Switchboard Soldiers. Jennifer Chiaverini. 2022. 464 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Marie glowed with pride and anticipation as her mother took her customary place in front of the gleaming grand piano in the gracious parlor of their Mount Auburn home.
Premise/plot: Switchboard Soldiers is Chiaverini's newest historical novel. It is set during the first world war, or "the Great War," or "the war to end all wars." The prologue is set in August 1914, but for the most part it spans 1917-1919 [spring 1919]. There are three "main" characters [aka narrators] Grace Banker, Marie Miossec, and Valerie DeSmedt. But there are SO, SO, SO many other characters. The book chronicles the experiences of super-skilled-and-talented [female] telephone operators who served their country. Not only did they need to know the switchboard system well, they needed to be fluent in French. On top of the dangers of war--at the front lines and in a country at war facing bombing attacks--but there was also the dangers of the Great Influenza [aka the 'Spanish' flu].
My thoughts: This one had all the elements I typically look for in historical fiction. Yet it is definitely an "almost" from me. I know, in part, this disconnect [pun intended] is my fault. I was reading the library copy and didn't finish in time. I had to wait for my turn to come back around. [Which was about three weeks]. I had marked down my place exactly, but, my interest had cooled by the time I picked it up again. But I do think that alternating narrators might have still allowed for some disconnect. Some. There were SO many names, so many characters, so many off-to-the-side characters. [Like brothers or random soldiers with the potential to be love interests]. I felt a consistent vague-ness. I was never quite sure who was who. Not enough to be actively disgruntled or out of sorts. Just a vague un-easiness that I was not getting the most out of the story because I'd missed too many little things along the way.
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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