A somewhat crowded but engagingly written historical drama.
Henley’s third novel depicts the trials of a young aspiring singer at the outset of World War II.
Twenty-year-old Englishwoman Kate Murphy has always dreamt of performing songs in front of an audience. The problem lies not in any lack of talent, but in her hiccupping, which began following the dissolution of her relationship with teen heartthrob Tony Trent and announces itself whenever she gets nervous. In September 1939, she decides to leave her parents’ home in Carshalton for an apartment closer to London, from which she intends to pursue her dream with the help of her Oxford University–educated best friend, Sybil Thorndyke. Kate’s announcement to her parents on the morning of September 3, however, is interrupted by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s televised declaration of war with Germany. Everything changes as Kate’s mother, Mary Grace, descends into a seemingly interminable well of worry. Kate puts off her departure, resuming her post teaching singing at St. Bridget’s School for Girls. Her youngest brother, Ryan, is sent to the country, where he’ll hopefully be safe from the threat of bombings. Sybil leaves, too—for where, she’s unable to say. Kate also begins to see Barry, a young mechanic who’s soon drafted to fight in Belgium. One somewhat peripheral subplot involves one of Kate’s students—a Jewish German refugee named Hannah Bell, whose parents beg Kate to look after her; Kate’s potential rekindling of a past relationship and her ongoing efforts to banish her hiccups are also addressed. Taken altogether, English author Henley amasses ample and often compelling subject matter that keeps the narrative moving forward. However, readers may be divided as to whether all the narratives bear themselves out effectively. Indeed, some may feel that the resolutions of some narrative threads feel halfhearted or rushed. Still, the book’s sturdy, sustained prose, as when Kate’s family listens to a speech by the king (“She scrutinised the long faces of her family. Everyone sat transfixed, unblinking. There was no way she could leave home just now”), will briskly propel readers through this generally thoughtful wartime bildungsroman.
A somewhat crowded but engagingly written historical drama.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781647426149
Page Count: 285
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.
Three siblings on very different paths learn that their family home may be haunted by secrets.
Eldest daughter Beth is alone with her fading mother as she takes her final breath and says something about Beth’s long-departed brother and sister, who may not have disappeared forever. Beth is still reeling from the loss of her mother when her estranged siblings show up. Michael, the youngest, hasn’t been home since their father’s disappearance seven years ago. In the meantime, he’s outgrown his siblings, trading his share of the family troubles for a high-paying job in San Jose. Nicole, the middle child, has been overpowered by addiction and prioritized tuning out reality over any sense of responsibility, much to Beth’s disgust. Though their mother’s death marks an ending for the family, it’s also a beginning, as the three siblings realize when they find a disturbing videotape among their parents’ belongings. The video, from 1999, sheds suspicion on their father’s disappearance, linking it to a long-unsolved neighborhood mystery. Was it just a series of unfortunate circumstances that broke the family apart, or does something more sinister underlie the sadness they’ve all found in life? In chapters that rotate among the family’s first-person narratives, the siblings take turns digging up stories and secrets in their search for solace.
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9798212182843
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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