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Next to Love: A Novel
For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Postmistress, and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, a story of love, war, loss, and the scars they leave set during the years of World War II and its aftermath. It’s 1941. Babe throws like a boy, thinks for herself, and never expects to escape the poor section of her quiet Massachusetts town. Then World War II breaks out, and everything changes. Her friend Grace, married to a reporter on the local paper, fears being left alone with her infant daughter when her husband ships out; Millie, the third member of their childhood trio, now weds the boy who always refused to settle down; and Babe wonders if she should marry Claude, who even as a child could never harm a living thing. As the war rages abroad, life on the home front undergoes its own battles and victories; and when the men return, and civilian life resumes, nothing can go back to quite the way it was. From postwar traumas to women’s rights, racial injustice to anti-Semitism, Babe, Grace, and Millie experience the dislocations, the acute pains, and the exhilaration of a society in flux. Along the way, they will learn what it means to be a wife, a mother, a friend, a fighter, and a survivor. Beautiful, startling, and heartbreaking, Next to Love is a love letter to the brave women who shaped a nation’s destiny. “Impossible to put down.” —Stacy Schiff Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
143 people are currently reading
6213 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Feldman
23 books382 followersEllen Feldman is an American writer. She grew up in New Jersey and attended Bryn Mawr College, and graduated with B.A. and an M.A. in modern history. She also worked for a publishing firm in New York City and continued with graduate studies at Columbia University.
Feldman currently lives in New York City and East Hampton, New York.
Feldman currently lives in New York City and East Hampton, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 663 reviews
July 9, 2011
Billed as "A story of war, love, loss and the scars they leave" this book is the story of three women and begins in 1941 as they are forced to watch their husbands go off to war. Millie, Grace and Babe hold down the home-front while everyone dreads being the next recipient of a telegraph from the war front. Their story continues after the war, as they and their families deal with war and its aftermath. The reader also sees the women through the 50's and 60's, as they face the changes and upheavals our society went through.
While I don't have any complaints about Feldman's writing, I did have issues with the execution which ended up leaving me with a rather flat, underwhelming reading experience. Written in the present tense, which is supposed to bring *immediacy* to the story, in this instance it gave the characters a very impersonal feeling. I was never able to connect with any of the people in this story - outside of an occasional sucker punch moment (i.e. Claude running for cover every time an alarm went off), I simply didn't care. I think this would have been better suited to a first person narrative with Babe as the main character, strengthening up the friendship between the three and focusing mainly on their lives during the war and just afterward - I really didn't need stuff like a teen-aged Amy and her boyfriend making out in the car.
The storyline definitely has promise, but unfortunately as it is now it just doesn't deliver, at least not for this reader. Library only and then buy it if you love it.
While I don't have any complaints about Feldman's writing, I did have issues with the execution which ended up leaving me with a rather flat, underwhelming reading experience. Written in the present tense, which is supposed to bring *immediacy* to the story, in this instance it gave the characters a very impersonal feeling. I was never able to connect with any of the people in this story - outside of an occasional sucker punch moment (i.e. Claude running for cover every time an alarm went off), I simply didn't care. I think this would have been better suited to a first person narrative with Babe as the main character, strengthening up the friendship between the three and focusing mainly on their lives during the war and just afterward - I really didn't need stuff like a teen-aged Amy and her boyfriend making out in the car.
The storyline definitely has promise, but unfortunately as it is now it just doesn't deliver, at least not for this reader. Library only and then buy it if you love it.
November 15, 2011
"Three women and their men, friends linked forever by the tragedies of WWII." Aha, I thought when I read that brief description of "Next To Love." One of those female-friends books which has almost nothing about the men, all about women growing strong during the war. How happy I was to be wrong: this is a book that solemnly watches three couples, men and women, not only through the war years but the years after: their suffering, their triumphs, their poignant and tentative advances into the future. Babe, Millie and Grace are the women, but the husbands they watch march off to war are just as important. Two women are destined to be widowed; one is anxious to move on with her life while the other seems stuck in grief, and the friend lucky enough to welcome her husband home finds herself coping with a man she know longer knows who is unbearably racked by PTSD. The added stresses of women's rights, the upcoming civil rights movement, Korea and Vietnam, are seen not through the broad strokes of history but through their personal effect on these women's griefs, loves, friendships, and children. A painful, poignant read, beautifully understanding, exquisitely written.
July 25, 2011
“War…next to love, has captured the world’s imagination,” said the British lexicographer Eric Partridge in 1914. And indeed it has. As schoolchildren, we rapidly become acquainted with The Naked and the Dead, All Quiet on the Western Front, For Whom The Bell Tools, From Here to Eternity, Catch 22, Slaughterhouse Five…the list goes on and on.
But here’s what we don’t read about: the personal battles that are fought on the home front. We don’t get an upfront-and-personal look about the women behind the men and what war means to them…and to the children they create together.
Next To Love starts out very strong. We meet three childhood friends in Massachusetts – Babe, Millie, and Grace – whose men are on the cusp of going off to World War II. Ms. Feldman deftly juggles their stories and breathes life into their characters. Grace is the beauty who is married to the heir of one of the town’s most illustrious citizens and has a young daughter; Millie is married to Pete, the pharmacist’s son; and Babe is the feisty wrong-side-of-the-tracks gal who is in a committed relationship with an upstanding man who wants to become a teacher.
The period details are handled beautifully. Ellen Feldman summons up an age where instant communication (cell phones, Internet, etc.) did not exist and when lovers wrote their heart out in letters. It’s an age where women were divided into “nice girls” and “tramps” and men kept a stiff upper lip and talked about “honor” and “duty.” And it’s an age when the telegram is feared and one town could suddenly lose several of its beloved American boys overnight.
“The husbands speak the language of drills, marches, and officers who don’t know which end is up; the wives speak the dialect of carping landladies, dirty bathrooms and no hot water to wash their hair, and endless spirit-killing games of bridge. Since there is no common tongue between them, they communicate in sex,” writes Ms. Feldman. In this aspect, the book calls to mind another excellent one: Siobhan Fallon’s You Know When The Men Are Gone.
Profound change comes after the war. The novel takes on a lot in a scant 300 pages and the characters I had come to love in the first half begin to feel a little bit like stand-ins as the forces of history flow past. Yet Ms. Feldman’s riveting style keeps the reader in a “what’s next?” mode.
We are at their side as they try to understand the men who have been forever changed by the horrors of war; one of them has what would be called post-traumatic stress disorder today. We see the toll it takes on their young children who can only fantasize about the fathers they have never met. And we are on the sidelines of what is now familiar milestones: the way that black veterans are shuffled aside after the war, unable to participate in the new prosperity; the treatment of women as frivolous things, not worthy of jobs or deep thoughts; the bigotry against Jews, ironically, after a war where six million of them were callously murdered.
Ultimately, the book is focused on female friendship – at turns, courageous, poignant, and fragile. The friendships are not idealized, but rather portrayed to be sustaining and enduring. At its core, it is about survival through life, love, children, war, grief, and resurgence, delivered with just the right amount of drama and intensity.
But here’s what we don’t read about: the personal battles that are fought on the home front. We don’t get an upfront-and-personal look about the women behind the men and what war means to them…and to the children they create together.
Next To Love starts out very strong. We meet three childhood friends in Massachusetts – Babe, Millie, and Grace – whose men are on the cusp of going off to World War II. Ms. Feldman deftly juggles their stories and breathes life into their characters. Grace is the beauty who is married to the heir of one of the town’s most illustrious citizens and has a young daughter; Millie is married to Pete, the pharmacist’s son; and Babe is the feisty wrong-side-of-the-tracks gal who is in a committed relationship with an upstanding man who wants to become a teacher.
