Helen Simonson wrote "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand", which I enjoyed (see under "The Fun Stuff"), so I had some expectation of this one. But...
Okay, why couldn't it get hold of me? After all, its apparent theme is about motorbikes and aircraft, and a bunch of women getting stuck into male prejudices just after World War One in England, thumbing noses at the wannabe Upper Class norms, just before the Roaring Twenties got going. And it's well written. Why wouldn't I love it!
First up, it's presented in that (for me) off-putting "fat" format that's all the rage for so much modern stuff, using up 415 pages to cover its ap 140k word length. This is not overly long for a novel I guess, but I sort of feel that if you can't nail it in about 100k words maybe you need to have a serious edit. And that's my other gripe with this one. It's over-written to the point of self-indulgence. At one point the author takes three large paragraphs of fine detail, describing a walk through a garden, which has no bearing on the story except to help with the "mood", which had already been well covered.
So, if you're more patient than me, and you want to read about young women trying to balance out the injustices of having ran so much of the country's infrastructure - farms, offices, factories - for 3 to 4 years (at less pay than for the men they replaced), only to be thanklessly tipped out on their return, patted on their pretty little heads, and told to get back to concentrating on becoming a wife and a baby-minder and a cook and a cleaner, this is the book for you.
It's an idea that should work. But for me it just took way too much time getting to wherever it was going, wallowed about painting the picture of the times, which have been meticulously researched. But made just a touch too light and fluffy. Sorry Helen.
Cheers...
T.R.E.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>