Elizabeth Berg
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (May 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400065100
ISBN-13: 978-1400065103
FTC: Library Loan
Description
New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg takes us to Chicago at the time of World War II in this wonderful story about three sisters, their lively Irish family, and the men they love.
As the novel opens, Kitty and Louise Heaney say good-bye to their boyfriends Julian and Michael, who are going to fight overseas. On the domestic front, meat is rationed, children participate in metal drives, and Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller play songs that offer hope and lift spirits. And now the Heaney sisters sit at their kitchen table every evening to write letters–Louise to her fiancé, Kitty to the man she wishes fervently would propose, and Tish to an ever-changing group of men she meets at USO dances. In the letters, the sisters send and receive are intimate glimpses of life both on the battlefront and at home. For Kitty, a confident, headstrong young woman, the departure of her boyfriend and the lessons she learns about love, resilience, and war will bring a surprise and a secret and will lead her to a radical action for those she loves. The lifelong consequences of the choices the Heaney sisters make are at the heart of this superb novel about the power of love and the enduring strength of family.
My Thoughts
My books clubs author read for the month of December is Elizabeth Berg so I selected this title and got it on loan from my library.
You see. I adore Big Band music and when I close my eyes I can imagine an orchestra playing many songs from this era... including the title of this read.
When you read throughout history, it seems in times of trouble, regretful longings go hand in hand, and in the mix nostalgia forms or maybe it is the other way around.
In this beautiful read, we have three sisters in the Irish Heaney family, whom nightly write to soldiers who are fighting overseas in WWII.
There are bobbins pins and flirting on streetcars. There are USO Centers and Bob Hope radio skits. And, then there's the heart-wrenching reminder of walls draped with the American flag.
Fast forward many years later to 2006. As this story closes you have the lead character believing that some people don't give a damn about her generation which was 'Long Ago and Far Away, so what better thing to do than 'Dream When You're Feeling Blue.'