The period details are handled beautifully. Ellen Feldman summons up an age where instant communication (cell phones, Internet, etc.) did not exist and when lovers wrote their heart out in letters. It’s an age where women were divided into “nice girls” and “tramps” and men kept a stiff upper lip and talked about “honor” and “duty.” And it’s an age when the telegram is feared and one town could suddenly lose several of its beloved American boys overnight.
“The husbands speak the language of drills, marches, and officers who don’t know which end is up; the wives speak the dialect of carping landladies, dirty bathrooms and no hot water to wash their hair, and endless spirit-killing games of bridge. Since there is no common tongue between them, they communicate in sex,” writes Ms. Feldman. In this aspect, the book calls to mind another excellent one: Siobhan Fallon’s You Know When The Men Are Gone.
Profound change comes after the war. The novel takes on a lot in a scant 300 pages and the characters I had come to love in the first half begin to feel a little bit like stand-ins as the forces of history flow past. Yet Ms. Feldman’s riveting style keeps the reader in a “what’s next?” mode.
We are at their side as they try to understand the men who have been forever changed by the horrors of war; one of them has what would be called post-traumatic stress disorder today. We see the toll it takes on their young children who can only fantasize about the fathers they have never met. And we are on the sidelines of what is now familiar milestones: the way that black veterans are shuffled aside after the war, unable to participate in the new prosperity; the treatment of women as frivolous things, not worthy of jobs or deep thoughts; the bigotry against Jews, ironically, after a war where six million of them were callously murdered.
Ultimately, the book is focused on female friendship – at turns, courageous, poignant, and fragile. The friendships are not idealized, but rather portrayed to be sustaining and enduring. At its core, it is about survival through life, love, children, war, grief, and resurgence, delivered with just the right amount of drama and intensity.
May 7, 2022
This was a good read about the homefront during WW2, and about the effects it had on families on up into the 60’s.
I would have given it a four-star rating, but it was confusing to be reading about an event in 1957, then about one in 1954, then back to the 1957 event, but have it told by a different character than the first time. (I’m confused just figuring out how to explain it!)
I would have given it a four-star rating, but it was confusing to be reading about an event in 1957, then about one in 1954, then back to the 1957 event, but have it told by a different character than the first time. (I’m confused just figuring out how to explain it!)
July 13, 2017
Istinita priča o sudbinama tri prijateljice u vrijeme Drugog svjetskog rata...
Prekrasan i bolan, roman Posle ljubavi, posvećen je ženama koje su odredile sudbinu zemlje.
Svi znamo priče o muškarcima koji odlaze u rat... Ovo je druga strana medalje, život žena prije nego što svog voljenog isprate na put u to ludilo, čekanje njihovog povratka, ili još gore, kobnog glasa koji im donosi vijesti kojih se boje od početka. A možda je gore od svega toga njihov povratak iz tog pakla.
Voljeni muškarci, očevi, muževi, sinovi, vraćaju se kao nepoznati, nevoljeni, ljuti, uplašeni...
Priča o tri žene, Bejb, Grejs i Mili koje prolaze kroz sve promjene društva...Usput će naučiti šta znači biti žena, majka, prijatelj, borac i preživjeli.
Godina je 1941. Bejb je snalažljiva, misli svojom glavom i ne pomišlja da će ikad pobjeći iz siromašnog malog mjesta u Masačusetsu. Onda izbija Drugi svjetski rat i sve se mijenja. Bejb se pita da li da se uda za dobroćudnog Kloda; njena prijateljica Grejs, koja je udata za izveštača lokalnih novina, plaši se da će ostati sama s malim djetetom kad joj muža pošalju u rat; Mili, treća članica njihovog trija iz detinjstva, udaje se za momka koji je vječito odbijao da se skrasi.
Dok u svijetu bijesni rat, život kod kuće ima svoje bitke, poraze i pobjede. No niko ne zna kakav će biti život kad se muškarci vrate kući. Od poslijeratnih trauma do ženskih prava, od rasnih nepravdi do antisemitizma, Bejb, Grejs i Mili prolaze kroz sve mijene društva u previranju.
Prekrasan i bolan, roman Posle ljubavi, posvećen je ženama koje su odredile sudbinu zemlje.
Svi znamo priče o muškarcima koji odlaze u rat... Ovo je druga strana medalje, život žena prije nego što svog voljenog isprate na put u to ludilo, čekanje njihovog povratka, ili još gore, kobnog glasa koji im donosi vijesti kojih se boje od početka. A možda je gore od svega toga njihov povratak iz tog pakla.
Voljeni muškarci, očevi, muževi, sinovi, vraćaju se kao nepoznati, nevoljeni, ljuti, uplašeni...
Priča o tri žene, Bejb, Grejs i Mili koje prolaze kroz sve promjene društva...Usput će naučiti šta znači biti žena, majka, prijatelj, borac i preživjeli.
Godina je 1941. Bejb je snalažljiva, misli svojom glavom i ne pomišlja da će ikad pobjeći iz siromašnog malog mjesta u Masačusetsu. Onda izbija Drugi svjetski rat i sve se mijenja. Bejb se pita da li da se uda za dobroćudnog Kloda; njena prijateljica Grejs, koja je udata za izveštača lokalnih novina, plaši se da će ostati sama s malim djetetom kad joj muža pošalju u rat; Mili, treća članica njihovog trija iz detinjstva, udaje se za momka koji je vječito odbijao da se skrasi.
Dok u svijetu bijesni rat, život kod kuće ima svoje bitke, poraze i pobjede. No niko ne zna kakav će biti život kad se muškarci vrate kući. Od poslijeratnih trauma do ženskih prava, od rasnih nepravdi do antisemitizma, Bejb, Grejs i Mili prolaze kroz sve mijene društva u previranju.
April 7, 2019
Find this and other reviews at: http://flashlightcommentary.blogspot....
Ellen Feldman's Next to Love was a recommended read. Heather, the voice behind The Maiden's Court, suggested it at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Denver and I tracked down a copy soon after returning home. I wasn't at all familiar with it, but her rending of the plot had me sold sight unseen.
She mentioned the trials of life on the home front, but was very clear that the story focused on post-war America as well. She mentioned that one of the heroines struggled to understand her husband’s PTSD and that another was defined by her husband’s death. She went on, but my mind was already racing. I flashed on that scene in A League of Their Own, the one in the locker room where the Peaches apprehensively watch Jimmy Dugan walk the telegram down the line. The audience breathes a sigh of relief for Dottie Hinson, but what happened to Betty Horn? How did she weather the years without George? It wasn’t something I’d ever considered, but I couldn't argue the potential in the story of a war widow.
At this point you’re probably wondering if the book lived up to Heather’s praise and/or my imaginings and I’m happy to report, it did. I think Babe, Millie and Grace make very interesting protagonists and I liked watching their lives and personalities change with each passing year. I also liked style and tone of Feldman’s writing and found it very easy to slip into the world she created within these pages.
My only complaint is the structure of post-war chapters. I didn’t like the sudden shifts to narrators in the supporting cast. Sporadic intervals with Naomi, Claude, King, Jack, Al, Mac and Amy felt awkward in the context of the story and made it difficult to remain focused on the central trio. The erratic timeline caused further confusion and often forced me to stop and rearrange events in my head to make sense of the order in which they took place. I liked how Feldman used multiple perspectives to explore various themes, but I can'd help feeling her execution imprudent and that the latter chapters of the novel suffered as a result.
