War Brides by Lois Battle

War Bride 1943 London

Nearly always, I read nonfiction, unless a novel is suggested by a friend with similar interests.  Thus, it was by accident that I began Lois Battle’s novel War Brides.  Hurrying through a bookstore, I bought it on the basis that the subject sounded intriguing. 

While not a war bride myself, I left my home in France to marry a delightful Englishman, and have never felt the slightest regret. Still, we both needed to adapt to each other in subtle but definite ways, both emotional and cultural.

At any rate, so absorbed did I become in War Brides that, for days it lay open on my bedside table; I did not look at its title page. Then, given the interweaving of lives and the realistic but magnificent dialogue, I took a look at its title page which identified it as a novel.  By then, I was too intrigued by the book to close it due to its being fiction.

War Brides chronicles the lives in America of three brides who left Australia for America, often after the briefest of WWII courtships.  Once the enchantment of candlelight fades, each partner in every such marriage must deal with the less than enchanting aspects of someone they had almost deified in the flow of their fantasies. 

When dreams and champagne are damaged by defeats and the lowest grade beer and wine, each couple is forced to evaluate whether it is worthwhile to continue their impetuous unions.