Dearest Ones: A True World War II Love Story Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Dearest Ones: A True World War II Love Story Book

This affecting memoir by a Red Cross volunteer eschews sentimental clichés about World War II. Letters to the author's parents in San Francisco, supplemented by entries from a journal in which she recorded material she feared would disturb either them or the censors, relay Rosemary Norwalk's experiences in England during the war's final year and for a few months in Germany after it ended. The Red Cross "girls" served doughnuts and coffee to soldiers disembarking from or boarding ships to the European front, but the mundane nature of their work didn't prevent sharp observers like Rosemary from grasping how this bitter, global conflict was indelibly marking her generation. The author's youthful prose is no more than serviceable in her letters and at times in the journals even self-conscious, but her insights are impressive. Thumbnail portraits of her Red Cross buddies are vivid and perceptive; her political maturity shows in biting remarks about average Germans' willed blindness to the horrors of the Holocaust--and, much more impressive for a young woman on the winning side, in her acknowledgment that many Americans probably would have done the same. Her romance with the army captain she eventually married was similarly grown-up (he had an estranged wife and a young child), and readers will root for their happy ending. --Wendy Smith Read More

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    "Charming . . . an intimate memory of a time that has gone forever." -Rosamunde Pilcher

    "An amazing narrative . . . Everything about this account is blazingly authentic. There is no pretense, no false modesty or grandstanding. The gray privations of life in cold, wet wartime England come alive." -Washington Post

    "A different perspective on the war from those in the thick of battle or those writing on the home front. . . . The authors letters . . . speak of the camaraderie and adventure of it all . . . she paints the everyday details, not the heroics." -Dallas Morning News

    "A fascinating work of social history, revealing much about British life and American attitudes fifty years ago." -Sunday Times (London)

    This captivating memoir of a World War II Red Cross volunteer recounts the touching stories of American women and men who served their country abroad. Based on richly detailed and beautifully written letters and journal entries, Rosemary Norwalk tells the unfolding love stories of her and her friends while stationed in England. Deflecting the advances of GIs of every stripe, but caught up in the romantic excitement of the times, they meet and fall in love with their future husbands and make plans for life after the war. With its absorbing narrative of devotion and heroism, Dearest Ones delivers an emotional testament to the endurance of the American spirit and an exquisite tale of loves discovery.

  • 0471379468
  • 9780471379461
  • Rosemary Norwalk
  • 27 March 2000
  • John Wiley & Sons
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 275
  • New edition
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