Obviously I'd have liked a stronger ending, but I can’t say I felt the time I spent with Next to Love wasted. The presentation was disappointing, but I greatly enjoyed the plot and look forward to reading Feldman again somewhere down the road.
Ellen Feldman's Next to Love was a recommended read. Heather, the voice behind The Maiden's Court, suggested it at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Denver and I tracked down a copy soon after returning home. I wasn't at all familiar with it, but her rending of the plot had me sold sight unseen.
She mentioned the trials of life on the home front, but was very clear that the story focused on post-war America as well. She mentioned that one of the heroines struggled to understand her husband’s PTSD and that another was defined by her husband’s death. She went on, but my mind was already racing. I flashed on that scene in A League of Their Own, the one in the locker room where the Peaches apprehensively watch Jimmy Dugan walk the telegram down the line. The audience breathes a sigh of relief for Dottie Hinson, but what happened to Betty Horn? How did she weather the years without George? It wasn’t something I’d ever considered, but I couldn't argue the potential in the story of a war widow.
At this point you’re probably wondering if the book lived up to Heather’s praise and/or my imaginings and I’m happy to report, it did. I think Babe, Millie and Grace make very interesting protagonists and I liked watching their lives and personalities change with each passing year. I also liked style and tone of Feldman’s writing and found it very easy to slip into the world she created within these pages.
My only complaint is the structure of post-war chapters. I didn’t like the sudden shifts to narrators in the supporting cast. Sporadic intervals with Naomi, Claude, King, Jack, Al, Mac and Amy felt awkward in the context of the story and made it difficult to remain focused on the central trio. The erratic timeline caused further confusion and often forced me to stop and rearrange events in my head to make sense of the order in which they took place. I liked how Feldman used multiple perspectives to explore various themes, but I can'd help feeling her execution imprudent and that the latter chapters of the novel suffered as a result.
Obviously I'd have liked a stronger ending, but I can’t say I felt the time I spent with Next to Love wasted. The presentation was disappointing, but I greatly enjoyed the plot and look forward to reading Feldman again somewhere down the road.
May 22, 2025
Roman koji me ugodno iznenadio svojom radnjom. Baziran na životu tri žene nakon povratka ili smrti njihovih muževa u II svj.ratu. Roman nudi kompleksne teme trauma i posljedica rata na živote onih koji su preživjeli.
Prateći sudbine tri porodice upoznajemo način na koji su se oni pomirili sa nemjerljivim gubicima i kako su odrastala djeca bez očeva.
Prateći sudbine tri porodice upoznajemo način na koji su se oni pomirili sa nemjerljivim gubicima i kako su odrastala djeca bez očeva.
September 16, 2011
The book is the story of three friends who get married right before the start of WWII. It follows them as the war ends and into the happenings of their lives.
And I found it dreadfully boring. The book covers a 20-year time span, with the author writing about a day here or a day there. Everything is written in the present-tense, so there's no history with these people and no connection. Plus these three women are supposed to be good friends, but it seems that they never talk to each other about anything important--not until someone has a mental breakdown because she let her feelings eat her up inside--and then everything is fine until the next person has a breakdown. Yeah, couldn't relate and the book was at its best during the prologue. Skimmed the last 50 pages because I just couldn't take it any more.
And I found it dreadfully boring. The book covers a 20-year time span, with the author writing about a day here or a day there. Everything is written in the present-tense, so there's no history with these people and no connection. Plus these three women are supposed to be good friends, but it seems that they never talk to each other about anything important--not until someone has a mental breakdown because she let her feelings eat her up inside--and then everything is fine until the next person has a breakdown. Yeah, couldn't relate and the book was at its best during the prologue. Skimmed the last 50 pages because I just couldn't take it any more.
November 2, 2011
Next to Love is big in scope while everyday in focus and beautiful in its entirety. It spans the American years from December 1941 to August 1965 (from WWII to the Gulf of Tonkin). The novel has multiple narrative points of view and its topic, the effects of war, is that eternally huge one that human history never manages to escape. That’s big, although at 320 pages, I don’t mean that it is a long book.
And yet, rather than the epic and larger-than-life action that war novels often involve, Next to Love portrays the world of the women left behind, then returned to (or not), and the lives they and their children build under the influence of the ever-present, but rarely-discussed war, an influence that does not disappear even as new wars take over the headlines. In an interview posted on her website, Ellen Feldman put it this way, “I am interested in the monumental events of history, but in human terms. By writing fiction, I can explore how individuals influence history and how history shapes personal lives.”
This domestic focus and lack of a grand canvas of action could be boring, but in Feldman’s hands it never is. We’re tugged ever forward by the skill of her character building, the emotional honesty and depth, the engagement we feel with each of these women, Babe, Millie and Grace, and their loved ones. One other note about writerly skill. Although the main movement of the book is chronological, Feldman also manages to move us more fluidly back and forth, so that, for example, we see a scene through one of the children’s eyes and then the story carries on without our realizing that we’ve moved back in time until we reach that same moment again, only through another pair of eyes. I was never confused at all, only noted with admiration how smoothly the author brought us back to a particular moment and thus gave the reader an epiphany arising from the contrasting understandings. To pull off without a hitch such a subtle and complex use of the timeline seems to me masterful. As a writer I’m envious of such talent.
Feldman is particularly adept at portraying the complexities of marriage. The darkest struggles that ought to sink a relationship are sometimes survived and turn into the richest bonds. The outward perfection can reveal an empty core that gradually destroys its participants. Children’s unthinking cruelties are tossed upon their parents as we all know they can be, and at the same time those same children clearly love and need their parents.
The momentous events of the years after the war—the Civil Rights movement, for example—show up not as marches on Washington or bus strikes but as tensions between maids and employers, between children determined to reject the places assigned to them and the parents who are terrified of the consequences of such rebellion, and also as a quiet understanding between a man and a wife along with a new job. That’s the kind of deep, dug-in reality that the book achieves—not loud and public, but exactly as so many men and women must have experienced these years, day by day.
And I hated putting it down. Its intimacy will grab you.
And yet, rather than the epic and larger-than-life action that war novels often involve, Next to Love portrays the world of the women left behind, then returned to (or not), and the lives they and their children build under the influence of the ever-present, but rarely-discussed war, an influence that does not disappear even as new wars take over the headlines. In an interview posted on her website, Ellen Feldman put it this way, “I am interested in the monumental events of history, but in human terms. By writing fiction, I can explore how individuals influence history and how history shapes personal lives.”
This domestic focus and lack of a grand canvas of action could be boring, but in Feldman’s hands it never is. We’re tugged ever forward by the skill of her character building, the emotional honesty and depth, the engagement we feel with each of these women, Babe, Millie and Grace, and their loved ones. One other note about writerly skill. Although the main movement of the book is chronological, Feldman also manages to move us more fluidly back and forth, so that, for example, we see a scene through one of the children’s eyes and then the story carries on without our realizing that we’ve moved back in time until we reach that same moment again, only through another pair of eyes. I was never confused at all, only noted with admiration how smoothly the author brought us back to a particular moment and thus gave the reader an epiphany arising from the contrasting understandings. To pull off without a hitch such a subtle and complex use of the timeline seems to me masterful. As a writer I’m envious of such talent.
Feldman is particularly adept at portraying the complexities of marriage. The darkest struggles that ought to sink a relationship are sometimes survived and turn into the richest bonds. The outward perfection can reveal an empty core that gradually destroys its participants. Children’s unthinking cruelties are tossed upon their parents as we all know they can be, and at the same time those same children clearly love and need their parents.
