We are living in a time when the habits of frugality and thrift are being forced upon us, and to my way of thinking it's not a bad thing. In the book Nella Last's War one gets to peak inside a WWII housewife's mind to get a glimpse of the creativity and cleverness people everywhere display during hard times. Nella Last kept a diary throughout World War Two, under the auspices of the Mass Observation Archive. In the UK a television drama called Housewife, 49 was based on Nella Last's diary entries. Wartime allowed Nella to enjoy more independence than earlier in her marriage and she writes with candor about her fears of invasion, changing feelings for her husband, and worries over her sons.
In many ways this book reminds me of Shirley Jackson's Life Among the Savages, or Terry Ryan's The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. All three books reveal women who were well-read, independent mothers who made the best of life as a housewife in the 1940's and 1950's. All, very good reads.
RSS Feed