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Next To Love (2011)

by Ellen Feldman(Favorite Author)

3.53 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0812992717 (ISBN13: 9780812992717)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Spiegel & Grau

review 1: So many books set during World War II seem to romanticize the whole time period, so it was refreshing to read a book that portrays both the period, the events of the time and their affect on the people living through those events with something resembling historical accuracy.The story follows the lives of three high school friends, Babe, Grace and Millie through the war and the twenty years following it. Grace is from the upper crust of their small Massachusetts town and marries the son of one of the town's leading citizens. Bae is from the wrong side of the tracks, but attracts a boy from the very right side and makes her way with intelligence and dignity, mostly leaving her family behind. Millie is just a silly girls who loves the wild younger son of the local druggist a... morend fills her mind with nothing more than making a home and having babies. The three husbands all go off to war together and are a part of the great D-Day invasion, but only Babe's husband comes home. And he comes home with what today we would call PTSD, but which back in the 1950's no one wanted to talk about at all.The women pick up the pieces of their lives after the war and carry on. Babe copes with a husband who never seems to be able to get over the trauma of his wartime experience. Grace builds a shrine to her fallen husband in the house they used to share and tries to keep the world (and especially other men) at bay. And Millie, who doesn't think too much about anything, almost instantly finds a new husband with just one little problem - he's Jewish.Throughout the years, what sustains all three is their friendship. Their are fights and squabbles, but the deep love they have for one another keeps them all afloat as they march into the brave post-war world. I thought this was going to be a breezy summer read, but it was much better than that.
review 2: Just miserable. I read it all the way through, but I had to force myself to pick it up. Not compelling at all. There was nothing in the storyline, or the characters, that led me to want to know them better. And once I did know them better I just didn't care. I think there is something lacking in the ability to portray empathy or emotion in the writing. Very flat and depressing. Probably a reflection of the time of war and it's aftermath..but not a good read. I also found the switching back and forth between time frames and characters confusing. I normally do not have a problem with this writing style, but the characters were just not distinguished or defined enough to make it work. less

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