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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
Nothing was surprising, but it was really well done, and the characters were wonderful.
Would recommend
I have been hesitating with this book because I couldn't get through Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, but sometimes the audio book catalog turns up the right book at the right time. I was drawn in immediately because the reader is Fiona Hardingham, which meant nothing to me before this book, BUT I recognized her voice immediately as the reader of the Puck Connolly sections in The Scorpio Races, and I love that audio production with a passion like the fire of a thousand suns. So! The reader is excellent, and then the main character, Beatrice, is wonderful and spunky. There is a bit of "poor rich people" feeling (tiresome, to me, to hear people complain about not having champagne during wartime), but it all comes around in the end to be very poignant and effective.
I have been hesitating with this book because I couldn't get through Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, but sometimes the audio book catalog turns up the right book at the right time. I was drawn in immediately because the reader is Fiona Hardingham, which meant nothing to me before this book, BUT I recognized her voice immediately as the reader of the Puck Connolly sections in The Scorpio Races, and I love that audio production with a passion like the fire of a thousand suns. So! The reader is excellent, and then the main character, Beatrice, is wonderful and spunky. There is a bit of "poor rich people" feeling (tiresome, to me, to hear people complain about not having champagne during wartime), but it all comes around in the end to be very poignant and effective.
I will never forget reading this book. http://www.booksforwhat.com/2016/02/new-releases-summer-before-war-by-helen.html
The beauty of Simonson's writing is how real the characters and setting feel. It feels like any of these people could've been alive during the dawn of World War II, lived in these lives, and reacted the way each did when facing the hardships before them. This is a lovely tome and if you like realistic, historical fiction you'd do well to pick it up.
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Reminds me of the Emma movie with G Paltrow. Lots of useless long winded dialogues. Couldn't take it anymore
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Good book. The story started off slow but became more interesting. By the end, I was engaged with the characters. Much of the book is about the effects of war on the women and children.
The war in the title is World War I. Most of the action of the novel takes place in the little town of Rye in East Sussex. It is the summer of 1914. Belgium has been invaded by Germany and England is girding itself for war.
It was a time of innocence and patriotic fervor. Amid parades and festivals, the English prepared themselves for war in the certitude that they would soon vanquish Germany and everything would be as it was before. Little did they know...
The main thrust of the story that Helen Simonson tells here is about the status and treatment of women during this era. She tells the story through the experiences of a young teacher, Beatrice Nash.
Beatrice arrives in Rye to teach students Latin. This is apparently a shocking state of affairs for the residents of Rye. Who ever heard of a woman teaching Latin?
Beatrice is a well-educated woman who must make her own way in the world following the death of her much-loved academic father. She is of an independent nature and shocks everyone by not only teaching Latin but also riding a bicycle!
She learns that she has an ally in one of the town leaders, Agatha Kent, who had advocated for her hiring. Agatha is also a strong and independent woman, the wife of a diplomat. She has her adversaries in town, including the wife of the mayor who is a particularly silly woman and is one of the ones shocked by the idea of a female Latin teacher.
Simonson introduces several strong women characters to the tale, all of whom struggle against society's expectations of them. Women have very few rights to be in control of their lives and fortunes in the world of England in 1914. Moreover, attitudes toward rape victims, including those who become pregnant as a result of their rapes, and toward homosexuals would be a comfortable fit in the right-wing politics of today. She also explores class differences and the attitudes of the citizens of Rye toward their Romany neighbors as well as the Belgian refugees who are pouring into the country. Many of those opinions sounded very familiar in this year's political season.
Summer winds down and the young men of the area are feeling the pressure to sign up and go to war. Among them are Agatha Kent's two nephews; Hugh, a surgeon, and Daniel, a budding poet. This causes her no end of anguish as she strives to find a way to keep them - especially Daniel - from going.
The action of the novel moves at a snail's pace, even as that last summer must have felt like a suspension in time. Its slow pace made it difficult to really get into the story at first. I found myself being irritated with several of the characters and wishing they would just get on with it. But Simonson will not be hurried. She takes time to develop her plot and flesh out the characters and their relationships, and that pays off in the end.
During the last quarter of so of the book, I was fully invested in the story and hoping that all of those characters that I had come to care about would come through unscathed. But it was a time of war, after all, and, finally, no one was unscathed.
It was a time of innocence and patriotic fervor. Amid parades and festivals, the English prepared themselves for war in the certitude that they would soon vanquish Germany and everything would be as it was before. Little did they know...
The main thrust of the story that Helen Simonson tells here is about the status and treatment of women during this era. She tells the story through the experiences of a young teacher, Beatrice Nash.
Beatrice arrives in Rye to teach students Latin. This is apparently a shocking state of affairs for the residents of Rye. Who ever heard of a woman teaching Latin?
Beatrice is a well-educated woman who must make her own way in the world following the death of her much-loved academic father. She is of an independent nature and shocks everyone by not only teaching Latin but also riding a bicycle!
She learns that she has an ally in one of the town leaders, Agatha Kent, who had advocated for her hiring. Agatha is also a strong and independent woman, the wife of a diplomat. She has her adversaries in town, including the wife of the mayor who is a particularly silly woman and is one of the ones shocked by the idea of a female Latin teacher.
Simonson introduces several strong women characters to the tale, all of whom struggle against society's expectations of them. Women have very few rights to be in control of their lives and fortunes in the world of England in 1914. Moreover, attitudes toward rape victims, including those who become pregnant as a result of their rapes, and toward homosexuals would be a comfortable fit in the right-wing politics of today. She also explores class differences and the attitudes of the citizens of Rye toward their Romany neighbors as well as the Belgian refugees who are pouring into the country. Many of those opinions sounded very familiar in this year's political season.
Summer winds down and the young men of the area are feeling the pressure to sign up and go to war. Among them are Agatha Kent's two nephews; Hugh, a surgeon, and Daniel, a budding poet. This causes her no end of anguish as she strives to find a way to keep them - especially Daniel - from going.
The action of the novel moves at a snail's pace, even as that last summer must have felt like a suspension in time. Its slow pace made it difficult to really get into the story at first. I found myself being irritated with several of the characters and wishing they would just get on with it. But Simonson will not be hurried. She takes time to develop her plot and flesh out the characters and their relationships, and that pays off in the end.
During the last quarter of so of the book, I was fully invested in the story and hoping that all of those characters that I had come to care about would come through unscathed. But it was a time of war, after all, and, finally, no one was unscathed.