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Typewriter Man: Tales of WW2
Last year, George Anton appeared in the story "Typewriter Man." Now he's part of a collection of interconnected short stories inspired by events (some real, some imagined) of the Second World War.
In 1944, as Brooklyn native George Anton serves his country in England, detonating bombs, the top brass realizes he possesses another skill which they need even typewriter repair. He is sent to Paris, a city rollicking after its liberation from German occupation, to assist the diplomatic and intelligence corps with their communication needs. In the meantime, he befriends translator Sophie Bellamy, and together they discover a plot which may undermine Allied efforts to conquer Hitler's forces. Other stories in this volume follow Thaman, a Nepalese Ghurka warrior and his carrier pigeon; Cliff, who is taken from his small world in Baltimore and his resourceful young wife Lizzie and transported across the world, to Papua New Guinea; haunted Royal Air Force pilot Edward Heatherton, and more.
In 1944, as Brooklyn native George Anton serves his country in England, detonating bombs, the top brass realizes he possesses another skill which they need even typewriter repair. He is sent to Paris, a city rollicking after its liberation from German occupation, to assist the diplomatic and intelligence corps with their communication needs. In the meantime, he befriends translator Sophie Bellamy, and together they discover a plot which may undermine Allied efforts to conquer Hitler's forces. Other stories in this volume follow Thaman, a Nepalese Ghurka warrior and his carrier pigeon; Cliff, who is taken from his small world in Baltimore and his resourceful young wife Lizzie and transported across the world, to Papua New Guinea; haunted Royal Air Force pilot Edward Heatherton, and more.
54 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 14, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 7, 2017
Typewriter Man: Tales of WW2" by Rachel Wifall is a collection of seven short prose. These stories all center around the second world war, and how each of the characters have been affected differently by the outcomes and their experiences within. In the titular story, George Anton was living a rather happily mundane life, until his expertise is repair and typewriter mechanics put him smack-dab in the world of espionage and intrigue. ”Port Street” entails the lives of Cliff and Elizabeth, Baltimore lovebirds whose lives are uprooted by the war.
”Abhjita” chronicles a Nepalese solider named Thaman and his of dealings with racism and isolation. "Haunted Heart" is a period piece which involves an English noble in and around the English countryside during the time and aftermath of the second world war. “Aldwych Station” shows how the ghosts of the past can haunt you in unexpected ways. “The Chalice”, a perfect ending to the anthology; tells us how just because the war is over, it does not mean that heroes are unneeded. The stories, while complex and independently different, share themes of society and class struggles, isolation, time, warfare and conflict, suffering, repression, memory, the past and most importantly freedom.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone with an interest in World War II and a passion for looking at the unexamined life.
”Abhjita” chronicles a Nepalese solider named Thaman and his of dealings with racism and isolation. "Haunted Heart" is a period piece which involves an English noble in and around the English countryside during the time and aftermath of the second world war. “Aldwych Station” shows how the ghosts of the past can haunt you in unexpected ways. “The Chalice”, a perfect ending to the anthology; tells us how just because the war is over, it does not mean that heroes are unneeded. The stories, while complex and independently different, share themes of society and class struggles, isolation, time, warfare and conflict, suffering, repression, memory, the past and most importantly freedom.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone with an interest in World War II and a passion for looking at the unexamined life.
November 21, 2016
Rachel Wifall’s new story collection, Typewriter Man: Tales of WW2, pays homage to our country’s Greatest Generation; the characters are drawn from the ranks of her own ancestors who settled on Long Island in New York, while others are the creation of a distinctive and powerful imagination. Linked by the deprivations of the Great Depression and the horrors of WWII, the stories are sweeping in time and scope, and paint rich, intimate portraits of the characters’ inner lives. Well-chosen historical details bring their worlds vividly to life: the drawing room is the center of family and social life, ice is delivered by horse-drawn carriage, and the women of these stories are never without their red lipstick and high heels. In these historical sketches, women are every bit the industrious, frugal anchors of their homes, while their stoic, hardworking men have slow-burning inner lives they sometimes struggle to express.
In one story, Corporal George Anton is stationed in London and is charged with diffusing bombs. He maintains an epistolary relationship with his sweetheart back home, Charlotte, whom he plans to marry as soon as he returns. When George, who has an aptitude for fixing mechanical things, is sent to Paris to repair typewriters, he is tempted by a beautiful and sophisticated French girl who is unhappy in her marriage to an older man, currently away from home because of the war. As their friendship develops, Sophie introduces George to the welcome energy and diversity of Paris life, and they work together to unmask a Russian spy in their office. The end of the war will force them to choose between two ways of living, two times—before the war, or after.
