- The synopsis on this one caught my attention.
I also recommend:
- The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
Summary from GoodReads:
A story of love, war, loss, and the scars they leave, Next to Love follows the lives of three young women and their men during the years of World War II and its aftermath, beginning with the men going off to war and ending a generation later, when their children are on the cusp of their own adulthood.
Set in a small town in Massachusetts, the novel follows three childhood friends, Babe, Millie, and Grace, whose lives are unmoored when their men are called to duty. And yet the changes that are thrust upon them move them in directions they never dreamed possible—while their husbands and boyfriends are enduring their own transformations. In the decades that follow, the three friends lose their innocence, struggle to raise their children, and find meaning and love in unexpected places. And as they change, so does America—from a country in which people know their place in the social hierarchy to a world in which feminism, the Civil Rights movement, and technological innovations present new possibilities—and uncertainties. And yet Babe, Millie, and Grace remain bonded by their past, even as their children grow up and away and a new society rises from the ashes of the war.
My Review:
When I picked up a book last year about the post office and WWII, I found myself disappointed by the lack of character development. So I was wary, but still interested when I chose to read Next to Love.
Everything I found lacking in that other book I found in abundance here.
In this WWII story, Feldman tells the story of three women, each with her own strengths and weaknesses, each with a powerful love and a vision. There is no topic that’s out-of-bounds. From feminism, to adoption, to barren couples – mental illness, death, platonic marriages. Attacks on women, PTSD. secrets, lies and the list goes on and on and on. You’d think, with this much action happening, that the book would be too short to handle it all adequately - but it works.
Each of the women in this novel is well-rounded, bursting with character and so full of life I developed a close attachment to them. The setting, the events (specifically the events that inspired the story), had me in tears and my heart aching. Most of the WWII stories I’ve read to this point deal with how things were on the other side of the ocean, so it was eye-opening to see how things fared closer to home.
This goes on my list as one of the top reads of 2011. I highly recommend it – and after waiting a few weeks to write this review, I found that my opinion of it has only grown.
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