A Sister’s War
This final volume in the Sisters at War trilogy brings the epic adventures of the Linfoot sisters to an unsettling conclusion. The youngest, Ronnie, not only misses her two older sisters but wants to, like perhaps any teenager on the cusp of adulthood, establish personal independence from a somewhat controlling mother.
This is a coming-of-age narrative embedded in a society fighting for its very survival. The reader follows the journey of a rebellious Ronnie over the last years of World War II through many trials and tribulations as she masters the demands of working on a canal boat ferrying vital supplies (including coal and iron) through the narrow water systems of England. Her personal entanglements with boys along with her canal boat-mates are juxtaposed with the ongoing war as well as her worry about her two siblings, who are also engaged in wartime activities.
This is a complex novel with numerous intersecting personal stories. The characters all deal with their own personal dilemmas, and readers will find themselves dramatically drawn into these varied entanglements. As befitting the era, there is ever-present death and destruction along with individual failures and complexities compounded by a stressful reality.
Notwithstanding the centrality of effort to win the war, the societal stratum of England plays an unintended role. Class distinctions cloud the efforts and are best articulated by “Boat people are looked down upon as we don’t speak la-di-da”. Although all sisters reunite at the conclusion of hostilities with a mother who has also changed, the future is still uncertain. Will the newly formed relationships stand the strain of a rebuilding peace, and how must lingering internal norms adjust to meet this new reality?
