Readers of this blog will have
noticed a number of different posts related to this recently-published World
War I spy novel, including a nice behind-the-scenes look at the real history
that shaped the fiction. But after reading
it, what was my impression?
I greatly enjoyed War of Loyalties. Because of the mystery/spy nature of the
book, I cannot really attempt a spoiler-free plot summation. A review with spoilers would destroy much of
the book’s suspense, as the plot revolves around finding which neighbors are
German traitors and which are loyal. Neighbors
is used in its exact sense, as almost all of the characters are located in the
small town of Folkestone, England. Spies
and counter-spies rub shoulders and there are complex relationships between the
characters. Sometimes all is not as it
seems, but that is as far as I dare go when discussing the plot…
Two aspects of this book were
especially pleasing to me, and all the more so because they are usually missing
in most fiction. These are the careful
attention paid to history, and the loving depictions of the simple pleasures of
life.
History
This is a book that is firmly
rooted in its early 20th Century setting. In fact, an appendix includes a bibliography of sources used to recreate the past for this novel. Important victories or defeats in Flanders
are fodder for the newspapers and discussed by the characters as we might
discuss the latest policies of the president.
The imminent Russian collapse causes the Allied characters to worry and
accelerate their efforts. One character
is distributing an anti-war magazine called The Masses (a fictional magazine,
but clearly a Bolshevik publication).
Rather than attempt to categorize all of the history, I will direct your
attention to an exclusive interview with the author in which she highlights
some of these details. http://defendingthelegacy.blogspot.com/2017/06/guest-post-historical-details-in-war-of.html
 |
| A Webley Revolver |
As befits a spy novel, most of
its characters are armed. Their weapon
of choice is a Webley revolver, which seemed slightly repetitive until I dug a
little deeper. I found that Webley was a
leading producer of British handguns, and supplied official service revolvers
to the British Army for decades. The Illustrated Book of Guns listed 17
separate models which were all produced before 1918, including some (like the
Mark III) designed and marketed specifically for civilians.
Love of the Ordinary
It is rare for a work of fiction
to be so concerned about historical details, but it is even rarer for it to
have a love of the ordinary. What
exactly does this mean? And how can a
spy story—by definition beyond the everyday experience of most of us—celebrate the
joys of ordinary life?
C. S. Lewis described this love
of ordinary experiences in his autobiography Surprised by Joy. “The very qualities which had previously
deterred me from such book Arthur taught me to see as their charm. What I would have called their ‘stodginess’
or ‘ordinariness’ he called ‘homeliness’—a key word in his imagination. He did not mean merely Domesticity, though
that came into it. He meant the rooted
quality which attaches them to all our simple experiences, to weather, food,
the family, the neighborhood.” (Surprised by Joy, pg. 146)
Lewis’s books are full of this
love of the ordinary, simple pleasures of life, such as the delicious dinner
the Pevensies enjoy at the Beavers’ house.
I was pleased that War of
Loyalties is full of this love of simple joys as well. It
breathes throughout the entire book in descriptions of tea and wood fires, in
the strength and support that Charlotte Dorroll offers to her husband Ben. But this concept comes into sharpest focus
when Benjamin Dorroll is staying at the house of old family friends, the O’Seans. The description of their familial loyalty and
comfortable friendship in the midst of war and spies and tangled loyalties is
well done.
If you can obtain this book, I
would highly recommend it for any reader. An
interesting, fast-paced story is combined with historical details and a love
for domesticity. This book is highly
recommended.
5/5 stars.
