A unique story about women in WWII that succeeds in making historical events feel personal.
A photographic interpreter in World War II-era England uses her skills to serve her country while hoping for more for herself in Bacon’s debut novel.
It is 1943 at Royal Air Force Base Medmenham near Buckinghamshire, England, where a number of women are employed as photographic interpreters to identify threats from German-occupied areas on the continent. Millicent “Millie” Trayford had been stationed at Coastal Command at RAF Wick, where she identified immediate threats, but, due to her father’s intervention, she’s moved to RAF Medmenham, the Central Intelligence Unit headquarters. She isn’t happy about the transfer, assuming that she’ll be looking for minutiae when she would rather be taking and publishing photographs of wartime women in England. (“She wanted to capture women’s vitality with her camera before their contributions in the war effort were lost to history.”) She arrives at Medmenham, and soon there are problems, both personal and work-related: Her childhood governess, Nanna Clara, dies in a bombing; the Germans may have a secret weapons program at Peenemunde; and then there is her fiance, Elliot, a pilot, who goes missing while flying over France. Meanwhile, the Germans are rumored to be building superbombs that may even fly on their own, and Millie can only hope that the government will take action on the intelligence she and her colleagues gather before more civilians die. Bacon’s novel does a fine job of transporting the reader into a very specific part of wartime Britain’s intelligence-gathering efforts and stays laser focused on that aspect of the war. Weaving in personal stories, including the disappearing fiance, heightens the plausibility of an already well-researched and well-executed story. Millie’s creative spirit and can-do attitude make her an engaging protagonist. Some sections of the book are dialogue-heavy, and the action can bounce from place to place too quickly, but, overall, the book is held together by its strong characters and narrative.
A unique story about women in WWII that succeeds in making historical events feel personal.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9798891321182
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet bedtime story.
A boy and his stuffed bear head into the woods.
Having captured readers’ attention with Born a Crime (2016), his bestselling memoir of growing up in South Africa, comedian and television host Noah has written a parable about decision-making. As he puts it in a brief prologue, “It’s about disagreements and difference—but it’s also about how we bridge those gaps and find what matters most, whether we’re parents or kids, neighbors, gnomes, or political adversaries. It’s a picture book, but it’s not a children’s book. Rather, it is a book for kids to share with parents and for parents to share with kids.” With plentiful illustrations by Hahn and in language aimed at young listeners, it tells the story of a small boy so impatient to start his Saturday adventures that he rebels against the rules of his household and heads out without brushing his teeth or making his bed, despite the reminders of his stuffed bear, Walter. “We can’t just run away,” protests the bear. “Your mother will miss you. And where will we sleep? And who will make us waffles?” “We’ll build our own house,” the boy responds. “And we’ll grow our own waffles!” From there, the pair go on their walkabout, encountering a garden gnome, a pair of snails, and a gang of animated coins who have lessons to offer about making choices. Though the author suggests in the introduction that adult readers might enjoy the book on their own, those looking for a follow-up to the memoir or a foray into adult fiction should be warned that this is not that book.
A sweet bedtime story.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780593729960
Page Count: 128
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
