I really enjoyed this book! This was a classic 'sold by the cover' book for me - I saw it while taking out other books at the library and apparently I've been in the mood for historical novels that take place around or between the world wars right now. This book centers on Violet, a woman in her early thirties who was "left behind" by The Great War - her brother and her fiance were both killed, and her family has never really recovered. She had been living with her mother and working as a typist, and then she decided to move to a different town and live as a boarder and joins a society of women needlecrafting cushions for the cathedral in town.
It is such a quiet book, but also one that really digs into the choices that women had to make in that era, and the responsibilities and needs that hit against each other. There's a lesbian romance in the story as well, and it's told in a way that feels both faithful the era and also isn't interested in being tragedy porn, either. The same is true for Violet's romances, although there is a constant specter of sexual violence that, while probably historically realistic, I found a bit out of keeping with the rest of the story. The book also has the feeling that all intra World War books written after the WWII have, which is the tension between the characters' lack of knowledge of what's coming next, and what we know will. All in all, I had a lovely time reading this, and it made me want to read a lot more about this era. Sometimes I feel that way because I was disappointed by the fiction and want more from the history, but in this case it's purely because the story piqued my interest in the best possible way.
Grade: A
It is such a quiet book, but also one that really digs into the choices that women had to make in that era, and the responsibilities and needs that hit against each other. There's a lesbian romance in the story as well, and it's told in a way that feels both faithful the era and also isn't interested in being tragedy porn, either. The same is true for Violet's romances, although there is a constant specter of sexual violence that, while probably historically realistic, I found a bit out of keeping with the rest of the story. The book also has the feeling that all intra World War books written after the WWII have, which is the tension between the characters' lack of knowledge of what's coming next, and what we know will. All in all, I had a lovely time reading this, and it made me want to read a lot more about this era. Sometimes I feel that way because I was disappointed by the fiction and want more from the history, but in this case it's purely because the story piqued my interest in the best possible way.
Grade: A
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