Peace, Perfect Peace

 

Peace, Perfect Peace / Josephine Kamm
London: Dean Street Press, 2019, c1947.
206 p.

Now for the last of my Dean Street Press streak! This was a shorter read than some other titles in this series, and appealed to me because of its setting, immediately post-war with evidence of wartime still all around. 

This was the most interesting part of the book, for me - the descriptions of rusting barbwire entanglements on the beaches, the shortage of housing which necessitates the main characters taking a flat in poor repair, constant dust from bombed sites, rationing in food and in clothing (there are difficulties buying a dress and the main character has to settle for what's available). 

The storyline focuses on the Smallwood family. Frances is returning from her service with the ATS, and her husband should be coming back from his wartime service soon as well. She is going to retrieve her children from her mother-in-law Joanna's country house, where they've lived for the last five years. Joanna is loath to let them go, feeling that only she really understands them, particularly the boy Giles. 

There are struggles between Joanna and Frances over the two children, albeit mostly unspoken ones. Frances believes Joanna is trying to alienate her children, but nobody really believes her. Meanwhile, Clare, a friend of Joanna's, is stuck in the middle of this struggle, getting confidences from both sides. Clare, however, is more focused on her own life - romantic difficulties, and the agony of not being able to finish her second novel. 

I loved the setting and some of the elements of the story. But overall, I found it bland, with tiresome characters and an overreliance on the psychological elements of the story. It's trying to show the disruptions that the end of the war caused, specifically for women, but the characters are not engaging and I didn't really care whether Clare wrote a book or not, or the Smallwood family reconnected or not. The plot was thin and slow moving, and Clare just floats through the book, with nothing actually happening to her, and nothing resolved. The Smallwood issues are resolved as Frances' husband comes home and after some fuss, believes her and regathers their children into their small family unit, as is right -- this insistence on the small nuclear family to the exclusion of a wider inclusion of grandparents or friends also felt retrograde. 

So unfortunately this one wasn't really a match for me. I finished it to find out what was going to happen to the family, but I didn't love this one. 

Miss Carter and the Ifrit

Miss Carter & the Ifrit / Susan Alice Kerby
London: Dean Street Press, 2019, c1945.
222 p.

I've been reading a whole lot of Dean Street books lately, and this was one of my favourites so far. It's set during WWII but it's also a bit of a fairytale. 

Miss Georgina Carter is a single woman in her late 40s, living in a comfortable though sparse flat. As the story opens, she is not so comfy, as she's lacking coal. She buys some wood blocks from a street seller to heat her flat, wood that had been part of roads long ago. As she burns them, one cracks open and an Ifrit appears to her (don't call him a genie!) He's been freed from his long imprisonment in this wood, and is ready to serve his new master. 

Miss Carter, however, is very practical and isn't quite sure what to do with this turn of events. She's embarrassed by his lavish servitude, insists he sits on the furniture as an equal with her, and nicknames him Joe. To prove his powers and willingness to serve, he magics in exotic food, cushions and colour, and other treats. When she is missing her only nephew greatly, Joe whisks her to Canada where he is training -- to the nephew's great shock. This scene is very funny, as the nephew tries to make sense of what is happening and convinces himself he is still drunk from his night out. 

But then a former flame, a friend of her brother's, shows up and Joe scents romance. Miss Carter insists it's not, but we are given glimpses of her past and his, and know that it will be. 

The joy of the book is the relationship between Miss Carter and the Ifrit. When Joe first appears, he is traditional, bound to his habits. So is Miss Carter - stuck in a British spinster's life with a constricted view of the world. Joe becomes fascinated with the modern world and is absorbing and learning at an exponential rate. And Miss Carter begins to learn and grow alongside him. They have conversations about ethics, wishes, morals, and meaning, and it's really engaging to read along. Joe even visits an old nemesis, another Ifrit who has chosen to go the opposite way to Joe, the way of power and corruption; this Ifrit is in thrall to none other than Hitler. (this book was published in 1945, so it was all still going when she wrote this). They free one another through their relationship; Joe quite literally, and Miss Carter from her small life.

I thought this was a delight, a mix between fantastical and really ordinary things - Miss Carter still goes to work in her office every day, for example, once wearing a beautiful dress that Joe has got for her, to the suspicious and jealous eyes of her coworkers. I thought the writing was light and entertaining, and the story certainly unusual, both funny and touching. Lots to think about here, and a happy ending for a 47 year old heroine. Really great read. 

Souvenirs From Kyiv

 

Souvenirs from Kyiv / Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger

Now something different; this is a set of six linked stories set in Ukraine during WWII, written by an American with Ukrainian family ties. It's quite similar to many historical novels written about this period in tone and description, but it differs in its setting (this isn't a Paris WWII novel) and in its exploration of the little known political realities of Ukraine as it was being overrun by Nazis and Soviets alike.

The stories stand alone, but also connect. The first one centres around Larissa, a famed embroiderer with a shop in occupied Ukraine. A German officer comes in and wants her to make him a special shirt, embroidered with all her famous folk embroidery. This request, for a traditional shirt while the Germans are destroying Ukraine, is another example of the way folk culture is made into a quaint souvenir rather than respected in its own right. Larissa can not refuse, but she sews her resistance into the motifs. And her statements have consequences. I thought this story was very well done, and I related closely to Larissa and her decisions. I really liked this story.

Another focuses on Mykhailo, a Ukrainian who is a German solider on leave, travelling through Ukraine on Christmas Eve, hoping to get to his family. He doesn't, but he does end up being taken in by another family, and their words (along with all the things he sees from the train) change his views and also the actions he will take in future. This is a powerful story, and one to read as war rages in Ukraine at this Christmas season, to remind us of how our personal decisions can help change things. 

We also meet Marusia and her family who scatter to safety when Nazis come looking for her partisan brother. And there's Lida, a young girl forced to labour in a munitions factory in Germany. And a few more memorable characters, too. Many of these stories are based around interviews that the author did with her own family members -- she's a first generation American, with Ukrainian parents and family.

All these stories together create a wide view of some of the past events in Ukraine which people who don't already have a natural interest in the region might find very illuminating. The author really focuses on the personal and emotional costs of war, for individuals, families and the wider nation. I think it's a solid addition to the wide range of WWII stories out there, exposing a region which got the worst of both sides but is often neglected in discussions of this era. Ukraine's perspective in this war isn't often shared, so I think this is an important contribution to this genre.