NO BETTER TIME

Two young Black women experience the highs and lows of enlisted life during World War II.

Leila Branch is a single mother in Dayton, Ohio, raising her son and living in her mother’s boardinghouse, when President Franklin Roosevelt declares the United States at war. In Atlanta, Spelman College librarian Dorothy Thom is bored and eager for adventure. Though very different, the two women both see the opportunity of a lifetime in the newly formed Women’s Army Corps: For Leila, it’s a chance to build a better life for her son, while for Dorothy it’s a chance to see the world. When they both enlist, they find that the WACs are put to hard work despite their distance from the front lines—but the two have each other when they strike up a close friendship ahead of being assigned to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, a job that takes them across the Atlantic. Although the author succeeds at laying out a broad and readable history of the WACs and the postal directory’s work, there’s little in the way of sustained conflict or tension to add interest to the plot. Challenges faced by the women, such as racism, are resolved quickly; when Leila is threatened with an involuntary hysterectomy, the matter is resolved within hours, with no ensuing difficulty. These deus ex machina resolutions are swift and frequent, undercutting what could be an interesting and layered novel.

Readers wanting to learn the history of the WACs will find much to enjoy, but this novel remains a surface-level exploration.