The Good War

by Elizabeth Costello

In 1948, Louise Galle, a chemist and former Rosie-the-Riveter, is pursued by a wounded veteran who, with her deceased husband, was a prisoner in the Philippines during World War II. In New York City in 1964, Louise' s daughter Charlotte falls for the butch next door and receives an undeniable call to make art. The Good War unfolds over the course of watershed summers in the lives of two very different women who share a desire to make it new even as they reckon with painful truths. Atmospheric, lyrical, and psychologically astute, The Good War is for anyone who knows that there is always more to the story of what America was and is.

Genres: Historical Fiction

318 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 28, 2025

Reviews

[Patrick O'Dowd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Costello’s The Good War is a beautifully layered novel about love, art, and the weight of history. Through the intertwined lives of Louise and Charlotte, Costello captures both the turbulence of postwar America and the personal struggles of two women seeking to define themselves in a changing world. With lyrical prose and sharp psychological insight, the novel is atmospheric and deeply moving, revealing new depths long after you’ve turned the last page.

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Good War by Elizabeth Costello c 2025 as reviewed by Gail M. Murray

Costello’s debut novel, she refers to as “feminist noir”, has autobiographical roots in the author’s grandparents’ experiences in WWII and her own life as a gay person with a desire to create art. Cold, cynical war widow Louise Galle, an alpine beauty with slate blue eyes, was inspired by Costello’s grandmother employed as a riveter and later industrial designer of airplane parts at Lockheed. Costello’s grandfather was a POW in the Philippines like our heroine’s husband Roland. This novel with its dense prose and dark themes about a dysfunctional family with strained and controlling mother-daughter relationships and at times stream of consciousness as we are prey to the main characters thoughts and dreams, actually nightmares, proves heavy reading. The dual timeline alternates between 1948 with Louise pursued by Kit Blunt, a war veteran imprisoned with her saint-like Yeats quoting husband, guilt her demanding to know – why didn’t you write to him? “You broke his heart Louise, even more than the enemy broke his spirit.” (p 210) In 1964, on the cusp of the Vietnam War, sensitive daughter Charlotte is searching for herself, experimenting, entering a lesbian relationship and creating sculpture to jazz music. It’s a novel of emotional and psychological struggle – women at war with each other and a desire to find true fulfillment. Can a person overcome childhood/adolescent trauma? Can a woman have a family and a career? It took this reader two third of the way to feel interest or sympathy for any of the characters. One does rejoice when Charlotte finally stands up to her mother! Not an easy read.
Elizabeth Costello, Regal Publishing House, 2025, pb, 344pp, 978164035465

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Good War is magnificent. I mean that not just because it is well written, powerfully interweaving stories of a mother and a daughter across generations, but because it is a novel about big themes: family secrets, war, nation, loss, trauma, desire. Especially, desire. It gave me a new angle of vision on each -- gorgeously, poetically, tenderly, reverently. I found the story of the mother stronger than that of the daughter, in part because I was so drawn in and moved by the character of a mother who isn't....likeable, and who lives more for herself than anyone else. As a lover of queer historical fiction, I loved this book.

[Maria Hummel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A captivating dual narrative of mother and daughter in the heart of the 20th century (Louise in 1948 and Charlotte in 1964). Costello's prose is elegant and her sharply observed story is knit through with the wrongs and losses of the past, both in distant wars and deep within the family home. Louise and Charlotte are both incredibly strong women with vibrant (and lusty) choices, and the city settings in the 1940s and 1960s are intricate and well drawn. Recommend! Especially for readers who want a glimpse of a different side of the "good war."

[Martha Conway · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Good War is the kind of novel I love but rarely find: immersive, compelling, with characters who are strong and believable and unique. The story follows a Rosie-the-Riveter woman in the years after World War II (“the good war”) as she navigates widowhood, love, and independence; a dual storyline follows her daughter Louise twenty years later in New York City as Louise embarks on her own love affair with a woman. The parallel stories of a mother and her daughter finding both love and their own sense of self, twenty years apart, kept me engrossed. I loved every twist and turn.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich, complex plot and character development across multiple generations; full of wry humor and a touch of maybe supernatural elements? Thoroughly enjoyed!

[Rae Diamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the weaving of the two intergenerational stories. It felt like I was spiraling through time on a double helix, with the two plots reflecting and informing each other.