Reading about war especially World War II triggers something inside me that I can’t quite pinpoint to. This is a fictional work about a family from World War II that find their father and fiancee of the daughter on the war front. The author has written about the helplessness of families with such sensitivity that I could not stop myself from getting deeply involved in their stories. Although it’s fiction, I feel the letters between the characters and the entire atmosphere of rationing shortages and women working in factories after the men left for war convict such a tragic sense of loss and belonging for humanity from the era. The entire gamut lies in the deep intertwined bonds of wait and living on hope for the war to end between the characters.
I loved Catherine and her strength of mind in supporting her family and running her Dad’s factory, being in charge of it while he’s away at the war. Women like her represent the true capable people that we are underneath all the soft and feminine masquerade we have been associated with since ages. She is trying hard to forget her fiancee’s death in the war, writing encouraging letters to her father assuring him of the well being on the home front as well as running his factory and still dealing with the emotions these war years have made her to grow into the person she has become. I could resonate with her resolve to not break down when her mother and younger sister are so easily affected emotionally. I know there were a lot of women who dealt strongly and impassively when they took control of their families during the war. So Cathy is one of my favourite persons from the book. Johnny, the orphan soldier who befriends her father and promises to look after him and ends up wounded while protecting him also is written about sensitively. His recovery and his mental state as being one who’s seen as a saviour and therefore indebted to gratitude by Catherine’s family and his own state of dilemma at having to return back to a place where he has no home or family waiting for him pierced my heart. It’s very rare when we can climb into characters’ skin and feel the emotions so personally. Eddie Martin, the guy who couldn’t enlist himself for war service because of a physical handicap made me realise the social standing between men and women. Parts of this book is so brilliant and so emotionally gripping that at times I forgot this is a work of fiction which obviously draws a lot from the reality. There’s also something about the mental state of veterans who return from war back to their homes as completely changed people. I wish this were given some precedence too in the story. But is it only true that the young recover quickly from signs of distress than the elderly is something I’ll never know. It must have been terrifying to find our beloved as changed individuals and I really empathise with the Dad in the story. We can never know what the bad of the war affected them in what ways because we have never experienced it our self. I liked the sensitive representation of people in the book. It indeed was a sentimental journey for me to embark upon because I got so involved with all of them. Also, this is my first Barbara Bretton book. Even though it’s a Kindle freebie, I am hoping I find further good works from her to read.
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