What There Was Not To Tell

by Edie Clark

Whenever Edie Clark asked her father about World War II, he would reply, "There isn't much to tell." But there were bags and boxes full of letters. And the story she found after her parents died, was as rich and strange and heartbreaking as a fairy tale.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful young woman and the two young men who loved her. Both of them wanted to marry her; both went off to war, one to Africa and the other to the Pacific. When she finally decided which man she would wed, she wrote to tell him of her decision but the letter came back stamped "Deceased."
After the war, she married the other, who knew he was not her first choice, but he wanted her still. They had two daughters, who grew up with three sets of grandparents - their mother's parents, their father's parents, and the parents of the young man who had been killed.
They lived not happily ever after, but in a perpetual state of longing. In her search for answers, Edie finds the story, and comes to understand the devastating effects of war. She learns that no one returns from war unharmed. And that her parents had a love story all their own.
In "What There Was Not To Tell," Edie Clark sets out to fill in the details of the gaping hole that was created in her family's life by the death of a man she never met. What she discovered is a riveting story that is both tragic yet somehow triumphant, uniquely personal yet universal. This is a surprising and thoroughly compelling tale of how a single casualty of war can set off chain reactions of heartbreaking loss, undying love and unshakable loyalty across multiple generations. At the same time, it is an incredible piece of family detective work that keeps taking unexpected twists and turns.
-- Dayton Duncan, author of "The Dust Bowl" and "The National Parks: America's Best Idea."

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This TRUE story of two men in love with the same woman (the author's mother) during WWII is so well written and soooooo sad. Tom is the dashing pilot she chooses, but he does't make it back. Luther feels he will never be as good a man as Tom was, but his love is so strong he vows to spend his whole life trying to make her happy. At first I was interested because my father and uncle were pilots who did make it home (but Daddy would die in a plane crash nine years later.) I learned a lot about what war was like for them and for my mother and grandparents and in laws. (I also know very well the power of letters, as I'm one of the dinosaurs who writes at least six snail mail letters each month.) How fortunate so many of their own letters survived. Edie read all of them and went on a mission to find answers to questions about Tom, who remained an important person in their lives. She wanted a better understanding of war, her parents, and especially of grief and love. Her father Luther (aka Joe) comes across as a "wonderous" man. What does it take to make a hero? What price do we all pay for war? How can you live up to a fantasy? This is a very moving and enlightening story. I'm mailing the book to my 91 year old mother; I have a better understanding of what she went through now. Our beloved Veterans of WWII are dwindling; this book honors them.

[George Odell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes the truth about family history is just as dramatic and profound in reality as it is placid and superficial in appearance. Edie Clark is famed not only for clear eyed investigative reporting, but also for her profiles of scores of quirky, colorful New England characters on the pages of Yankee Magazine. When she sought to explore the strange contradictions of her own childhood, and the mysterious Tom Platt under whose shadow she grew up, she discovered there was much more there than even she had imagined. Set in the epic global conflagration of WWII, the triangle of passion and devotion between Tom and her parents tells us more than any historian can about the burdens of that war, and any war, on the lives of the people traps in its tumultuous path.
As author Clark pulls layer after layer from the "Father Knows Best" facade of her suburban postwar childhood home, she ultimately lays bare a drama and 'secret love pact' that only her mother could inspire and only her father could explain.
This book is a lyrical and fascinating work you won't want to put down.

[LearningMum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sort of book that will stay with me for a very long time. Edie took her parents' mysterious and complicated love story and investigated it until satisfied that there was nothing further to be revealed. What a journey! After reading hundreds of letters written by her parents, Tom (The Man Who Died), and other family members, after years of meticulous research and travel, she tells their story in a detail-oriented, methodical though intriguing way. Her writing is clear, level-headed (admirably so, under the circumstances), and captivating.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys great memoirs, those who love history, who want to learn what it was really like for young adults during WWII, or for anyone interested in the twists and turns, ups and downs that we humans are dealt in this thing we call life.

[Sarah Pascarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, a caveat -- I know the author. Second -- even if I didn't know her, I would rave about this memoir, one that many families will find familiar and relatable. With painstaking research and a keen travel-writer's eye, Clark reconstructs her family history through the pivotal WWII era letters from her mother and her mother's two suitors (one being Clark's father). In doing so, she discovers how the war--never openly discussed in her home--indelibly shaped her family dynamic and her own identity. The final section is a stunner.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy family stories & history, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. Edie Clark was an excellent writer and will be missed.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edie Clark is an excellent writer. She'd have to be to meet the challenge of writing intimately about the impact WWII had on her family. This is an unusual story. It's about a suitor of her mother's who died in the war in the Pacific but remained almost a part of their family forevermore. Within it is the story of Edie herself who tried to figure it all out and did so, if not completely, then very satisfactorily. If there's a recognized body of antiwar literature, this should be part of it. A war never ends. Edie shows that very gracefully.

[Loriann Jesseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart breaking, but heart warming.