The Sweetness of Forgetting

In Paris, Hope walks with Alain and watches the stars come out. Alain says that he will return to Cape Cod with her. He tells Hope how Jacob and Rose met at the end of 1940, after Paris was occupied by the Germans. Theirs was love at first sight. Jacob worked for the resistance and tried to warn Rose’s father of increasing persecution against Jews. Alain last saw Jacob in 1952, right before he left for America. Hope calls home and learns that Mamie has had a stroke. Gavin is at the hospital with Annie. Alain arranges plane tickets for both of them. The morning of their flight, two of Alain’s friends visit. Both have tattoos from Auschwitz. They were fond of Rose and ask Hope about her life. She tells them about the bakery. Some of the pastries she mentions are not traditional Jewish recipes but instead sound like Muslim recipes. The men decide to take Hope to visit the Grand Mosque.

There are rumors that Muslim people in Paris saved many Jews during the war, helping children escape to free zones. The Grand Mosque reminds Hope of Notre Dame Cathedral, making her recall Mamie’s words that they all worship the same God. Hope finds a bakery and recognizes several items that she makes at the North Star, including crescent moons, pistachio cakes, and baklava. Hope tells the baker about the Star Pies that she makes, and Alain says that is his mother’s recipe. This bakery makes them also.

They visit a man, Nabi, who learned the recipe from Rose. Nabi explains that Rose lived with his family for two months and worked with them in their bakery, sharing recipes. Hope realizes that the star shape of the pies is a tribute to Jacob, who promised to love Rose as long as there were stars in the sky. They guess that Rose was given false papers and smuggled out of France to Spain, where she met Ted. Alain and Nabi find connections in the beliefs that their religions share about helping others. Nabi shows them a photograph, and Hope is surprised to realize that Rose was pregnant in Paris. Hope wonders if her grandmother sent her to Paris not only so that Hope would learn her story but also “learn something about love from all this” (180).

Rose’s chapter begins with a recipe for anise and fennel cakes. As she has had her stroke, Rose floats into memories of the night she tried to persuade her father to leave Paris. Her father did not believe that the Nazis and the French police would come for their family. Rose was distraught when he refused to flee. To keep her child safe, she went with a Christian friend, Jean Michel, to the Grand Mosque. The Haddam family was kind to her, and Rose exchanged recipes as she worked in their bakery. She said the Islamic prayers with the family and agreed when their son, Nabi, suggested that they are all praying to the same God.

On the flight to the States, Hope and Alain discuss what happened to Rose’s baby, since she was pregnant in 1942 and Josephine’s birth certificate says that she was born in 1944. Alain says that many survivors tried to marry and have children right away, to be part of a family again after they’d lost everyone they loved.

At the hospital, Hope finds that Rob is not looking after Annie, but Gavin is. Annie meets Alain and asks him who Leona is, but he doesn’t know. The nurse allows them a few moments to see Mamie. Annie wants to find Jacob Levy, but her innocent belief in true love clashes with Hope’s more jaded view. Alain suggests that it is difficult to accept love if one has been hurt many times before. He tells Hope: “The more times we’ve been hurt, the harder it is to see love right in front of us, or to accept love into our hearts and truly believe in it. And if you cannot accept love, or cannot bring yourself to believe in it, you can never really feel it” (201). Hope understands Mamie’s wish to protect her child because she married Rob for Annie’s sake. She feels sad for her grandfather, who was devoted to his family but didn’t have Rose’s whole heart. Alain says that it is never too late to find true love. Annie comes up with a list of phone numbers and starts calling all of them, asking about Jacob Levy.