In another story, Cliff courts Lizzie and they marry just before he ships out, leaving her back at home, pregnant and alone. Plucky Lizzie sends her husband upbeat photographs and letters while he is away fighting, holds down a job, and ultimately buys a house. One time, she sends him a humorous photograph of herself hugging a tree, making believe that it is Cliff in her arms. But despite her best efforts, there are times when the cracks in the veneer of her strength show through: “I’m keeping a big smile for you. But sometimes it’s so hard to do.”
Elsewhere, a young well-bred Englishman, Edward, is too polite to court his lady love, who winds up marrying his best friend, instead. Fantasies of an afterlife, nightmares of the war: much of Edward’s life is lived in his head. No one suspects his true feelings and he throws his two friends a fabulous wedding party, entertaining his guests by playing the piano and singing songs. Edward, who reads Rumi, Thomas Wyatt, and William Butler Yeats, and is a vegetarian, much to the dismay of his patrician father, is a mystery to his friends, who fail to understand him until it is too late.
Wifall’s stories evoke the vast breadth of life with its many fortuitous intersections—and tragic missed connections. Her economical prose becomes lyrical during quiet moments that elevate human consciousness, probing the possibilities for transcendence within the mess and contradictions of living. As George explores Paris, and in particular, the majesty of the famed Notre Dame Cathedral, he ponders his ambivalence towards religion in a fallen world, “After so much evil, though, who could convince people that life is good? Perhaps this could only be done through one small act of kindness at a time.” Indeed, small acts abound in these stories, none smaller and more resonant than the act of hope by a Nepalese soldier fighting for the English, trapped with his fellow fighters on a slope overlooking an Italian monastery. Their only chance for rescue lies with a single pigeon, Abhijita. Used as a messenger, she is tiny, fragile, easily waylaid or wounded, yet unlike the soldiers, she can fly above the mayhem and danger. Her handler wonders at her beauty, “her neck of shimmering aqua and lavender, and her probing amber eyes.” Before releasing her, he “kissed her tiny head, and whispered a quiet blessing.” Like her messenger birds, set free with a powerful hope, Wifall’s stories fly, carried on the wind towards home.
In one story, Corporal George Anton is stationed in London and is charged with diffusing bombs. He maintains an epistolary relationship with his sweetheart back home, Charlotte, whom he plans to marry as soon as he returns. When George, who has an aptitude for fixing mechanical things, is sent to Paris to repair typewriters, he is tempted by a beautiful and sophisticated French girl who is unhappy in her marriage to an older man, currently away from home because of the war. As their friendship develops, Sophie introduces George to the welcome energy and diversity of Paris life, and they work together to unmask a Russian spy in their office. The end of the war will force them to choose between two ways of living, two times—before the war, or after.
In another story, Cliff courts Lizzie and they marry just before he ships out, leaving her back at home, pregnant and alone. Plucky Lizzie sends her husband upbeat photographs and letters while he is away fighting, holds down a job, and ultimately buys a house. One time, she sends him a humorous photograph of herself hugging a tree, making believe that it is Cliff in her arms. But despite her best efforts, there are times when the cracks in the veneer of her strength show through: “I’m keeping a big smile for you. But sometimes it’s so hard to do.”
Elsewhere, a young well-bred Englishman, Edward, is too polite to court his lady love, who winds up marrying his best friend, instead. Fantasies of an afterlife, nightmares of the war: much of Edward’s life is lived in his head. No one suspects his true feelings and he throws his two friends a fabulous wedding party, entertaining his guests by playing the piano and singing songs. Edward, who reads Rumi, Thomas Wyatt, and William Butler Yeats, and is a vegetarian, much to the dismay of his patrician father, is a mystery to his friends, who fail to understand him until it is too late.
Wifall’s stories evoke the vast breadth of life with its many fortuitous intersections—and tragic missed connections. Her economical prose becomes lyrical during quiet moments that elevate human consciousness, probing the possibilities for transcendence within the mess and contradictions of living. As George explores Paris, and in particular, the majesty of the famed Notre Dame Cathedral, he ponders his ambivalence towards religion in a fallen world, “After so much evil, though, who could convince people that life is good? Perhaps this could only be done through one small act of kindness at a time.” Indeed, small acts abound in these stories, none smaller and more resonant than the act of hope by a Nepalese soldier fighting for the English, trapped with his fellow fighters on a slope overlooking an Italian monastery. Their only chance for rescue lies with a single pigeon, Abhijita. Used as a messenger, she is tiny, fragile, easily waylaid or wounded, yet unlike the soldiers, she can fly above the mayhem and danger. Her handler wonders at her beauty, “her neck of shimmering aqua and lavender, and her probing amber eyes.” Before releasing her, he “kissed her tiny head, and whispered a quiet blessing.” Like her messenger birds, set free with a powerful hope, Wifall’s stories fly, carried on the wind towards home.
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