Publishing year: 2011
In this new book Babe (Bernadette) Huggins is the main character.
The prologue is set in July 1944, and Babe works for the Western Union, receiving telegrams which she later have to get them delivered to families whose sons/husbands/brothers/fathers… are fighting in the war. On that day of July she receives sad news for many families. Babe is married, and her husband Claude is also fighting the war, and whenever a telegram comes through, she fears the worst. Her two friends Grace and Millie also are married and their husbands are also away in the war, and that day Babe receives a terrible telegram for one of her friends, but we don’t get to see which.
Then in the first chapter we jump back in time, and it is December 1941. Babe recalls her relationship with Claude, and how they fell in love. People were against that relationship as Babe comes from a poor family and Claude is a man of means, a university graduate and a teacher. So people, especially Mrs Painter, Grace’s mother, voiced her reservations about Babe and Claude’s relationship. Despite everything, Babe and Claude didn’t care what others thought, and there is a beautiful scene in which they become intimate for the first time. Babe says that she fell in love with Claude because of his kindness, which is something that not many men could boast about. Claude was called up just like many other men in town. This meant many hurried weddings, but Babe never thought that Claude would marry her, but we know that they did marry. So I imagine that they had their wedding before he left for war.
The beginning of the book shows that it is going to be beautiful. I love Babe, and it is a shame that people look down on her this way.
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