The Enemy at Home by Kevin O'BrienMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
The Enemy at Home was a World War II story that took a popular historical fiction time period but placed readers in a nontypical place. The story centers Nora, a late thirties woman living in Seattle taking care of her teenager son, preteen daughter, and starting a job at a Boeing B-17 plant. Her husband is a doctor in the military and somewhere in Northern Africa and she has a brother in the Navy currently recovering from an injury in San Diego. The story divulges Nora's background through her povs, thinking about her mother's mental illness, having to be raised by her grandparents, and then feeling guilty for leaving her younger brother when she got married and moved away. Nora seems an average woman of her time, dealing with ration cards, racism from having to do with a Japanese-American couple she rented a garage apartment to, single mother, and sexism in the workplace. An new fear gets added when a serial killer seems to be attacking and killing woman plant workers.
It was interesting to read a home front WWII story and the author did a good job of including all those specific big and small time period additives, especially Japanese-American interment camps. The first half was more about getting readers into Nora's life and introducing characters. There were povs from the victims of the serial killer, to bring in that ominous threat, when in the second half it becomes the main storyline.
The author did a credible job of supplying redherrings to keep readers guessing and looking for clues, it doesn't become crystal clear who the serial killer is until the latter second half, even though you will have some guesses. Nora's strained relationship with her son is a big worry for her and I thought in favor of keeping this vibe, the character of the son was left too broadstrokes. Other secondary characters did their part with adding but not distracting to the world and story. The ending delivered a bit too perfect stars aligning to have things work out a certain way and took away from some of it's impact, a decrescendo of, well, life goes on. If you were looking for a homefront WWII, this would deliver on setting and atmosphere, with an added bonus of serial killer mystery plot.
Definitely not the typical setting for a WWII era novel; it's certainly intriguing. But while I love the "real life Rosie the Riveter" bit, I confess that the length scares me. I've read longer, but usually authors I've read for a long time, who I trust not to lose their way or add too much empty padding.
ReplyDeleteIt does read pretty easy, as in you could get through it fast and put it down and wait a while to pick it up again. I peeped the length and purposefully set up my buddy read of Sleeping Beauty by Judith Ivory so I could go back and forth between the two, worried I'd get bogged down in it. But, I do think I could have just read it by itself and cruised through it.
DeleteI wouldn't say any losing way tangents but there is some redherring padding.