I have a confession: I don’t find non-fiction all that enjoyable. My husband inhales the stuff, but when I read non-fictional works, it’s usually because I tripped and fell into one. Seriously though, if a non-fiction writer knows the value of telling a good story, I’ll bite, but only then. It’s also why I prefer my non-fiction in the form of memoirs – real life experiences recounted by good storytellers. Stories are, after all, the most powerful tool of educating in an entertaining way.
Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One man’s Fate by Carolyn Porter is one such read. I started it with my natural non-fiction reservations, and at first struggled to get a handle on it. The first few chapters dragged by with long-winded details of her life as graphic designer, her husband and her dog, but when I finally decided to invest without prejudice and to let the story crawl along at its own pace, I started to enjoy it. It also became apparent that it was slowly steering towards something intriguing, and I certainly wasn’t going to put it down before I found out what.
As a graphic designer, Carolyn always dreamt of creating her own font. After searching a number of small-town antique shops in Minnesota, she finds a bundle of old French letters written in beautiful pen-and-ink handwriting. She proceeds to buy the letters for a few dollars, and as she starts playing around and recreating some of the hand-crafted letter types, she realises that she will need to get the letters translated into English. They were love letters, all signed by one person, Marcel, and mailed from Berlin to France during World War II.
Intrigued, Carolyn starts searching to uncover the mystery of Marcel’s fate and becomes almost obsessive in her drive to find out if he was reunited with his family after the war. Her search leads her to Germany, France and across the US to find answers. It reads like a gripping detective story, and it had me well and truly hooked.
World War II tales – especially those based on memories – are diverse and never dull. They come packaged in different shapes, languages and guises. They originate from a wide array of countries, give insight into a smorgasbord of cultures, and they all tend to be gripping, haunting and captivating. Marcel’s unique story as a forced labourer in Germany at Daimler’s Marienfelde factory during the war is yet another example of such an anecdote.
While researching the mystery surrounding Marcel, Carolyn continues to work – for more than ten years – on developing and refining her own font which eventually becomes the acclaimed P22 Marcel font, named so in honour of Marcel Heuzé.
A finalist for the 2018 Minnesota Book Award, Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One man’s Fate is a long but rewarding read. It stays with you long after you’ve (tearfully) read the last page.
Carolyn’s writing is chatty, flowing and engaging. Her story is nothing short of extraordinary and proves that real life is often stranger and more fascinating than fiction.
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