Leonore’s Suite is a work that probably won’t get the attention it deserves, which is a shame, because it is a fascinating, well-written story that sheds light on an almost unknown facet of the Second World War: the internment of civilian Allied citizens by Japanese forces in the occupied Philippines. (This reviewer, who has studied that conflict his entire life, had no idea this had taken place.) Mary Beth Klee closely bases her novel on the reminiscences of her mother, Leonore (Lee) Iserson Klee, who spent three and a half years of her teen years imprisoned in the Santo Tomas camp in Manila. This story is both an illuminating picture of actual life in a prisoner of war camp as well as a relatable coming-of-age story of Lee, her friends, and their families.
Klee is a superb storyteller, drawing the reader into Lee’s life and trials from her perspective. Told in the first person, the story brings to life accounts provided by Lee herself to her children. A novelization of the true events was a good choice on Klee’s part, enabling her to hew to the foundational actual events while adding details that bring the characters to vivid life. This technique reminded me of how Rose Wilder encouraged her mother Laura Ingalls Wilder to write down her memories of her frontier childhood, thus creating the classic Little House books. Klee accomplishes a similar feat with Leonore’s Suite, bringing her readers into the harsh reality of POW life that gets more brutal as the months of captivity stretch into years. It is hard to remain dispassionate while reading this book – such is the quality of Klee’s storytelling that the reader is drawn into the prisoner’s experiences, walking beside them as their conditions become increasingly desperate.
Yet all is not desperation. There are trials and struggles, but there is also faith, hope, and resilient human spirits. Nothing was easy in the prison camp, and that reality comes through in the story. Ultimately, the story is uplifting, not because Lee or her daughter are Pollyannas, but because real endurance ultimately triumphs over evil. For me, Leonore’s Suite provided a refreshing and stabilizing reorientation to reality. In an age when social media posts can be called “aggression”, and unpleasant encounters at a supermarket can engender breathless online videos filled with huffing about “aggression”, it was grounding for me to read accounts of people who’d experienced actual aggression and oppression, and had ultimately responded with courage and nobility rather than petulance.
Leonore’s Suite takes the reader through the entire internment period, walking with the prisoners through the darkest years of the war to their ultimate liberation and return to America. It’s a long, gritty journey, but that’s part of the story – the reader endures alongside the characters the setbacks, hopes, disappointments, fears, and triumphs of the bitter imprisonment. The book is well worth the effort, and the reader will be 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.
