Spoilers: Now we come to one of my favorite patterns: two books reviewed at the same time that take different approaches to the same topic. This time we have Bob Van Laerhoven's The Long Farewell and Milly Adams’ The Waterway Girls. Both are Historical Fiction WWII novels which involve regular people getting involved in ways that aren't on the direct battlefield and forces them into facing personal and political situations that change them. The differences between them lie in tone and theme.
The Long Farewell is a journey into the heart of darkness as Hermann Becht, the young protagonist, leaves his toxic home life to become a spy investigating concentration camps. He recognizes the inhumanity around him and the shadow reaches within his own soul.
The Waterway Girls recognizes darkness including war, deaths of loved ones, poverty, domestic violence, child abuse, and misogyny. But it does all of this with the nostalgia filter that speaks of courage, sacrifice, and doing one's bit to uphold those fighting and especially the community left behind. I don't want to say that it's lighter toned but it does make individual contributions a central focus and moves the historical context from something that people are still faced with these days into something that was direct products of its time.
Polly Holmes has recently lost her twin brother and her fiance is also off fighting. Polly decides that she wants to help on the home front. She uses her training on boats to become a waterway girl. These were women who transported cargo from one place to another. Polly sails from London to Manchester but she doesn't travel alone. She travels with Bet Burrows, the sturdy lead and Verity Clement, an upper class woman with a severe attitude problem and buried secrets. The three women navigate their way through an unusual, detailed, and sometimes harsh environment, face disagreements with each other, and focus on their own issues.
The Waterway Girls is the type of novel that blends the political and the personal. One way that Adams does this is by focusing on the setting. The time is marked by great change where many men fought in the war and others had to do their bit to support them like taking jobs, organizing air raid defense and shelters, joining home guard defense, gathering supplies, organizing entertainment, building gardens, hosting evacuees and many other ways.
However the book doesn't just focus on the war. It focuses on waterfront life. The various riverside towns and their people are brilliantly described but thankfully without making them cloying or overly sentimental. The book captures the duties, terminology, and socio-cultural lives of the people whose lives revolve around the river in which they live near.
The book also explores personal conflicts inhabited by the people involved. We see extreme poverty which causes many to resort to crime and violence to pay the bills. There is a subplot about an abusive man who threatens his family, particularly his young son who bonds with the protagonists.
The main characters are affected by the war and exposure to river life. Bet, Polly, and Verity are three of many people whose lives are irrevocably changed by fighting the war on the home front.
Because of this change, many previous lines are erased. Women gain physical strength, persevere despite stress, and gain agency. Bet is very knowledgeable about seamanship and is able to pursue these interests without being sidelined by male employers. She is able to command a boat and guide its crew to become the person that she always wanted to be.
Polly also gains independence and strength through her work. She turns her grief into action as she works to deliver cargo. Her interest in boating and waterfront life comes to practical use. Polly also uses her loss to empathetically bond with many of the people that she encounters. Polly is someone who turned her tragedy into triumph.
By far the strongest character development is found in Verity. She comes from an upper class background which causes her to be initially sheltered and set apart from her colleagues. Her argumentative standoffish nature cost them one crew member before Polly’s arrival. Just as Polly has to learn independence, and Bet has to learn leadership, Verity has to learn how to be part of a team.
The Waterway Girls gives plenty of insights over how WWII was fought on the home front and how it changed the people who lived through it.
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