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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
Wake is a word that conjures up different meanings and images.
The wake held after the funeral of a loved one.
Wake when you emerge from sleep
In the wake of what has happened.
In fact in Anna Hope's debut novel, all three of these meanings have been woven into a moving story which will stay with you long after you have finished it. In fact the tomb of the unknown soldier and the cenotaph are there as permanent reminders.
The body of the Unknown Soldier is making its way from France to London, to be buried in Westminster Abbey and the city is awaiting this unique moment. The war is still raw in many people's hearts and they have yet to move on or find the strength to see that this permanent monument is theirs forever.
Three women in London, have all experienced something very different by the war. They do not know each other, but they all have one thing in common - loss.
Ada is grieving for her son, he has not come home. His body is somewhere in France and she does not know where or how he came to be killed. Ada keeps seeing her son everywhere, she needs to lay his ghost to rest. There seems to be something that she does not know.
Hettie is young, she works in the Hammersmith Palais where you can buy a dance with her for a few pennies. Her brother is shell shocked and just exists at the family home.
Evelyn worked in munitions during the war, she has the injuries and experience to prove it. Now she is working for pensions and deals with those men who came back and tries to forget about her love who did not.
As the story unfolds about these women, the body of the unknown soldier is returned and the book follows the five days charting the journey of this unknown man to his final resting place.
We move through all three women's personal stories both in the present and more importantly the past. You feel for the women, you empathise, you sympathise but you also want to somehow let them know that the world is a changing place and that time does move on and their legacy will always be remembered. It is an emotional story to get completely absorbed by, it has some rather sombre moments when you realise the number of those who never came back and were buried out in fields far from home and their loved ones. The women are bringing differing angles and viewpoints to what is happening at home. And as the city begins to swell with those wanting to glimpse this unique event, the women, unknown to each other become ever closer in proximity and all of a sudden it all begins to fit together and is done so with care and respect by the author.
War is something that is part of our lives and our history and to remember not just those who were taken from us but also those left behind all have a part in the history. Anna Hope brings this book to a quiet conclusion, one that was fitting to the book and to the memory of everyone lost and all those that remain.
The wake held after the funeral of a loved one.
Wake when you emerge from sleep
In the wake of what has happened.
In fact in Anna Hope's debut novel, all three of these meanings have been woven into a moving story which will stay with you long after you have finished it. In fact the tomb of the unknown soldier and the cenotaph are there as permanent reminders.
The body of the Unknown Soldier is making its way from France to London, to be buried in Westminster Abbey and the city is awaiting this unique moment. The war is still raw in many people's hearts and they have yet to move on or find the strength to see that this permanent monument is theirs forever.
Three women in London, have all experienced something very different by the war. They do not know each other, but they all have one thing in common - loss.
Ada is grieving for her son, he has not come home. His body is somewhere in France and she does not know where or how he came to be killed. Ada keeps seeing her son everywhere, she needs to lay his ghost to rest. There seems to be something that she does not know.
Hettie is young, she works in the Hammersmith Palais where you can buy a dance with her for a few pennies. Her brother is shell shocked and just exists at the family home.
Evelyn worked in munitions during the war, she has the injuries and experience to prove it. Now she is working for pensions and deals with those men who came back and tries to forget about her love who did not.
As the story unfolds about these women, the body of the unknown soldier is returned and the book follows the five days charting the journey of this unknown man to his final resting place.
We move through all three women's personal stories both in the present and more importantly the past. You feel for the women, you empathise, you sympathise but you also want to somehow let them know that the world is a changing place and that time does move on and their legacy will always be remembered. It is an emotional story to get completely absorbed by, it has some rather sombre moments when you realise the number of those who never came back and were buried out in fields far from home and their loved ones. The women are bringing differing angles and viewpoints to what is happening at home. And as the city begins to swell with those wanting to glimpse this unique event, the women, unknown to each other become ever closer in proximity and all of a sudden it all begins to fit together and is done so with care and respect by the author.
War is something that is part of our lives and our history and to remember not just those who were taken from us but also those left behind all have a part in the history. Anna Hope brings this book to a quiet conclusion, one that was fitting to the book and to the memory of everyone lost and all those that remain.
Not nearly as well done as Guernsy but compelling in its own way. Was interesting to read a book about what it was like during the couple years after WWI. Still, not sure it was worth the interruption from my regularly scheduled reading list. Don't think it lives up to all the hype it's getting.