The momentous events of the years after the war—the Civil Rights movement, for example—show up not as marches on Washington or bus strikes but as tensions between maids and employers, between children determined to reject the places assigned to them and the parents who are terrified of the consequences of such rebellion, and also as a quiet understanding between a man and a wife along with a new job. That’s the kind of deep, dug-in reality that the book achieves—not loud and public, but exactly as so many men and women must have experienced these years, day by day.
And I hated putting it down. Its intimacy will grab you.
July 8, 2011
Next to Love is a historical romance that follows the lives of three girlfriends from 1941 to 1964. It's easy to read, and I think anyone who enjoys the genre will probably like this book. The drama of families coping with war wounds is still timely and relevant. I think many military wives/girlfriends understand the struggles and fears embodied by the main characters.
The prologue is great. I'd hoped the rest of the book would've had the same tension and mystique, but it gets taken over by romance. I didn't connect to any of the characters until almost halfway through the book; they're defined by their husbands/boyfriends so their development was lacking (less so with Babe but definitely the case for Grace and Millie). The novel follows the three synchronous romances without much development in the way of the women's friendships. They didn't strike me as best friends since kindergarten as it's mentioned they are. Their interactions seem little more than neighborly for the 40's or 50's. A minor gripe but I kept asking myself, "How/why are there women friends?"
Once WWII comes to a close, characterization improves. I enjoyed the different aspects of post-war life conveyed by the three different women. But they should've been the only point-of-view characters. Halfway through the book, minor characters are getting their own scenes. There are also a number of point-of-view inconsistencies, stemming from the fact that the book simply has too many points of view. The story lost its focus, and I didn't know who the important characters were anymore.
Apart from Babe's early storyline, the novel itself was rather blah. From 1952 to the end, the effect of the war has deteriorated and so has what made the first half of the book interesting. I didn't feel enough immersiveness in the era the book is set in for a historical novel. There's really no plot, the reader just follows these women's sometimes turbulent lives. The novel covers too wide a time period; I thought there'd be more focus on WWII based on the back cover blurb, but that's really only the first half of the book. The ending was predictable, though the story almost petered out before getting to it.
A fast read and an interesting premise, I just could not get into it. Too mundane, too much of a romance, and just not very well-written.
The prologue is great. I'd hoped the rest of the book would've had the same tension and mystique, but it gets taken over by romance. I didn't connect to any of the characters until almost halfway through the book; they're defined by their husbands/boyfriends so their development was lacking (less so with Babe but definitely the case for Grace and Millie). The novel follows the three synchronous romances without much development in the way of the women's friendships. They didn't strike me as best friends since kindergarten as it's mentioned they are. Their interactions seem little more than neighborly for the 40's or 50's. A minor gripe but I kept asking myself, "How/why are there women friends?"
Once WWII comes to a close, characterization improves. I enjoyed the different aspects of post-war life conveyed by the three different women. But they should've been the only point-of-view characters. Halfway through the book, minor characters are getting their own scenes. There are also a number of point-of-view inconsistencies, stemming from the fact that the book simply has too many points of view. The story lost its focus, and I didn't know who the important characters were anymore.
Apart from Babe's early storyline, the novel itself was rather blah. From 1952 to the end, the effect of the war has deteriorated and so has what made the first half of the book interesting. I didn't feel enough immersiveness in the era the book is set in for a historical novel. There's really no plot, the reader just follows these women's sometimes turbulent lives. The novel covers too wide a time period; I thought there'd be more focus on WWII based on the back cover blurb, but that's really only the first half of the book. The ending was predictable, though the story almost petered out before getting to it.
A fast read and an interesting premise, I just could not get into it. Too mundane, too much of a romance, and just not very well-written.
September 24, 2011
'After the war we'll be happy.'
I absolutely loved this novel and I think it will be amongst my top reads of the year. It is beautifully written, with some wonderful expressions and images, but never excessive in its descriptions. The characters came to life for me, in particular Babe and Claude, but also smaller characters like Millie’s son Jack, and Charlie’s father King. The author captures the pain of loss and the realities of difficult situations, where a partner is lost forever or comes back from war a changed person. She then explores the joy and pain involved in forming subsequent relationships, whilst the memory of the lost first love lingers heavily.
Set in a small town in America, just prior to, during, and after World War II, the novel is constructed in six parts, referred to here as books, with the first containing some very moving letters between the couples, Babe and Claude, Grace and Charlie, and Millie and Pete, as they are separated due to the men having now gone overseas to fight. As the novel progresses beyond book one, another period of time is covered in each book from the point of view of all three women, though always narrated in the third person. This device gives us the reader an unique perspective on the events as they affect all the main three characters. The three women, Babe, Grace and Millie have been friends since childhood, and they are at the heart of this novel.
This book is about love, finding it and desperately holding on to it, missing out on it, and losing it. Beyond this though, the novel touches on important broader issues of the times in society; racism and sexism, through events in the book, such as Babe working whilst the men were away fighting, and then no longer being required in her role once the men returned, and Babe again fighting the cause for integration. Society at this period in history still left women with a limited role, and in this novel it still feels very much like a man’s world, with women having limited choices and settling for what they have. Through the well drawn characters with damaged minds and bodies who return from war, and the emotional scars and real absences endured by those who were left behind, the novel also very successfully portrays the long-term repercussions left by war. This is great fiction from a talented writer.
I absolutely loved this novel and I think it will be amongst my top reads of the year. It is beautifully written, with some wonderful expressions and images, but never excessive in its descriptions. The characters came to life for me, in particular Babe and Claude, but also smaller characters like Millie’s son Jack, and Charlie’s father King. The author captures the pain of loss and the realities of difficult situations, where a partner is lost forever or comes back from war a changed person. She then explores the joy and pain involved in forming subsequent relationships, whilst the memory of the lost first love lingers heavily.
Set in a small town in America, just prior to, during, and after World War II, the novel is constructed in six parts, referred to here as books, with the first containing some very moving letters between the couples, Babe and Claude, Grace and Charlie, and Millie and Pete, as they are separated due to the men having now gone overseas to fight. As the novel progresses beyond book one, another period of time is covered in each book from the point of view of all three women, though always narrated in the third person. This device gives us the reader an unique perspective on the events as they affect all the main three characters. The three women, Babe, Grace and Millie have been friends since childhood, and they are at the heart of this novel.
This book is about love, finding it and desperately holding on to it, missing out on it, and losing it. Beyond this though, the novel touches on important broader issues of the times in society; racism and sexism, through events in the book, such as Babe working whilst the men were away fighting, and then no longer being required in her role once the men returned, and Babe again fighting the cause for integration. Society at this period in history still left women with a limited role, and in this novel it still feels very much like a man’s world, with women having limited choices and settling for what they have. Through the well drawn characters with damaged minds and bodies who return from war, and the emotional scars and real absences endured by those who were left behind, the novel also very successfully portrays the long-term repercussions left by war. This is great fiction from a talented writer.
June 29, 2011
Despite the book being told in present tense, an irritation to me, I really loved the beginning of this book. Imagine being a telegraph operator and being the first one to know who in town has lost a husband, father, or son? I got tingles from thinking of it. Truly, sad. Nevertheless, it got my attention..
The book introduces three different women with different mentalities and lives. WWII arrives, they all rush into marriage, and after the war, they face the consequences. Some will be widows, some will be single mothers at least for a while, one will deal with a husband with post traumatic stress. One goes in and out of mental asylum as she deals with the loss of her husband. One decides to move on.
