I’m on a bit of a roll lately, reading books for pleasure! I have to point out that this doesn’t mean I have more spare time, I’m just forcing myself to read books rather than hang around on Pinterest!
I was sent a copy of GI Brides: the wartime girls who crossed the Atlantic for love, by the authors who wrote The Sugar Girls which I reviewed earlier this year.
The ‘friendly invasion’ of Britain by over a million American GIs caused a sensation amongst a generation of young women deprived of male company during the Second World War. But American soldiers offered something even more tantalising than a ready supply of chocolate, chewing gum and nylon stockings. Becoming a GI bride provided an escape route from Blitz-ravaged Britain, an opportunity for a whole new life in America – a country that was more affluent, more modern and less class-ridden than home. Some 70,000 GI brides crossed the Atlantic at the end of the war to join the men who had captured their hearts – but the long voyage was just the beginning of a much bigger journey.
Once there, the women would have to adapt to a foreign culture and a new way of life thousands of miles away from family and friends, with a man they hardly knew out of uniform. Some struggled with the isolation of life in rural America, or found their heroic soldier was less appealing once he returned to Civvy Street. But most persevered, determined to turn their wartime romance into a lifelong love affair, and prove to those back home that it really was possible to have a Hollywood ending.
I really loved this book, and kept picking it up when the children were in the bath or sitting on my knee as I just had to know what happened to Sylvia, Gwendolyn, Rae and Margaret. Their stories were completely absorbing and I really wanted to know what happened to the brave young women who left England for married life in a different world. I enjoyed the style of the book which weaved between the stories of the four women.
The first third of the book sets the tone in England during the Second World War with the relationship between the English women and the GI’s. The rest of the book focuses on the four women who left England, along with some 70000 girls who had become war brides, to live their lives in America. Despite the hardships of their new lives, and their husbands families, I was pleased to discover that the divorce rate amongst GI brides was lower than the national average. They formed new support networks with fellow expats and got on with it, as they had during the war. A brilliant read, and I loved the Epilogue to find out what happened to all four women. More information about the book as well as images of the women, which I feel is lacking from the book, can be found here.
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