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leafblade's review against another edition
3.0
3/5 es mi rating cuando no sé qué rating poner. Sentí como si estuviera en las barracks con las chicas y a la vez me aburrió como la mierda
tessisreading2's review against another edition
4.0
This book surprised me: rather than being some sort of scandalous, poorly-written lesbian pulp novel, it's very much a product of the "thinly fictionalized account of women's lives and sexual experiences during World War II" genre. I'm thinking, for example, of Mary Wesley's Camomile Lawn, which caused such a scandal when she published it - World War II is, after all, the "grandparent generation" for many of us, and the idea of people screwing like bunnies during wartime isn't really congruent with that. This one, however, came out very shortly after the war, and included some detailed lesbian (and bisexual) affairs, as well as unwed pregnancies, illegitimate children, etc. The writing is actually pretty good - it's a very readable book rather than "great literature," but it's nowhere near as awkward as e.g. The Camomile Lawn. At the insistence of the American publishers, there was a bunch of moralizing thrown in about lesbianism and promiscuity, which bumped this down a star for me, but over all, a really fun read, albeit not what I was expecting.
sapphic_book_dragon's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
annalieegk's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
punkystarshine's review against another edition
3.0
I thought this was interesting but it was lacking a few things.
Spoiler
First of all, the narrator was the most one-dimensional character, and was barely a character at all, but I figured out by the time I read the interview in the back that it was because she was forced to write in a more judgmental tone than she would have wanted because AMERICA. Which I guess explains all the 'poor, sad lesbians will never be happy, those miserable creatures' and calling the non-lesbians 'real women' but those things were still annoying. But it was definitely a fun view into the world of women's barracks at the time.subdue_provide75's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I thought this would be a fun smutty, campy romp but it might be one of the best novels about World War II London I've encountered? Like if Jean Rhys wrote a Love Actually set during the Blitz.
shonaberu's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia
Moderate: Suicide, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt
Minor: War
radishb's review against another edition
3.0
This book gave me a whole range of different feelings. I picked this book up with a number of expectations, most of which were shot down. I believed this to be a self-indulgent book about lesbian antics in the Free France forces, that had very little sensibility and was mostly a pulp novel that would be easy to finish.
For my first expectation, we read the narrator's name just ONCE in the entirety of the book: this is indicative of how this is NOT the narrator's story, but how she gives voice to the women she is writing about instead.
For the 'lesbian antics' element, I was again misled by prejudices. There are very few characters in this novel who are lesbian, and more who are experimental/bisexual. The 'sad' lesbians in this book are given a very pale, melancholic light, and are mostly looked upon with pity (in reading an interview with the author, she explained that one agreement for publishing the book was that the editor added in these numerous pitying sentences and observations, because otherwise, the book would have been too 'immoral' for Americans at the time to handle).
I was also very surprised by the elements of care and thought that went into this book. There was a lot of pensive, careful ideas that were touched upon in this book - they could have been touched on a lot more, but that was not the point of this book. This book was meant to make everybody see that women are beings of their own and that they can question the morality of war without needing men to tell them how to do it.
Whilst this is the case, the varying levels of success are hard to gauge. Every single character in this novel is led and influenced by at least one man (and in some circumstances, to fatal results), which roughly challenges the idea of female autonomy that this book was striving for. Indeed, the first words of the introduction to this books are 'My husband tells me I ought to write my memoirs...'. Who was she writing this for? Seeing as this novel is based on the diaries that she wrote during the war before she was married or attached to any man, one can argue that they were purely for her. Another argument would say otherwise.
I suppose the crux of the matter is, this book is the 1940s 'Well of Loneliness'. It considered the same issues of women in wartime and beyond, and even faced the same prejudices and difficulties that Radclyffe Hall faced: lawsuits and bans, and cries of 'immorality, filth, and perversion.'
One can only admire the steps that were taken in that leap of time: it wasn't very much, but baby steps can make miles.
If anything, this book is an interesting read for the historical context. It was an insight into French female forces in London that I wasn't aware of. Whilst it isn't entirely encouraging feminist literature, it comes a long way from what there was on offer and should be read to help form a timeline of the lesbian literature we can find out there.
For my first expectation, we read the narrator's name just ONCE in the entirety of the book: this is indicative of how this is NOT the narrator's story, but how she gives voice to the women she is writing about instead.
For the 'lesbian antics' element, I was again misled by prejudices. There are very few characters in this novel who are lesbian, and more who are experimental/bisexual. The 'sad' lesbians in this book are given a very pale, melancholic light, and are mostly looked upon with pity (in reading an interview with the author, she explained that one agreement for publishing the book was that the editor added in these numerous pitying sentences and observations, because otherwise, the book would have been too 'immoral' for Americans at the time to handle).
I was also very surprised by the elements of care and thought that went into this book. There was a lot of pensive, careful ideas that were touched upon in this book - they could have been touched on a lot more, but that was not the point of this book. This book was meant to make everybody see that women are beings of their own and that they can question the morality of war without needing men to tell them how to do it.
Whilst this is the case, the varying levels of success are hard to gauge. Every single character in this novel is led and influenced by at least one man (and in some circumstances, to fatal results), which roughly challenges the idea of female autonomy that this book was striving for. Indeed, the first words of the introduction to this books are 'My husband tells me I ought to write my memoirs...'. Who was she writing this for? Seeing as this novel is based on the diaries that she wrote during the war before she was married or attached to any man, one can argue that they were purely for her. Another argument would say otherwise.
I suppose the crux of the matter is, this book is the 1940s 'Well of Loneliness'. It considered the same issues of women in wartime and beyond, and even faced the same prejudices and difficulties that Radclyffe Hall faced: lawsuits and bans, and cries of 'immorality, filth, and perversion.'
One can only admire the steps that were taken in that leap of time: it wasn't very much, but baby steps can make miles.
If anything, this book is an interesting read for the historical context. It was an insight into French female forces in London that I wasn't aware of. Whilst it isn't entirely encouraging feminist literature, it comes a long way from what there was on offer and should be read to help form a timeline of the lesbian literature we can find out there.
planetwhileaway's review against another edition
4.0
Not as gay as I thought/hoped it would be, but still a very interesting read.