It really is a great story, well, stories, I should say. I have one major quibble though, besides the present tense: time jumping. Let me explain... it bounces around, causing some confusion. On one page, they are all at a funeral.. then it drifts off to this and that and so and so having gone thru this or that in that past year or so.. and then suddenly it's the day after the funeral. The book continues in this manner and it wasn't something that I really began noticing till halfway into the story, but it really began to bug me by then. By the time 1952 came around, I lost interest. I prefer the war parts and the parts about women during the world.. the loss of their jobs when the men came back, being branded a "tease," dealing with shameful secrets they really shouldn't be ashamed of...
Thus, three stars.
The book introduces three different women with different mentalities and lives. WWII arrives, they all rush into marriage, and after the war, they face the consequences. Some will be widows, some will be single mothers at least for a while, one will deal with a husband with post traumatic stress. One goes in and out of mental asylum as she deals with the loss of her husband. One decides to move on.
It really is a great story, well, stories, I should say. I have one major quibble though, besides the present tense: time jumping. Let me explain... it bounces around, causing some confusion. On one page, they are all at a funeral.. then it drifts off to this and that and so and so having gone thru this or that in that past year or so.. and then suddenly it's the day after the funeral. The book continues in this manner and it wasn't something that I really began noticing till halfway into the story, but it really began to bug me by then. By the time 1952 came around, I lost interest. I prefer the war parts and the parts about women during the world.. the loss of their jobs when the men came back, being branded a "tease," dealing with shameful secrets they really shouldn't be ashamed of...
Thus, three stars.
November 9, 2011
Next to Love is the most gut-wrenching, romantic, devastating and best book I have read this year. Bar none.
The novel centres around three friends – Babe, Millie and Grace as their husbands and boyfriends get pulled into the second World War. What I loved about this book was it showed in raw detail what it was like to be the ones left behind and how home could be just as wrecking as the home front.
The author didn’t hold back on a single thing and the stark honesty was like a powerful fist with each new development. The story spans decades, beginning as their men leave and the women have to get jobs and raise the children alone, leading up till the children are almost adults themselves.
There is so much I could say about this book, and if I’m honest this review is startlingly hard to write. As with any wartime book, a sense of loss is expected. But the author managed to completely destroy me while I read the words. The characters became so real the loss felt personal, like I was reading about friends, not fiction.
All I can do is urge everyone to read this book. Read it and love it. I guarantee it will stay with you for days once you finish.
The novel centres around three friends – Babe, Millie and Grace as their husbands and boyfriends get pulled into the second World War. What I loved about this book was it showed in raw detail what it was like to be the ones left behind and how home could be just as wrecking as the home front.
The author didn’t hold back on a single thing and the stark honesty was like a powerful fist with each new development. The story spans decades, beginning as their men leave and the women have to get jobs and raise the children alone, leading up till the children are almost adults themselves.
There is so much I could say about this book, and if I’m honest this review is startlingly hard to write. As with any wartime book, a sense of loss is expected. But the author managed to completely destroy me while I read the words. The characters became so real the loss felt personal, like I was reading about friends, not fiction.
All I can do is urge everyone to read this book. Read it and love it. I guarantee it will stay with you for days once you finish.
September 7, 2020
“...my heart, my soul, my blood, my cheeseburger with fried onions, my chocolate chip cookie the way only you can make it....”😭😭😭
May 21, 2012
I won this book, which is coming out May 15th, from LibraryThing. If you are in a book club, I hope you'll consider reading it for discussion. I think it would spark quite a conversation about the life, loves, and responsibilities of women in marriage, regardless of whether they have children and regardless of the age in which they live.
The book spans the years from just before World War II through 1964, and the only complaint I have is that segments go back and forth between a few years which makes it a bit confusing. The main characters are Babe, Millie, and Grace who we follow through high school friendship, to heartbreak and hardship caused by the war, and on to mature married life and motherhood (or not). Babe is the one we get to know best and some of her decisions in life are bound to cause a visceral reaction in anyone over the age of 30. She is the one who arguably is most mature of the three.
World War II is the defining moment of the lives of their husbands and therefore of these three women. They live in small town America and each is a sort of everywoman that we can all relate to in some way. During the war some of the town's families lose a son and/or husband on D-Day or another battle. Some families never recover from that loss. Other young men return home emotionally, psychologically broken, shell shocked, healing only very gradually through their adult lives. Others who have served their country valiantly come home expecting to be treated like first-class citizens but instead find the old class system intact.
We also see through these women the changes in America through the decades, particularly in the 60s. Bigotry is as common in their small town as it is anywhere else in the country, and persecution of Jews as well. We see the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement even in this little place far from the action, and we see how hard it is for many of the older generation to accept those changes.
My reaction to Next to Love is mixed. Perhaps it's been too long for me to go back to how people felt in the 50s and 60s, but maybe it's just that the views disgust me. I can't deny that the book strikes a chord in my mind, but it also makes me long for bigotry and racism and anti-Semitism to be gone already. We were so hopeful in the 60s that we could do away with such awful things yet they remain.
The struggles of Babe, Millie, and Grace to find a happy life will resonate with women, and probably find a place in the hearts of women who are the mothers and wives of returning soldiers today. I recommend this book.
The book spans the years from just before World War II through 1964, and the only complaint I have is that segments go back and forth between a few years which makes it a bit confusing. The main characters are Babe, Millie, and Grace who we follow through high school friendship, to heartbreak and hardship caused by the war, and on to mature married life and motherhood (or not). Babe is the one we get to know best and some of her decisions in life are bound to cause a visceral reaction in anyone over the age of 30. She is the one who arguably is most mature of the three.
World War II is the defining moment of the lives of their husbands and therefore of these three women. They live in small town America and each is a sort of everywoman that we can all relate to in some way. During the war some of the town's families lose a son and/or husband on D-Day or another battle. Some families never recover from that loss. Other young men return home emotionally, psychologically broken, shell shocked, healing only very gradually through their adult lives. Others who have served their country valiantly come home expecting to be treated like first-class citizens but instead find the old class system intact.
We also see through these women the changes in America through the decades, particularly in the 60s. Bigotry is as common in their small town as it is anywhere else in the country, and persecution of Jews as well. We see the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement even in this little place far from the action, and we see how hard it is for many of the older generation to accept those changes.
My reaction to Next to Love is mixed. Perhaps it's been too long for me to go back to how people felt in the 50s and 60s, but maybe it's just that the views disgust me. I can't deny that the book strikes a chord in my mind, but it also makes me long for bigotry and racism and anti-Semitism to be gone already. We were so hopeful in the 60s that we could do away with such awful things yet they remain.
The struggles of Babe, Millie, and Grace to find a happy life will resonate with women, and probably find a place in the hearts of women who are the mothers and wives of returning soldiers today. I recommend this book.
April 15, 2012
I liked how the author begins with one character, Babe, and takes us with her through the years. At first, it seems like she's not really friends with the other women in the small town she lives in, but then it seems like the fact that most of the men from the town are going off to war draws them together. I found this interesting -- because I think that if it weren't for that, then these women wouldn't have enough in common to bond together at all. I also liked how the author told parts of the story through the viewpoints of other characters --- it not only gave a balance to the story, but sometimes, it gave more insight into one of them, like Babe, or a general situation.
