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A review by nadiasfiction
Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes by Mollie Panter-Downes
3.0
Bitter-sweet very much defines this collection of short stories written by Mollie PD during WWII and published in The New Yorker in real time between 1939 and 1944.
In each story, MPD's characters, whether young, old or pregnant, navigate between daily life, new obligations and the consequences of war.
It is this new 'normality' that MPD describes, laughs about or questions with her characters caught between food rationing, fuel shortages (petrol for cars and gas in the home for heating and cooking), air bombings, separation, and just getting on with life as best everybody could.
I did not know that when the war broke out, children in London were sent away to other counties in places that were turned into boarding schools so that as many kids as possible could be protected.
A situation often explored in these stories is the effect of bombings, but not from an obvious angle. Because of the air raids, many people started moving in with each other, with relatives but also often with acquaintances or perfect strangers who had bigger homes, or just houses that weren't wrecked. You can easily imagine the comic situations that can spring from this.
The sense of community deployed led to many comical and even farcical situations, but like most farces they reveal true drama, and traumatic experiences.
Mollie Panter-Downes was an intensely productive writer, sharp and insightful and much of her work remains uncollected, something that this beautiful Persephone collection corrects.
In each story, MPD's characters, whether young, old or pregnant, navigate between daily life, new obligations and the consequences of war.
It is this new 'normality' that MPD describes, laughs about or questions with her characters caught between food rationing, fuel shortages (petrol for cars and gas in the home for heating and cooking), air bombings, separation, and just getting on with life as best everybody could.
I did not know that when the war broke out, children in London were sent away to other counties in places that were turned into boarding schools so that as many kids as possible could be protected.
A situation often explored in these stories is the effect of bombings, but not from an obvious angle. Because of the air raids, many people started moving in with each other, with relatives but also often with acquaintances or perfect strangers who had bigger homes, or just houses that weren't wrecked. You can easily imagine the comic situations that can spring from this.
The sense of community deployed led to many comical and even farcical situations, but like most farces they reveal true drama, and traumatic experiences.
Mollie Panter-Downes was an intensely productive writer, sharp and insightful and much of her work remains uncollected, something that this beautiful Persephone collection corrects.