Larry Loftis

First sentence: Tick. Tick. Tick. It was a soothing sound, methodical and predictable.

The Watchmaker's Daughter is a [new] biography of Corrie Ten Boom and family. Her father, Casper Ten Boom, was a watchmaker [like his father before him]. Casper [and Corrie] followed in his footsteps in other ways. As a young man, Willem Ten Boom, Corrie's grandfather, began to take a [genuine] interest in the welfare of the Jewish people. The opening chapter reveals that he held prayer meetings to pray for [the [peace of] Jerusalem and the [blessing of the] Jews. A hundred years later, those prayers would be more fervent and needed. The Ten Booms saw this horrifying situation unfold. The Ten Booms could not stand by and do nothing. They opened their home and began hiding Jews, helping them to escape from the Nazis and near certain death.

Corrie Ten Boom wrote her own autobiography, The Hiding Place. If you've read The Hiding Place do you need to read The Watchmaker's Daughter? Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not.

The two differ mainly in scope. The Watchmaker's Daughter is a more expansive, big picture story. The Hiding Place is more narrow in scope; it is a biography of HER life and HER family. She does not try to tell the story of Anne Frank or Audrey Hepburn. She does not try to loop in (for lack of better word) other players into the story.

The book is more history-history than spiritual biography. That is another way the two differ. Though you cannot tell the story of Corrie Ten Boom [and family] without writing of their faith in God.… (meer)

The Watchmaker's Daughter by Larry Loftis was the biography of Corrie Ten Boom. I enjoyed this much more than her autobiography, firstly because the writing was better, but secondly, the book encompassed more material. The author tenaciously researched the WWII situation in Holland and Germany, especially Ravensbruck. I really loved how the author included Anne Frank and the Hepburn family (Audrey) in this biography. I learned a lot about Holland during the war of which I was previously unaware. For example, I had no idea how many Dutch died from starvation. I did not know that they sliced tulip bulbs and ate them. I can highly recommend this book. 388 pages Related to this read I am currently reading Dutch Girl about Audrey Hepburn's family during the occupation… (meer)