Days of Grace

Days of Grace is a coming-of-age novel set in World War II England with a lesbian twist.

12 year-old Nora from London is evacuated prior to the commencement of the War to idyllic Kent.  A poor city girl, she is handpicked by the parson’s daughter, Grace, to stay with them.  Grace and Nora are the same age, but their lives until that point could not have been more different.  Nora was being raised along by her mother in a small, dirty city flat.  Grace lived with her mother and father in a lovely parsonage, seemingly wanting for nothing.

WWII changes Nora’s life, in many ways, for the better.  She is being educated by Reverend Rivers each day, has a constant companion in the daring and charming Grace, and is well fed and clothed for the first time in her life.  When a call comes saying Nora can return to her mother in London or stay at the parsonage, Nora chooses to stay.  In her innocence, she unknowingly chooses Grace and the Rivers family over her own mother.

As the years pass and the war comes closer and closer to idyllic Kent - fighter planes overhead, blackouts, nights in the bomb shelter, and less food for everyone - Nora and Grace pass through innocent girlhood and into their teen years.  Nora begins to struggle with her growing romantic feelings for Grace, trying desperately each day not to think about Grace or fantasize about a shared future.  She also chafes at Grace’s growing interest in boys and adventures outside of their insular lives.  Nora would be happy to stay with Grace forever.

Everything changes for both girls as their respective families unravel around them.  Childhood is over and Grace and Nora are thrust into adulthood as they run away to wartime London and try to survive on their own.  Grace is befriended by Bernard (think David in “An Education”), a man who sells black market ration books, booze, and other stolen goods.  Bernard puts Grace and Nora up in an apartment where he stores his stolen wares and sets about wooing a young, beautiful, and impressionable Grace.  Nora is hurt and appalled as her friend and love interest falls prey to Bernard’s charms.  Inevitably, disaster strikes as a result of Grace's reckless romance and Nora tries to pick-up the pieces with tragic results.

Alternating chapters take the reader into the life of elderly Nora as she observes a young, pregnant neighbor across the street.  Nora watches the young woman grower larger each day, as Nora herself grows more ill with (self-diagnosed) cancer.  When she realizes the mysterious young woman is clearly hiding in her room in labor, Nora takes a chance and goes over to see if she can help.  She finds Rose in advanced labor and helps her give birth.  Once the baby is safely born, Nora convinces Rose to move-in with her.  Having a young friend and a baby in the house brings new hope to Nora, even as her physical decline becomes more rapid.  As she sinks further and further into her illness, she reflects on her time with Grace.

Catherine Hall moves the narrative back-and-forth between elderly Nora and young Nora, weaving the story of her adoration of Grace with her friendship with Rose and creating a “circle of life” story about love, longing, loss, and atonement.  

I was interested to see how Hall handled Nora’s homosexuality in a historical setting and the overall tone was consistent with the emotional and sexual repression of the time.  However, it seemed a bit of a cop-out to strip Nora of any type of sexuality in order to keep Grace blissfully unaware of Nora’s true, lustful feelings for her.  Nora becomes a fundamentally miserable character and it is not difficult to imagine how she turned out that way after a lifetime of denying her true self.

I read Days of Grace straight through and was intrigued by Nora’s story, but I wasn't bowled over.  This is the perfect library book to check-out when you want something to read over a long weekend.

Series Highlights

I’m in the middle of several books right now, so I don’t have a review to post. Rather than leave you in a lurch I’ve put together a list of some great series that I’ve recently read (and plan to keep reading!).  They aren’t necessarily literary, but they will keep you glued to the pages and checking Amazon to see when the next book is due out.  

Gail Carriger’s The Parasol Protectorate Series
A thoroughly enjoyable romp in an alternate steampunk Victorian England, one in which the Queen has both a werewolf and vampire advisor. Alexia Tarabotti is a sassy, intelligent, and hard-headed heroine from the upper crust of London society who also happens to be soulless. She is one of those terrific heroines who always manages to find herself in the middle of trouble and excitement.  I can’t wait to read Blameless on September 1st! 

Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files 
I am both bummed and extremely grateful I’m not a member of the dysfunctional, but highly entertaining Spellman family.  Yes, they’re a family running a private detective agency in San Francisco, which can be exciting.  But, they use some questionable sleuthing techniques on each other, which is not exactly conducive to healthy family boundaries.  This is especially true for main character, Izzy Spellman.  This P.I. is in her late twenties, has terrible taste in men, and a slight drinking problem.  She’s also a kick-ass detective and tough-as-nails heroine in her own right.  There’s never a dull moment with the Spellman family and Lutz creates compelling mysteries to pair with their antics. 

Connie Willis’ Blackout 
I read the first book in the series, Blackout, and it’s a rollicking story set in 2060 about historian time travelers on individual assignments in World War II-era Great Britain.  Their stories are interwoven as one-by-one, the historian’s access back to the future fails.  They each set out on a journey to find each other in the hopes of using alternate “drop points” home, unaware that all the drop points have failed.  As a reader, it was incredible to land in the middle of Great Britain during World War II.  It’s clear Willis has done an amazing job of researching everything - from the types of stockings women would be wearing, what the people of London did during those long hours in bomb shelters, and, literally, where the bombs landed.  This is a great series for science fiction lovers, as well as historical fiction fans.  I have a feeling this series is going to get better and better with each book. 

Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries 
You might know this series by a different name - the Sookie Stackhouse books or the True Blood series.  Before True Blood was a hit on HBO it  was a tremendously popular series of books about a mind reading waitress in small-town Louisiana, Sookie Stackhouse.  While you may be a fan of the show, let me assure you that the books are a bit different in terms of characters and the direction of the plot.  Let me also promise you that they just as fun, completely over-the-top, and just plain sexy as True Blood.  I devoured the entire series in a few weeks this summer (seriously) because I really needed a mental break from some more literary books I had been reading and, well, it’s summer and summer reading should be a little frivolous.  Don’t let your vampire fatigue keep you away from this series.  You won’t regret picking them up.