The author wrote in her acknowledgments that the inspiration for this novel came from a real group of young men from the town of Bedford, Virginia. Those 19 men, from a town of 3,000 all dies in the first minutes of landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day ... and that this was the greatest one-day loss suffered by any town in America. The real-life elements in this story really made it feel very personal, and I found I really cared about what was happening to the people in the story. I didn't find it difficult to imagine what life would have been like for these women, left at home while the men went to war ... but I had often wondered about what it was like for men who returned home after being at war, and the author gave me that, as well. Babe's husband comes back a changed man, and it's clear that the atrocities he witnessed while in combat have had a significant impact on him.
I found this book to be a fast read, mostly because the pace is even, and I was pretty engrossed in the story. If you have read the books mentioned in the GoodReads review, and liked them, I'd recommend this book. If you haven't read those books, but you find this period of history interesting, or like stories about womens' lives, you also might enjoy this book. The author doesn't shy away from real-life situations in this time period, like women who chose to work outside the home (and then had to face giving up their jobs when the men came home), and even some of the racial tensions that existed during the 1940s and 1950s. I think this would make a great book for book groups, because I could see it generating some good discussions.
The author wrote in her acknowledgments that the inspiration for this novel came from a real group of young men from the town of Bedford, Virginia. Those 19 men, from a town of 3,000 all dies in the first minutes of landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day ... and that this was the greatest one-day loss suffered by any town in America. The real-life elements in this story really made it feel very personal, and I found I really cared about what was happening to the people in the story. I didn't find it difficult to imagine what life would have been like for these women, left at home while the men went to war ... but I had often wondered about what it was like for men who returned home after being at war, and the author gave me that, as well. Babe's husband comes back a changed man, and it's clear that the atrocities he witnessed while in combat have had a significant impact on him.
I found this book to be a fast read, mostly because the pace is even, and I was pretty engrossed in the story. If you have read the books mentioned in the GoodReads review, and liked them, I'd recommend this book. If you haven't read those books, but you find this period of history interesting, or like stories about womens' lives, you also might enjoy this book. The author doesn't shy away from real-life situations in this time period, like women who chose to work outside the home (and then had to face giving up their jobs when the men came home), and even some of the racial tensions that existed during the 1940s and 1950s. I think this would make a great book for book groups, because I could see it generating some good discussions.
April 17, 2012
Babe Huggins is a woman who needs no introduction—and she doesn’t get one until the second chapter. Ellen Feldman’s “Prologue” is an interesting device to throw the reader into the middle of action before detailing the actor.
We eventually discover that Babe is Bernadette Dion who marries Claude Huggins. Together with chums Grace Painter and Millie Vaughn, Babe’s life unfolds over a 20-year period. The study of the trio’s lives is couched in the seminal notion that war impels lovers into consequential states. In this exposé we get to examine variations of love or sex, marriage or widowhood, children or not, constancy or deception. These choices are posed during the cultures, mores, and lifestyles of 1940s’ World War II up through the 1960s’ Vietnam conflict.
Feldman uses a compelling device by voicing her novel in the present tense. That mechanism may intensify the action and it does simplify flashbacks, but it sometimes prompts confusion as to where we are in the story. There are some nifty historical references from wartime telegraphy and train travel to pre-plastic ‘50s cocktail partying. The reader might be inspired to reflect on how our grandparents lived or dallied about before we populated their lives.
There is no prime protagonist as the main focus of this novel. Although Babe serves as the book’s initial figure, she becomes part of a mélange once the other two women are introduced and developed in their lives, loves, and children. Succeeding chapters sporadically define and describe the trio’s various choices that interact and interweave through this epoch storytelling.
The novel proves to be a simple and easy read. Feldman has accomplished yeoman success in looking at three generations of three women over nearly three decades in examining how—next to love—war is a major actor in most lives.
We eventually discover that Babe is Bernadette Dion who marries Claude Huggins. Together with chums Grace Painter and Millie Vaughn, Babe’s life unfolds over a 20-year period. The study of the trio’s lives is couched in the seminal notion that war impels lovers into consequential states. In this exposé we get to examine variations of love or sex, marriage or widowhood, children or not, constancy or deception. These choices are posed during the cultures, mores, and lifestyles of 1940s’ World War II up through the 1960s’ Vietnam conflict.
Feldman uses a compelling device by voicing her novel in the present tense. That mechanism may intensify the action and it does simplify flashbacks, but it sometimes prompts confusion as to where we are in the story. There are some nifty historical references from wartime telegraphy and train travel to pre-plastic ‘50s cocktail partying. The reader might be inspired to reflect on how our grandparents lived or dallied about before we populated their lives.
There is no prime protagonist as the main focus of this novel. Although Babe serves as the book’s initial figure, she becomes part of a mélange once the other two women are introduced and developed in their lives, loves, and children. Succeeding chapters sporadically define and describe the trio’s various choices that interact and interweave through this epoch storytelling.
The novel proves to be a simple and easy read. Feldman has accomplished yeoman success in looking at three generations of three women over nearly three decades in examining how—next to love—war is a major actor in most lives.
April 29, 2012
This was an early review book that I was surprised to receive and eager to read. It was compared to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, both which I found informative, fun, and pulled me in as if I knew the characters. Although Ellen Feldman uses words well and crafts wonderful phrases in Next To Love I could not make myself really care about the characters and their lives. Babe, Grace and Millie could be my mother, aunts and their friends and their children myself, my cousins and my friends. Maybe that was part of my disinterest, because they did not seem like anyone I knew. I also found the story fairly predictable, it didn’t take much imagination to know where it was going. There are so many books that focus on WWII as it unfolds in Europe and the Pacific that I look for stories that are placed in the United States and what is happening here during that time. I think Feldman misses an opportunity to give a real feeling of what it was really like with rationing, women taking so many jobs that the men had to vacate. Being on the east coast, I would have thought South Downs would be affected by blackouts. Except for notices of soldiers’ deaths it would seem as if the town was barely effected by the war. I think the author also misses on delving more into interaction between Grace and Amy, Millie and Jake and some things occur and then go no farther, for example Jake’s knowledge that he wanted to hit his mother or why Amy was afraid of marrying and why she walked out of a marriage. Feldman seemed to try to pack a lot into the last part of the book – is she contemplating a sequel focusing on Jake, Amy and Frankie? This was disappointing as an “ok” read because I think it could have been really outstanding.
September 21, 2013
Ugh. One of the most boring books I've read in ages. While the writing isn't awful, I had to force myself to finish and even then, ended up flipping quickly through the last 100 pages. Flat unlikeable characters and a promising premise that fell into a huge gaping gorge of dullness. I usually love WW2 novels but this was a blight on the genre. It has been compared to The Help and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, but that is an insult to two wonderfully gripping plots. Yawn.
April 15, 2016
Oh my God, SO FUCKING GOOD. I hate war. On the other hand, war has given us an endless, bottomless well of stories. Just when you think you've read it all or read it before, you read it again but it's new and different.
War. Love. Friendship. Parenthood. Childhood. Marriage. Change. War.
So beautifully written.
I loved it.
War. Love. Friendship. Parenthood. Childhood. Marriage. Change. War.
So beautifully written.
I loved it.
March 4, 2020
Sjajno ispričana priča o uzornim ženama i domaćicama, odnosu prema obojenima, ali najviše o posledicama II svetskog rata, bilo da se radi o porodicama onih koji se nisu vratili ili o sudbini onih koji su preživeli i ostatak života pokušavali da zajedno sa svojim najbližima žive sa svim užasima koji su gledali tokom ratnog perioda.
February 9, 2025
January advent calendar book
The first 100 or so pages of this book were so gripping and had me tearing up every other chapter, but after that it really lost its train of thought. There were a few redeeming quotes and plot lines here and there but overall the plot felt very confused
The first 100 or so pages of this book were so gripping and had me tearing up every other chapter, but after that it really lost its train of thought. There were a few redeeming quotes and plot lines here and there but overall the plot felt very confused
March 23, 2022
Fascinating! Hard to put down, great stories of 3 women, love, lost and hard times.
