Many thanks to NetGalley and River Grove Books for a copy of this novel.

According to the publisher’s blurb, this is an abridged version of a novel previously released (2022) as Charlotte’s War. Not having read the longer version, I obviously can’t compare and comment as to whether the abridgement is an improvement on the original. I was unable to source a copy of the original, which is described as ‘epic.’ Since this version also deals with the main character, Charlotte Fletcher Shipwright, as she endures the effects of three wars on three men she loves, shortening and centring Charlotte’s story does not make it any less epic. Also clear is the fact that her experiences are not purely the stuff of historical fiction. Charlotte represents many women of her generation who suffered multiple wars in turn, with all the emotional impact they entailed, simply for having been alive to witness generations of men marching off to the front. First it was her older brother in the Second World War; next, as a young military wife, she sees her husband swept up in the Korean War. As the story begins, Charlotte is intensifying her own lifelong anti-war battle to protest the Vietnam War, which fascinates her son Jack.

For all that her experiences with war are women’s historical lot, Charlotte is no ordinary woman, for her time or any time. Making her a scholar and activist puts her in contact with important historical figures in each of the three timelines, FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, Nixon, LBJ, to name only a few. She is especially intimate with Henry Kissinger. There is a lot of weaving between historical periods, and a lot of detail in all of them, as Charlotte’s life progresses. She spends early childhood as the child of Presbyterian missionaries in China, escaping just before the Japanese occupation. The author even inserts some autobiographical references as his fictional characters interact with his own uncle, cousins and father.

Graham is a university scholar, an international affairs expert at the University of California (Irvine). His research is impeccable. But for a piece of historical fiction, even after its abridgement, there is still far too much textbook detail. One of the first examples where some sharp editing would make for better reading is the discussion of the four televised Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960, which is replete with lengthy direct quotes from the transcript. Only the footnotes are missing. Such an approach is interesting and informative and reminds readers that this really happened. But this is a novel based on history, not a classroom text.

Graham’s discussion of important historical issues through Charlotte Fletcher Shipwright, her family and social circle, is well done. He considers a mighty list of pivotal issues: the increasing dominance of television on ideas and behavior; the rise of generational consciousness; the universities as hotbeds of radicalization; the politicization of Black Americans; the polarization of class, age, gender and race politics; how the Vietnam War brought Cold War anxieties to a fever pitch. Especially as we get closer to the current uses of history to reflect the ideas of those in power, he reminds us, in the words of author Herman Wouk, cited on the frontispiece, ‘The beginning of the end of War lies in its Remembrance.’ If the writing is a bit pedantic, the history is what really matters.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC. Not at all what I expected. I expected more of a story line rather than a history class. Sorry this one wasn’t for me at all. I put it down more than picked it up.