WWII Novels

There seems to be a plethora of novels set during WWII. I wrote about The Soldier's Wife last week, and in a post last year, I wrote about reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. There have been many others including Sarah's Key, Winter Garden, and a brand new one that I'm reading now--The Girl In The Blue Beret. All of the above are set in the European theater of war, but there are also books set in the Pacific theater.One I talked about a few weeks ago is titled Beside A Burning Sea.


For a reason unknown to me, I have always gravitated to novels set during WWII years. Perhaps because  that era was part of my childhood, and I still remember bits and pieces of wartime shortanges, newsreels in theaters, a trip on a troop train and more. Or is it because, as horrible as it was, a tremendous number of good stories have come out of those years. So, the publishing trend of these novels suits me just fine

Place/setting is of great importance in a story, and in these wartime novels, place is of prime importance. It's also one easy for a novelist to research, or perhaps remember.

WWII novels are at the forefront ahead of ones about Korea or Vietnam because it was a war that was fought with more honor, fewer politics and  we came out victorious. Not so easy to say that about wars the USA has been involved in befyond the 1940's.

Novels do go in trends as do nonfiction books. Memoirs came roaring to the front of the nonfiction lists quite some time ago, and they are still popular. Is it our innate curiosity that makes us read them, to want to peek inside other people's lives. Will the memoir book suddenly take a nosedive?  An unknown, but I think that they will stay around a long time because we've learned that the past is important to our future, particularly so in families. And that allows me one more time to stress the importance of writing your famiy stories!

But I've strayed from the original subject quite a bit. As I said, I do like WWII novels, but many people may not. If you think it's a period you don''t care about or want to know more about, try one of the novels mentioned above and see how you like it. It's like your mother making you try just a bite of something to see if you liked it when you were a toddler. If you don't try, you'll never know.

One Very Short Classic

On recommendation from my friend, and fellow blogger, Annette Gendler, I checked out a book from our library that is short, classic, entertaining and more. Annette wrote about the book at her blog a week or so ago. http://www.annettegendler.com/2011/05/reading-in-love-with-84-charing-cross.htmI

I read the book in one sitting for 84, Charing Cross Road is only 97 pages, has no foreword or afterword. Helene Hanff, a New York City resident and writer, carried on a correspondence with a bookstore in London for twenty years. The letters, and that is all you'll find in this book, cover a period of twenty years--1949 to 1969. The author purchases old and special edition books from the bookstore, and in the course of the twenty years, the letter writers build a relationship that melds into friendship. 

Ms. Hanff is often blunt and caustically funny but also generous and caring as we see in letter after letter. Frank Doel is at first the formal British businessman, but it isn't long before he allows himself to be himself in his letters. 

We see the progression in the lives of the bookstore personnel and also Ms Hanff as she moves from one type of writng to another, eking out a living and always planning a trip to England. The letters show a slice of history as we watch postwar Britain and the evolution in Ms Hanff's writing world when TV shows mesmerized the American public. We see the difference in cultures as well as the many similarities. And best of all, we are thoroughly entertained by these charming letters. 

Spend an afternoon or evening with 84, Charing Cross Road and I think you'll agree. Definitely a classic memoir. Thanks Annette, for recommending it.