December 6, 2022
A story of three girls and their lives during the war and years to come after and the impact of war on their lives, and relationships. This was a great read that kept me wanting more. There were many characters to keep straight but the chapters kind of seperate each girls story so that helps. The ending came and I was sad it was over.
TW for a rape scene.
TW for a rape scene.
September 12, 2011
Some scattered thoughts regarding this book:
I really enjoyed this book...more than I thought I would. It was sort of bumpy in the beginning but as the story progressed I began to really enjoy it. Babe, Millie and Grace had been childhood friends since kindergarten. When we catch up with them they are young adults, newlyweds during WWII. As the war progresses the nation changes with it by allowing black men to serve in the war (albeit racism abound) and women to work outside of the home since so many men were away fighting and labor was needed at home. After the war things will change dramatically for everyone...black men who fought for their country and have to return home to fight racism and even for the right to receive GI benefits; women will return to being barefoot, pregnant and stay-at-home wives as veterans return from the war to claim jobs; and Babe, Millle and Grace will have to build new lives with and without husbands. Over the next three decades we will watch Babe, Millie and Grace handle love, remarriages, children as well as more global issues to include the Civil Rights and Women's Movement.
While I am very familiar with this time period (WWII/immediate post-war) it was interesting reading about how the country changed during that time from not only a historical fiction perspective but more importantly female perspectives. While Babe, Millie and Grace had a tendency to tap on that last nerve, I found their concerns, issues and fears very realistic...and it was nice to hear the silent voices I had never heard from before--that of the returning veterans wives.
I liked that Feldman included a secondary black character, Naomi (the maid) but I wish she would have had more of a voice/presence as she also had a story to tell. The story's backdrop was set again a small town in MA and via Naomi and her family we saw that racism was alive and well even in the North...as was anti-semeticism as experienced by Al (and to a lesser extend Millie and the kids).
I was indifferent to Amy and Jack...I understood why they were troubled...but I never really connected with either of them as they didn't seem very likeable.
Okay so I mistakenly cut part of my review...it's late...I'll be back tomorrow to rewrite what was accidentally deleted. :(
I really enjoyed this book...more than I thought I would. It was sort of bumpy in the beginning but as the story progressed I began to really enjoy it. Babe, Millie and Grace had been childhood friends since kindergarten. When we catch up with them they are young adults, newlyweds during WWII. As the war progresses the nation changes with it by allowing black men to serve in the war (albeit racism abound) and women to work outside of the home since so many men were away fighting and labor was needed at home. After the war things will change dramatically for everyone...black men who fought for their country and have to return home to fight racism and even for the right to receive GI benefits; women will return to being barefoot, pregnant and stay-at-home wives as veterans return from the war to claim jobs; and Babe, Millle and Grace will have to build new lives with and without husbands. Over the next three decades we will watch Babe, Millie and Grace handle love, remarriages, children as well as more global issues to include the Civil Rights and Women's Movement.
While I am very familiar with this time period (WWII/immediate post-war) it was interesting reading about how the country changed during that time from not only a historical fiction perspective but more importantly female perspectives. While Babe, Millie and Grace had a tendency to tap on that last nerve, I found their concerns, issues and fears very realistic...and it was nice to hear the silent voices I had never heard from before--that of the returning veterans wives.
I liked that Feldman included a secondary black character, Naomi (the maid) but I wish she would have had more of a voice/presence as she also had a story to tell. The story's backdrop was set again a small town in MA and via Naomi and her family we saw that racism was alive and well even in the North...as was anti-semeticism as experienced by Al (and to a lesser extend Millie and the kids).
I was indifferent to Amy and Jack...I understood why they were troubled...but I never really connected with either of them as they didn't seem very likeable.
Okay so I mistakenly cut part of my review...it's late...I'll be back tomorrow to rewrite what was accidentally deleted. :(
November 7, 2016
Ellen Feldman's new novel, "Next to Love", is a nuanced look at "The Greatest Generation" and the "Boomers" who followed. Set in WW2 and the couple decades after in a smallish Massachusetts town outside Boston, Feldman introduces three women - life-long friends - who marry and pursue different paths in the post-war society. Their husbands - those who return from the war - adjust to post-war life in much the same way as the three women do. Marriages, deaths, births, and other life milestones - often seen from different characters viewpoints - are presented in a jumpy quality as Feldman goes back and forth in time. This jumping around is not actually as annoying as it sounds it might be; Feldman controls her action quite well.
Feldman's book is a cross between "chick-lit" and "literary fiction". She writes well and all the characters are fully developed. One of the women, Babe, living in a difficult marriage to a man still living through the horrors of wartime, finds a sense of purpose outside marriage in the burgeoning civil rights and feminist movements. The other two women also find satisfaction - with a few "hiccups" along the way - as time passes. And as well as Feldman writes about the characters, she also writes with authority on our post-war society. The prosperity we experienced in the 1950's as the new-fangled GI bill opened college doors to many of our returning vets. GI loans offered low-interest introductions into new homes, allowing homeownership for the first time to veterans. But with prosperity came prejudice - did the war just bring it out into the open? - and for some, post-war life was not the glitter it was to others.
And, of course, WW2 and its attendant horrors, were repeated in the "police action" of Korea and the Vietnam War. Feldman takes her characters and story to the mid-60's, where those children born in the 1940's must now face their own war and make choices different from their parents. I'd like to see Feldman write a sequel to "Next to Love", following those children. "Next to Love" is a good book, well worth reading.
Feldman's book is a cross between "chick-lit" and "literary fiction". She writes well and all the characters are fully developed. One of the women, Babe, living in a difficult marriage to a man still living through the horrors of wartime, finds a sense of purpose outside marriage in the burgeoning civil rights and feminist movements. The other two women also find satisfaction - with a few "hiccups" along the way - as time passes. And as well as Feldman writes about the characters, she also writes with authority on our post-war society. The prosperity we experienced in the 1950's as the new-fangled GI bill opened college doors to many of our returning vets. GI loans offered low-interest introductions into new homes, allowing homeownership for the first time to veterans. But with prosperity came prejudice - did the war just bring it out into the open? - and for some, post-war life was not the glitter it was to others.
And, of course, WW2 and its attendant horrors, were repeated in the "police action" of Korea and the Vietnam War. Feldman takes her characters and story to the mid-60's, where those children born in the 1940's must now face their own war and make choices different from their parents. I'd like to see Feldman write a sequel to "Next to Love", following those children. "Next to Love" is a good book, well worth reading.
June 3, 2023
Received this book from the publisher via bookbrowse.com in order to provide the critique that follows in addition to participating in an on-line book club.
“War…next to love, has most captured the world’s imagination” – Eric Partridge, 1914 (believe he is a famous lexicographer and author who served in the Australian Imperial Force during WWI). This quote begins Ellen Feldman’s book about WWII’s effect on the family members and community stateside. A refreshing take from the abundance of WWII era books set in Europe.
Appreciated the author’s choice to write about characters afflicted with mental illness - depression and, what is now called, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and then was labeled Battle Fatigue or Shell Shock. One veteran, Claude, suffered the PTSD symptom of survivor’s guilt, emotional numbing and withdrawal from personal relationships and socializing. He also had flashbacks (manifested by appearing “spaced out”), night terrors and intense reactions to reminders of the war (like the sound of firecrackers). Unfortunately, post-WWII Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was not medically recognized so went untreated. Veterans and their families suffered privately. Current studies reveal that up to a third of veterans who have had combat experience in the Middle East develop PTSD and half of these men and women develop symptoms severe enough to cause significant disruption in their lives.