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Rather disappointing. I wish it wasn't written in the present tense
I just didn't connect with any of the main characters, and because I hadn't connected with them emotionally I didn't feel the emotional catharsis at the end. It felt like things didn't really... happen, if that makes any sense. Like the whole situation . Similarly, I fail to understand how on earth Evelyn
Spoiler
with Hattie and Edward at his apartment wasn't really frightening, which was strange because it should have been terrifying, or at the very least a massive disappointment for Hattie after all the effort she had gone to, but instead it was just kind of a thing, and then she went home, and then there were no real consequences to what happenedSpoiler
could have won Robin's heart to the point where we're informed that he is in love with her at the end of the book; he's known her for like a week and one mediocre date, right?
I quite enjoyed this story about a week in the lives of three women learning how to live again in a world post WW1. They are all somehow connected - and I was curious to find out how which always keeps me more engaged - but even without that hook, I found the style, the characters, and the pace kept me engaged throughout the book. The ending is a little open ended, but considering the time frame (which seems a lot longer somehow), it was probably realistic while being hope-filled.
Wake:
1) Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep
2) Ritual for the dead
3) Consequence or aftermath.
I have to start out by saying I was going to rate this book 4 stars until the last two chapters, where all of a sudden I lost interest and just didn't care how it ended. I had no desire to see how the characters who all were interwoven in a way played out. I'm not sure what happened, it just fell flat. And the ending wasn't even bad or poorly written.
With that out of the way, Wake was a fairly decent story- like I said I enjoyed it until the end. It shows how much society really didn't give any support to veterans. The notion of PTSD was unknown and really looked down upon. As in one scene, I believe it was Evelyn, stated "the war is over, just forget it and move on, let everyone move on" - paraphrasing obviously, but gets the point across. A lot of people did not know or understand the effect of war. Of that stress that comes back with them. And back then they really didn't have a support network.I mean, the soldiers stood in lines for hours to complain about their pensions (among other things) as shown in Evelyns job.
I enjoyed that this book wasn't about WWII, which most war and historical fiction books are. And it featured 3 ladies. Evelyn- works at a Pensions exchange office, Ada who is trying to come to terms with the death of her son, and Hettie a dance instructor. Their lives are connected through similar characters and common themes, the main one being the aftermath of a war.
I do recommend giving this book a read. It was a great debut novel and my lack of interest was probalby no fault to either. Just one of those weird things, I mean I did really like it until the end.
http://justaddchampagne.blogspot.ca/2014/02/book-review-wake-by-anna-hope.html
Wake: A Novel tells the story of moving onwards after World War I. It focuses on the story of three separate women struggling to make a life and to move on after their own war experiences: Evelyn, embittered by the loss of her beau, works for the pension office. Hettie is a dancing girl at the Palais, naive and hopeful for the future but also grieving the loss of her father from the Spanish Flu. Lastly, Ada is haunted by the loss of her son, whose body has never been accounted for. Through them, it also tells the story of their men: their scars and traumas. Class structure is subtly interwoven as well: Evelyn is the daughter of nobility and chooses to work and live independently in her own flat. Ada is middle class, and Hettie struggles to contribute to her family’s wages while yearning for independence.
The five days that the novel spans also overviews and builds to internment of the British unnamed soldier: a nation’s hope for closure.
Hope successfully depicts the bleakness of this era: veterans looking for assistance from a government unwilling or unable to help them fully reacclimate to society. It shows their scars and their shell shocked PTSD as well as the various ways that trauma manifests inwardly and outwardly with them.
It’s nice to read a WWI novel for once, and this was a quick if not light read.
“‘Whatever anyone thinks or says, England didn’t win this war. And Germany wouldn’t have won it, either.’
“‘What do you mean?’
“‘War wins... And it keeps winning, over and over again.’”
3-3.5 stars
The five days that the novel spans also overviews and builds to internment of the British unnamed soldier: a nation’s hope for closure.
Hope successfully depicts the bleakness of this era: veterans looking for assistance from a government unwilling or unable to help them fully reacclimate to society. It shows their scars and their shell shocked PTSD as well as the various ways that trauma manifests inwardly and outwardly with them.
It’s nice to read a WWI novel for once, and this was a quick if not light read.
“‘Whatever anyone thinks or says, England didn’t win this war. And Germany wouldn’t have won it, either.’
“‘What do you mean?’
“‘War wins... And it keeps winning, over and over again.’”
