novel?
I read “Only the Brave” with the mind of a Steel (von) Trap(p).
Happy May! April was A Month—work, travel, and possibly the worst allergies of my life. May’s shaping up to be Another Month, but I’m incredibly excited to be leading a Q&A with the amazing Angie Kim this coming Tuesday. If you’re in DC, please come!
In the meantime, I plan to keep posting in May, but things might get punchy.
On that note, anyone want to talk about Danielle Steel?
Before this week, I’d never read a Danielle Steel novel. I’ve always seen them around—at airports, the grocery store, my grandmother’s house—but I never picked one up.
Until last week, when I stumbled on a Washington Post critic’s review of the latest Danielle Steel novel, Only the Brave.1
Now, Danielle Steel and the Holocaust are not two things I would’ve put together. The review makes an entertaining case that Steel should’ve kept it that way. But it also all but assured me that, whatever its faults, Only the Brave wouldn’t be a difficult read.
So I decided to venture outside my comfort zone, for which I would need to [drumroll] Steel myself. As Only the Brave do.
I bought the ebook for $15, ideal for scrolling while lying on one’s couch in a Sudafed-hazed state. (I’m sure that the roughly 75 percent of my Substack feed that’s been posting that we ARE in fact buying books had this exact scenario in mind. Behold my bold stance for literature!)
I immediately appreciated that this has all the hallmarks of a WWII novel cover:
Lady silhouette? Check. Planes? Check. Skyline? Check. Let the antifascist heroics begin!
The novel’s heroine is Sophia Alexander, who joins the German underground and helps rescue Jews from the Holocaust, while trying to become a nun. Many WWII novels have an author’s note that clarifies whether their character(s) are based on real people, and/or research the author undertook for the novel. Only the Brave has no such note; readers must mine the text for clues.
That’s where context comes in. Steel—like Sophia—wanted to be a nun. Which means Steel must be, as all correctly-minded people are, a fan of the ultimate story of nuns triumphing over Nazis: The Sound of Music.
Is Only the Brave Danielle Steel’s tribute to The Sound of Music?
Consider the evidence.
Exhibit 1:
Our heroine Sophia is virginal, yet maternal, yet also wants to be a nun. Her name also just happens to rhyme with a certain Problem Nuns Pray to Solve.
We’re also told early and often that Sophia is a Regulation Hottie, even hotter than…
Exhibit 2:
…Sophia’s younger sister, Theresa, who, in a single paragraph, we learn (1) “had little awareness that her natural sexiness was an aphrodisiac to the men who wanted her”; and (2) is a minor.
Ew, and. Exactly how old is Theresa?
Exhibit 3:
Theresa marries a Nazi, Heinrich. Sophia doesn’t approve, but considers that “Theresa would need a strong husband to control her.”
Ew, and. Where have I heard that before?
Exhibit 4:
Marrying Heinrich makes Theresa a Baroness, for no apparent reason except so Steel could use the word “Baroness,” which would be reason enough for me.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F441cb556-a16c-46ad-b02b-675f4ab73201_227x227.gif)
Exhibit 5:
Twist! Heinrich learns his family is secretly Jewish. With Sophia’s help, he and Theresa flee the Nazis by going OVER THE MOUNTAINS INTO SWITZERLAND:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5cdaaf99-f601-4195-b90d-b25fe435fe66_320x320.gif)
Exhibit 6:
Meanwhile, Sophia’s dad is a widower who refuses to work with the Nazis, at great personal risk to himself and his family. Very courageous and also FAMILIAR:
Exhibit 7:
An American Army Air Force pilot, Ted Blake, is shot down and has to be rescued by Sophia, who’s hiding in a convent. Ted’s rank?
Captain Ted’s not only handsome, but also capable of delivering hard-hitting anti-Nazi truths like “Hitler and his men are not respecters of persons.” It’s easy to see how he MIGHT get Sophia rethinking the whole nun thing. Again, FAMILIAR?
Exhibit 8:
Mother Superior, meanwhile, is like, “Are you SURE the sisterhood is your vocation, Sophia? There are MANY WAYS TO SERVE GOD (and some might be sexier than others).”
Exhibit 9:
My favorite sentence of the novel, when Sophia speaks English to the Captain:
“‘How are you feeling, Captain?’ she asked him in her slightly British English, which was how they learned English in Europe.”
Is there any other way to describe the accents in Sound of Music besides “slightly British English”?
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fca766b6a-05a0-4e4c-bf39-3d999ab87f41_245x300.gif)
I rest my case.
My usual three questions need not detain us long:
(1) Is it diverse?
We’re repeatedly told Sophia saves Jewish people, but if any one of these rescuees has a name, I blinked and missed it. They seem only to exist to underscore how saintly Sophia is. Which is frustrating, but a good segue to:
(2) Which character felt the realest?
Sophia—the only character we spend real time with—has exactly zero flaws and makes zero mistakes. Her decision to join the Resistance is heroic for sure, but never comes with any real internal conflict about the risks she’s taking. I wish Only the Brave had been brave enough to do more for its characters.
(3) Did it teach me something about WWII I didn’t already know?
Am I chuckling? Maybe. But Danielle Steel got $15 from me, so she gets the last laugh.
I'm not going to pretend I didn’t laugh at it, but I’ve decided not to link to it. It feels like piling on, particularly since this critic went out of his way to report that Steel's publicist repeatedly asked him not to disclose Steel's age—and he then did just that in the article, which seemed unnecessary. Patriarchy’s dismissal of aging women is real, sir! You can pan her book without bringing her age into it.