Disagree with other critiques that the author introduced too many issues. For example, the subject of discrimination was often only casually mentioned as this shows how insignificant an issue the characters believed it to be – doesn’t affect me so why should I care? Did struggle with the novel’s timeline jumping forward and back thus frequently found myself flipping through the book to ascertain where I was in a particular character’s life and relationship with others
I moderate a monthly book club and recommend this book to bring about great discussion.
“War…next to love, has most captured the world’s imagination” – Eric Partridge, 1914 (believe he is a famous lexicographer and author who served in the Australian Imperial Force during WWI). This quote begins Ellen Feldman’s book about WWII’s effect on the family members and community stateside. A refreshing take from the abundance of WWII era books set in Europe.
Appreciated the author’s choice to write about characters afflicted with mental illness - depression and, what is now called, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and then was labeled Battle Fatigue or Shell Shock. One veteran, Claude, suffered the PTSD symptom of survivor’s guilt, emotional numbing and withdrawal from personal relationships and socializing. He also had flashbacks (manifested by appearing “spaced out”), night terrors and intense reactions to reminders of the war (like the sound of firecrackers). Unfortunately, post-WWII Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was not medically recognized so went untreated. Veterans and their families suffered privately. Current studies reveal that up to a third of veterans who have had combat experience in the Middle East develop PTSD and half of these men and women develop symptoms severe enough to cause significant disruption in their lives.
Disagree with other critiques that the author introduced too many issues. For example, the subject of discrimination was often only casually mentioned as this shows how insignificant an issue the characters believed it to be – doesn’t affect me so why should I care? Did struggle with the novel’s timeline jumping forward and back thus frequently found myself flipping through the book to ascertain where I was in a particular character’s life and relationship with others
I moderate a monthly book club and recommend this book to bring about great discussion.
September 19, 2011
I got teary before the end of the Prologue! This book moved me, entertained me, and took me someplace new.
It's no secret that I am a huge fan of novels set in the 1940s, so I have quite a few books of this era on my bookshelf. In company with The Book Thief, Sarah's Key and A Fierce Radiance, it's not often that a book impresses or surprises me. NEXT TO LOVE made me see this era in a whole new way.
Babe, Millie, and Grace, the narrators of this story, were changed by the war and its aftermath. Friends since childhood, with dreams of the future, they were among those who rushed to get married before the boys went to war. Three friends had three very different roads ahead of them.
Not only did the characters change, but the face of America was forever changed.
I never realized just how much the women's movement, and the civil rights movement, began with WWII. Women were called to work, with the understanding that they would go back "where they belonged" after the men returned from the war. Women wanted to know, What did that mean? Anti-semitism was still alive and well, and black Americans still had a long way to go to earn equality, even though they were all American soldiers fighting on the same side overseas.
Was this book about the civil rights movement? Not entirely. This was just one of the details that I took away from it. NEXT TO LOVE is ultimately about love, friendship, and a changed nation. It's about sacrifices, loss, and growth.
The first person present tense, and the switching of the narrators, kept this book from being perfect for me. Babe, Millie, and Grace did not always have unique voices, so I had to pay very close attention to whose chapter I was reading.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It was unique, entertaining, and heartfelt.
June 14, 2014
So many books set during World War II seem to romanticize the whole time period, so it was refreshing to read a book that portrays both the period, the events of the time and their affect on the people living through those events with something resembling historical accuracy.
The story follows the lives of three high school friends, Babe, Grace and Millie through the war and the twenty years following it. Grace is from the upper crust of their small Massachusetts town and marries the son of one of the town's leading citizens. Bae is from the wrong side of the tracks, but attracts a boy from the very right side and makes her way with intelligence and dignity, mostly leaving her family behind. Millie is just a silly girls who loves the wild younger son of the local druggist and fills her mind with nothing more than making a home and having babies. The three husbands all go off to war together and are a part of the great D-Day invasion, but only Babe's husband comes home. And he comes home with what today we would call PTSD, but which back in the 1950's no one wanted to talk about at all.
The women pick up the pieces of their lives after the war and carry on. Babe copes with a husband who never seems to be able to get over the trauma of his wartime experience. Grace builds a shrine to her fallen husband in the house they used to share and tries to keep the world (and especially other men) at bay. And Millie, who doesn't think too much about anything, almost instantly finds a new husband with just one little problem - he's Jewish.
Throughout the years, what sustains all three is their friendship. Their are fights and squabbles, but the deep love they have for one another keeps them all afloat as they march into the brave post-war world. I thought this was going to be a breezy summer read, but it was much better than that.
The story follows the lives of three high school friends, Babe, Grace and Millie through the war and the twenty years following it. Grace is from the upper crust of their small Massachusetts town and marries the son of one of the town's leading citizens. Bae is from the wrong side of the tracks, but attracts a boy from the very right side and makes her way with intelligence and dignity, mostly leaving her family behind. Millie is just a silly girls who loves the wild younger son of the local druggist and fills her mind with nothing more than making a home and having babies. The three husbands all go off to war together and are a part of the great D-Day invasion, but only Babe's husband comes home. And he comes home with what today we would call PTSD, but which back in the 1950's no one wanted to talk about at all.
The women pick up the pieces of their lives after the war and carry on. Babe copes with a husband who never seems to be able to get over the trauma of his wartime experience. Grace builds a shrine to her fallen husband in the house they used to share and tries to keep the world (and especially other men) at bay. And Millie, who doesn't think too much about anything, almost instantly finds a new husband with just one little problem - he's Jewish.
Throughout the years, what sustains all three is their friendship. Their are fights and squabbles, but the deep love they have for one another keeps them all afloat as they march into the brave post-war world. I thought this was going to be a breezy summer read, but it was much better than that.
June 7, 2012
I read this because it was recommended based off of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I LOVED! Next to Love was not near as endearing and the characters were not as engaging either. With Potato Peel I wanted to visit those characters, join their book club, and share a pot of tea!
However I did like reading about this time period. This book follows three friends from the start of WWII to the 60's. Everything from that time period I have read has been in Europe. I liked reading about something that happened closer to home. Crazy to think that this generation is still alive. Reading this book, all I kept thinking about were my grandparents. My Grandpa was in the Navy and as soon as he got home married my Grandma, in fact he was engaged to two girls, but that's another story!! :) 60+ years later my Grandparents are still alive and very much in love! Don't know what happened to the other chick?? What was the point of this story? Sorry got side tracked. What I liked best about his book is that Babe character's and her husband they really fought to keep their marriage. So different then our generation. When things get tough, we walk out! I wish I could give it 3 1/2 stars because it wasn't quite a 4 for me!
However I did like reading about this time period. This book follows three friends from the start of WWII to the 60's. Everything from that time period I have read has been in Europe. I liked reading about something that happened closer to home. Crazy to think that this generation is still alive. Reading this book, all I kept thinking about were my grandparents. My Grandpa was in the Navy and as soon as he got home married my Grandma, in fact he was engaged to two girls, but that's another story!! :) 60+ years later my Grandparents are still alive and very much in love! Don't know what happened to the other chick?? What was the point of this story? Sorry got side tracked. What I liked best about his book is that Babe character's and her husband they really fought to keep their marriage. So different then our generation. When things get tough, we walk out! I wish I could give it 3 1/2 stars because it wasn't quite a 4 for me!
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