Today I’m delighted to be joining the birthday blog blitz for Sleeping Through War by Jackie Carreira and once again sharing my review of this wonderful book.
About the Book
The year is 1968. The world is changing. Students are protesting, civil rights are being fought and died for, nuclear bombs are being tested, and war is raging in Vietnam. For three women, life must go on as usual. For them, as it is for most ‘ordinary’ people, just to survive is an act of courage.
Rose must keep her dignity and compassion as a St. Lucian nurse in East London. Amalia must keep hoping that her son can escape their seedy life in Lisbon. And Mrs Johnson in Washington DC must keep writing to her son in Vietnam. She has no-one else to talk to.
Three different women in three different countries, They work, they bring up children, they struggle to make ends meet while the world goes around and the papers print the news. History is written by the winners – and almost all of it has been written by men. The stories of women like these go unremarked and unwritten so often that we forget how important they are.
Format: Paperback (224 pp.) Publisher: Matador
Published: 28th February 2018 Genre: Literary Fiction
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My Review
Sleeping Through War tells the stories of three different women and is set against the backdrop of world events in 1968, a turbulent time of student demonstrations throughout Europe, civil rights marches in the United States, political tension in Eastern Europe and the Vietnam War. Although the backgrounds of the three women are different, they live in different parts of the world and there is no direct connection between them, their concerns are similar: home, family, worries about the future. In addition, the church plays a role in all their lives.
Both Amalia, a single mother widowed in the war between Portugal and Angola, and Mrs. Johnson, with a son serving in Vietnam, are coping with the consequences of war. Rose, a nurse recently arrived in England from St. Lucia, is engaged in a different kind of war – a war against racial prejudice and discrimination. The author, Jackie Carreira, is a playwright and therefore used to communicating the stories of her characters to an audience through dialogue. Her skill at this is evident from the stories told in the first person – by Rose and Mrs. Johnson – in which the reader gets a real insight into their thoughts and feelings through the distinctive narrative voice of each.
Having said this, Amalia’s story was probably the one I found most engrossing. Left alone to support her son, she is forced to do whatever it takes to earn money to put food on the table, placing herself at the mercy of others as a consequence.
You would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the letters Mrs. Johnson writes to her son, Rod, in which the cheerful snippets about domestic life back home barely disguise the despair she obviously feels at being parted from him. A final revelation is heartbreaking, but not in the way you may have been expecting.
Rose was definitely my favourite character. Although she encounters both casual and overt racism, she responds with kindness, understanding and tolerance to those around her, particularly towards her neighbour, Brenda. I also loved her observations about the differences between her birthplace in St. Lucia and England – the cold and rain, the English fixation about discussing the weather, the queuing, the feigned politeness, and how ‘everything in London always looks so dull’. I particularly liked her experience of attending a church service in London. ‘I sing with everyone else during the hymns, but not as loud as I might have done at home. The songs they sing in church here are all so slow.’ Rose felt so real to me in the end that it got to the point where I found myself thinking, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what Rose would do’ or ‘You go for it girl!’.
Sleeping Through War is an engrossing, beautifully written novel about the challenges facing three women in a time of upheaval and change. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it taught me some things I didn’t know and it made me think. Honestly, what more do you want from a book?
I received a review copy courtesy of the author and Rachel’s Random Resources.
In three words: Touching, insightful, thought-provoking
About the Author
Jackie Carreira is an award-winning novelist, playwright, musician, designer, and co-founder of QuirkHouse Theatre Company, and award-winning playwright. A true Renaissance woman or a Jack Of All Trades? The jury’s still out on that one.
She grew up in Hackney, East London, but spent part of her early childhood in Lisbon’s Old Quarter. Sleeping Through War was inspired, in part, by some of the women she met when she was young. One of her favourite places to write is the coffee shops of railway stations. Her second novel, The Seventh Train, was born in the cafe at Paddington Station. Jackie now lives in Suffolk with an actor, two cats and not enough bookshelves.
Connect with Jackie
Website | Twitter | Facebook ǀ Goodreads
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