Miss Carter’s War
Marguerite Carter leaves France for England during World War II, living with memories (presented as small snippets throughout the book) of who she lost and what she did to survive. After the war, Miss Carter teaches English at a girls’ school in England, growing close with the girls as well as her colleagues, often trying to save those she loves from circumstances beyond their control. The point of view is fairly unique and refreshing: a single woman throughout her young, middling, and older years who does not want children.
The plot seems meandering at first, but just when I started to question why I needed to know all of these things about Miss Carter, I began to actually care about what happened to her and her friend Tony. Once you let go of the need for a single-trajectory plot, you can begin to enjoy the Forrest Gump-like life that Miss Carter leads. The book takes her through the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the beginnings of Margaret Thatcher’s political career, progressive education, the war on drugs, fashion, gay rights and women’s rights through the decades. Miss Carter is present during, or aware of, most of the major events in Western Europe from the 1940s to the 1990s, and through them all she vows “not to do nothing.”
In the end, the book is a meditation on the generation who fought and survived World War II. For Miss Carter it is a “journey to confront her disquiet.” What does it mean to remember? How does one memorialize all that happened, and all that no one wants to talk about? How can a woman negotiate both the struggles of the present and the hauntings of her past?