3-3.5 stars
The most effective way to learn History is to experience it through works of fiction. While that statement may be a paradox, it is the most accurate way to describe how I feel about learning History. Sometimes, cold hard facts do not inspire ravenous curiosity. Reading historical accounts through someone’s personal perspective changes the experience quite drastically.
Anna Hope’s Wake is a good example of that. I’ve learned a thing or two about the war. But the one thing that stood in my mind was the Coalition Forces’ ability to kill their own soldiers should they be found guilty of desertion.
The journey of the unknown soldier.
Set five days before the arrival of the unknown soldier, Wake tells the story of three women with their own struggles during the aftermath of World War I. The stories of their lives are knotted in the same thread. And as the soldier nears his final resting place, it becomes clear how closely their lives were twined together.
Ada
Ada’s marriage died along with their son who didn’t come back from the war. Haunted by his memories, she goes through life seeing his apparitions. She can’t shake off the feeling that her son never really died. Because without a body to speak of, her hopes are still alive.
Hettie
Hettie’s life hasn’t been the same since the war. She lost her father to Spanish flu, and her brother came back from the war catatonic from severe shell shock. A dancer by profession, she makes sacrifices to help her mother run their household. One night, she meets an enigmatic rich man who was haunted by his own demons from the war.
Evelyn
Evelyn is a rich heiress who never had to work her entire life. Aggrieved by the untimely death of her lover, she spends her life working at a veterans’ pensions office as an act of self-flagellation. There, she hears every single stories of trauma and injuries suffered by the soldiers who served the country.
One person too many.
As is the prevalent problem with stories told from different points of views, I had a difficulty focusing on the focal point of the story. I found myself unable to keep a consistent interest with all four, the fourth one being a collective group of people who were somehow connected to the unknown soldier. More often, I found myself getting the characters mixed up – which ultimately led to some re-reading sessions that bogged me down whilst in the throes of this novel.
That’s not to say their stories aren’t all that interesting. They are, in their own merits, captivating regardless of how muddled they may be at times. The novel suffered from too many sub stories that I had a tough time staying focused.
Anna Hope’s Wake is a fascinating take on the stories of people coping after the war. In their own way, the burial of the unknown soldier was their way of letting go and accepting inner peace. Most stories, though unresolved, at least offered underlying hope that each characters’ ghosts were laid to rest along with the soldier.
Anna Hope’s Wake is a good example of that. I’ve learned a thing or two about the war. But the one thing that stood in my mind was the Coalition Forces’ ability to kill their own soldiers should they be found guilty of desertion.
The journey of the unknown soldier.
Set five days before the arrival of the unknown soldier, Wake tells the story of three women with their own struggles during the aftermath of World War I. The stories of their lives are knotted in the same thread. And as the soldier nears his final resting place, it becomes clear how closely their lives were twined together.
Ada
Ada’s marriage died along with their son who didn’t come back from the war. Haunted by his memories, she goes through life seeing his apparitions. She can’t shake off the feeling that her son never really died. Because without a body to speak of, her hopes are still alive.
Hettie
Hettie’s life hasn’t been the same since the war. She lost her father to Spanish flu, and her brother came back from the war catatonic from severe shell shock. A dancer by profession, she makes sacrifices to help her mother run their household. One night, she meets an enigmatic rich man who was haunted by his own demons from the war.
Evelyn
Evelyn is a rich heiress who never had to work her entire life. Aggrieved by the untimely death of her lover, she spends her life working at a veterans’ pensions office as an act of self-flagellation. There, she hears every single stories of trauma and injuries suffered by the soldiers who served the country.
One person too many.
As is the prevalent problem with stories told from different points of views, I had a difficulty focusing on the focal point of the story. I found myself unable to keep a consistent interest with all four, the fourth one being a collective group of people who were somehow connected to the unknown soldier. More often, I found myself getting the characters mixed up – which ultimately led to some re-reading sessions that bogged me down whilst in the throes of this novel.
That’s not to say their stories aren’t all that interesting. They are, in their own merits, captivating regardless of how muddled they may be at times. The novel suffered from too many sub stories that I had a tough time staying focused.
Anna Hope’s Wake is a fascinating take on the stories of people coping after the war. In their own way, the burial of the unknown soldier was their way of letting go and accepting inner peace. Most stories, though unresolved, at least offered underlying hope that each characters’ ghosts were laid to rest along with the soldier.