Stephanie Jane reviewed Sleeping Through War by Jackie Carreira
Brilliant!
5 stars
When I first marked Sleeping Through War as finished on my Goodreads I rated it as four stars because I had enjoyed the read and appreciated Carreira's approach to portraying this monumental moment in history. That was a couple of days ago though and the more I have been mulling the book over for this review, the better I think it is! Consequently I've upped that star rating to a five.
Sleeping Through War has four narrative threads which are connected by their time period and subject matter, but don't actually link up. I did spend quite a bit of time wondering how the women would end up together, but that isn't how this novel works so don't distract yourself in the same way! Amalia is a single mother struggling to support herself and her young son in Lisbon; Rose is a West Indian care home nurse in London; Mrs …
When I first marked Sleeping Through War as finished on my Goodreads I rated it as four stars because I had enjoyed the read and appreciated Carreira's approach to portraying this monumental moment in history. That was a couple of days ago though and the more I have been mulling the book over for this review, the better I think it is! Consequently I've upped that star rating to a five.
Sleeping Through War has four narrative threads which are connected by their time period and subject matter, but don't actually link up. I did spend quite a bit of time wondering how the women would end up together, but that isn't how this novel works so don't distract yourself in the same way! Amalia is a single mother struggling to support herself and her young son in Lisbon; Rose is a West Indian care home nurse in London; Mrs Johnson is an American wife and mother whose son is fighting in Vietnam. These three fictional but completely real characters take turns to speak directly to the reader about their day-to-day lives and their chapters are interspersed with news reports of the violence which seemed to sweep the globe that year. I don't quite know how to explain, but it felt to me as though the news reports provided a male counterpoint to the womens stories and, although I know the reported events did happen, Amalia, Rose and Mrs Johnson's words seemed more believable. How so much aggression could have exploded within such a short space of time is incredible, yet for these women - and millions like them - the small details of their days are just as life-changing, in fact more so to these individuals, but not in such a way as to make headlines.