Caroline Preston

This is not your typical WWII historical fiction novel. It is nothing like The Book Thief, The Nightingale, Code Name Verity, Salt to the Sea, etc. It is the story of the American homefront, a story with many similar elements to stories that my grandmother tells my sister and I about what life was like in Philadelphia during the Second World War. And, if you have a chance to flip through the pages of The War Bride’s Scrapbook, it is, in fact, a scrapbook. It is not laid out like a traditional novel and is beautiful in it’s full-color ephemera splendor.

While I am a frequent reader of graphic novels, this is my first “scrapbook” book and it is a format I would be excited to read again. The storytelling is done primarily with letters between Lila and Perry as most of the scrapbook is dedicated to their time apart during the war. At first I was concerned that I would find the pacing choppy, but it is clear that either Caroline Preston is, herself, an avid scrapbooker, or, more likely, an expert storyteller who can work her craft in a very unique medium.

Given that it is Lila’s scrapbook, we, the readers, get ample insight not only into her head-space during the war, but also of society’s as a whole as she remarks on the activities of her friends and family. Perry is a character of contradictions, which adds to the point that he and Lila barely knew/know each other. There are moments of laughter, particularly when characters come together out of need, necessity or shear coincidence. And, my post 2017 understanding of women’s rights feminist self is very excited about the fact that Lila is her own person, her own character, and is not reliant on Perry for her happiness.… (mais)

Although the fad of fancy scrapbooking with designer paper, expensive metal brads, ribbons, lace, and all the other things that scrapbook stores are stuffed with may have tempered slightly in the recent recession, there are still plenty of people out there who will pore over this novel cleverly disguised as a vintage scrapbook. Subtitled "a novel in pictures," it is full of bits and clippings of authentic vintage scrapbooks, collected by the author, an archivist from the Peabody/Essex Museum. The work put into framing the story and finding pictures and clippings to tell it are impressive.

This book won an Alex award in 2012. However, I would note that its subject matter does limit it pretty strictly to young women; I would be hard pressed to find a teenage boy that would be caught reading this. It has appeal to both budding and full-fledged hipsters, although some will be confused by the caption "a Corona at last -- I've always wanted one!" in reference to the typewriter, not the beer.… (mais)