[X6L]∎ Libro Gratis Good Evening Mrs Craven The Wartime Stories of Mollie PanterDownes Persephone Classics Mollie PanterDownes 9781906462017 Books

Good Evening Mrs Craven The Wartime Stories of Mollie PanterDownes Persephone Classics Mollie PanterDownes 9781906462017 Books

Download As PDF : Good Evening Mrs Craven The Wartime Stories of Mollie PanterDownes Persephone Classics Mollie PanterDownes 9781906462017 Books

Good Evening Mrs Craven The Wartime Stories of Mollie PanterDownes Persephone Classics Mollie PanterDownes 9781906462017 Books

Each story -- written and set in England during the Second World War and published in the New Yorker -- is a gem, an example of short stories at their best. Many are witty and all are astute in their observations about human nature and what real everyday people are like.

The stories are set in order of writing (chronologically as the war progressed), and as you read through, you can see the experiences and problems of the British people during the war change.

My mother lived through the Second World War in England, and many of the stories echo what she told me. Fairly late in the book, for example, is a short story about the fairly severe food rationing, which was taking its toll: the central character of one story is a school teacher whose thoughts dwell on food, displacing most other concerns, except, perhaps, jealousy. Chocolate bars are to be eaten privately to avoid having to be shared. Other stories tell about housing shortages, and people living uncomfortably in shared households and trying to make the best of it.

But what I thought is particularly great in these stories is the perfection of the endings -- those last paragraphs should be studied carefully by would-be writers, to see how cleverly the author "sticks the landing." My only complaint was learning that the author apparently wrote relatively few short stories -- she was primarily a journalist.

This book is a rare treat for anyone interested in short stories, war fiction, World War II, or the writing of forgotten women authors.


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Good Evening Mrs Craven The Wartime Stories of Mollie PanterDownes Persephone Classics Mollie PanterDownes 9781906462017 Books Reviews

Carefully limned stories about life for women on the homefront in England during WWII. With great economy, the stories describe the changes and challenges faced--living with evacuees, coping with the lack of menfolk, dealing with shortages of food and just about everything else, the comraderie of the Blitz, and economic and social dislocations. Journalist Mollie Panter-Downes skillfully portrays in fiction what she herself experienced and wrote about in her Letters From London in The New Yorker.
I'm a big fan of the short story and have long believed that those of Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber were about the best in the business. Well, to that pantheon I must now add the work of Mollie Panter-Downes.

There is, in this collection, not one wasted or unnecessary word -- and pure, precise British English words they are, too! The structure of the stories is also flawless -- the tone fits the style fits the subject matter.

These stories DESERVE to be read and, if you have not yet done so, shame on you!
Honestly one of the most enjoyable, beautifully written set of short stories I've read in a long, long time. (And I read *a lot*!) I considered buying this book for some time before finally doing so - I only wish I'd purchased it years ago! (Though...by waiting I have given myself a lovely "Christmas Treat".
Highly recommended!
From the beginning of each story, written chronologically as WWII progressed, the reader is captivated, and drawn into the very intimate life of British citizens surviving the war on the home front. Beyond the physical descriptions of hardships and changing social norms, each story displays the main character's reaction to events. Each story drew unexpected emotions from me and better understanding of the experiences Britons endured on the home front of WWII. As the war progressed, so did each new character's prospective and concerns. I must read more from this author.
Great collection of understated and poignant stories written between 1939-1944 portraying life in Britain . Really was able to get a feel as to what it felt like during that difficult time-will be checking out more books by this sharp but never mean-spirited writer.
These short stories--three to ten pages or so each--let us experience World War II from the standpoint of Britons in England. We meet a few soldiers, but most of the characters are women, trying to create lives and and families in wartime. Some of the stories reflect Panter-Downes upper class upbringing.--country ladies inviting London children into their houses or chatting with each other as they sew bandages--but others take let us see the anguish in the soul of ordinary Britons, like a woman trying to say good bye to her husband at the end of a week-long leave. This book is part of a series being published "for women" but I'm a guy, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended.
These charming, understated, funny, and not infrequently heartbreaking stories give us a glimpse into life in home-front Britain during the Second World War. They are largely written about people of the upper middle class (and their associations with servants and working class evacuees)--people who had wartime jobs with the government or the armed services, and those who had the trying job of trying to hold things together as people and supplies disappeared. They are therefore often, but not exclusively, about women.

If you enjoyed "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," of which I was reminded by this set of stories, then you will very likely enjoy "Good Evening Mrs. Craven." Highly recommended.
Each story -- written and set in England during the Second World War and published in the New Yorker -- is a gem, an example of short stories at their best. Many are witty and all are astute in their observations about human nature and what real everyday people are like.

The stories are set in order of writing (chronologically as the war progressed), and as you read through, you can see the experiences and problems of the British people during the war change.

My mother lived through the Second World War in England, and many of the stories echo what she told me. Fairly late in the book, for example, is a short story about the fairly severe food rationing, which was taking its toll the central character of one story is a school teacher whose thoughts dwell on food, displacing most other concerns, except, perhaps, jealousy. Chocolate bars are to be eaten privately to avoid having to be shared. Other stories tell about housing shortages, and people living uncomfortably in shared households and trying to make the best of it.

But what I thought is particularly great in these stories is the perfection of the endings -- those last paragraphs should be studied carefully by would-be writers, to see how cleverly the author "sticks the landing." My only complaint was learning that the author apparently wrote relatively few short stories -- she was primarily a journalist.

This book is a rare treat for anyone interested in short stories, war fiction, World War II, or the writing of forgotten women authors.