The gathering storm

Recently I've read a couple of novels set during what Winston Churchill called the gathering storm in England--1939, with Hitler marching across Europe and Neville Chamberlain believing that appeasement would work. Give them Sudentenland, and they'll leave England alone, a policy which Churchill loudly denounced. The first novel, Mr. Churchill's Secretary, by Susan Elia MacNeal, opened my eyes to the situation in England. With the German threat hanging over the country, the IRA was determined to do the German's work for them--bring England to its knees by bombing railroad stations and the like. Their intricate plots were completely separate from Germany and Hitler. And there was great resentment of the US for not entering the fray.This novel is basically a cozy mystery and while I enjoyed the plot, I was much more interested in the historical background, which did include blitzes and quite a few scenes with Churchill. One thread is the limited opportunities for women--Maggie Hope graduated at the top of her class from a prestigious American women's university and is as well trained as England's sharpest intelligence minds, but she is only qualified to be a typist. By a fluke, she becomes the one to take Churchill's dictation and eventually has an opportunity to use her considerable intelligence skills.
The second book, which I just finished, is more of a puzzle. It's Francine Matthews' Jack 1939, set a bit earlier in 1939, before Germany took Poland and began bombing London. Jack is twenty-two-year-old JFK suffering from a severe but undiagnosed illness (probably the Bright's disease later diagnosed). He goes to England, where Joe Kennedy is America's ambassador, to wander Europe doing research for his senior thesis at Harvard, using a diplomatic passport.
This is a suspene thriller in every sense of the term. We know the hero--Jack, who is is sick all the time, often feverish, unable to hold food down, medicating himself, thin and frail. We know the heroine if there is one--Diana Playfair (I looked on Google and she doesn't seem to be a historical character). We know the villains--Reinhard Heydrich, the obbergruppenfuhrer, chief of Hitler's main security office and a thoroughly merciless man (historical figure) along with Hans Obst (apparently fictional), an equally merciless killer skiled with a knife. And we know the prize--an address book listing those who donated to the Sisters of Clemency, a charity which funneled funds to aid the Nazis in defeating Roosevelt in the American election--a list which includes Joe Kennedy. (Complicated enough for you?) Most of the above is historical but what bothered me in this novel was sorting the historical from the fictional, some of which seems improbable. Jack skitters across Europe, Obst at his heels, passing through checkpoints and closed borders and escaping death by a hair's breadth. Suspense at its best but, to me, bothersome. Jack does go from wanting to get the address book to save the famly reputation to wanting to get it for the cause of America--a touch of Camelot to come?
Joe Kennedy is as you would expect--authoritarian, dictatorial, self-centered. Rose, whom I always greatly admired, comes across as less admirable--a social-climbing, self-centered, self-indulgent woman who is distant from her children, even when Jack may be dying. Jack is not much of a surprise--intelligent, foolhardy, an eye for the skirts, enjoying a good drink. But then, he expected to die at any time anyway--why not in an adventure rather than a hospital bed? It's hard to give up Camelot.
But these books have piqued my interest in the pre-WWII years, and I want to read more.

Mr. Churchill's decision--and ours

I"m reading a book that fascinates me--Mr. Churchill's Secretary, by Susan Elia MacNeal. I'm fascinated not only because it has good mystery elements but mostly because of the history I'm learning. The setting is London in 1939, with war anticipation running high as Hitler marched across Europe. I was one year old, so I obviously didn't know, but in school I learned basically that WWII started with Pearl Harbor. Now I know there was so much more going on. Hitler devastated Europe, ending with France. Britain knew he would turn his attention there and lived in dreadful anticipation of the Luftwaffe attacks. London was rife with resentment that the United States had not joined in, and the IRA was doing its best to bring down England at this most vulnerable time--bombings, collusion with the Nazis, all kinds of plots. Britain faced treason from within and military force from without. Winston Churchill, who called for resisting the enemy at all costs, was not particularly a popular figure. Many favored appeasement, but Churchill held fast to his conviction that Britain must not succumb.
The central figure, as the title implies, is Mr. Churchill's secretary--actually she's a mathematician, trained at Wellesley, but women were not allowed such jobs, so she takes dictation. And at one point, Church says to her, "Either we move forward into a world of sunlight or sink into the abyss of a new dark age."
To me, that's where America stands right now. It's not overtly a political choice, it's a moral one--though ultimately of course it comes down to politics. But are we going to become a nation divided by class, with little or no opportunity for few but the rich? A nation divided by gender, race, sexual preference? A nation whose judgment and laws are heavily influenced by one set of religious principles that, among other things, deny women a seat at the table?
Or are we going to conitnue to move forward to be a nation where every person,regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual preference, has an equal chance? A nation where all faiths and all races are respected? A nation that recognizes the worth of the individual, be he or she factory worker or millionaire?
Granted our forefathers didn't foresee racial equality, gender equality--we have, to our credit, "come a long way, baby!" But those founding fathers were quite clear about separation of church and state, having come from the oppression of many religions in Europe. And Thomas Jefferson, among others, warned of the dangers when government falls into the hands of the privileged and elite.
This November we have that clear choice. It's not a choice of Republican or Democrat--it's a choice of moral principles. I know where I stand. How about you?

Keeping Busy Going Nowhere

What I thought would be another divorcees damn dull weekend turned out to be lovely, busy, and yet lazy. Friday night I took my friend Mary Lu to dinner for her birthday, and we had a good time, though as old ladies do, we talked a lot about health--she will have knee surgery this week. Saturday I ran all over town--groceries (two of them), clothing store (I got bargains plus a Christmas gift), bookstore, cosmetic store, hardware--yes, I was tired when I got home. But I fixed my supper--Dover sole almondine (without the almonds but with the crumb topping) and spinach with olive oil and a bit of anchovy, because I was going to babysit Jacob and knew I couldn't easily cook and watch him. At his house, the kitchen and family room are one open space, and his mom can do both, but it's not that way at my house. He and I had fun that evening. I swear he said, "All done," when he was through eating--ok, a pigeon English version. And he loved tapioca, which I bought specially to see if he liked it. He ate all of his serving again tonight after determinedly throwing his chicken, green beans, and potato on the floor, in spite of repeated stern warnings of, "Jacob, no! We do not throw out food on the floor." That, of course, makes him smile charmingly. But when he was put down out of his high chair, he kept wandering back to me for spoonfuls of tapioca.
This morning I went to church and came home and made a ground bison meatloaf--it was really good, though the thing that kept it moist was a lot of chopped mushrooms (buffalo tends to be dry). Christian thought he was saving fat, until I pointed out that the green beans with bacon more than made up for the cholesterol saving with the bison loaf. I also did oven roasted potatoes, which were delicious. Down home cooking, not too bad for you, and soooo good.
All weekend I've been reading a Catherine Coulter mystery--Double Take. Megan said Brandon told 3-year-old Sawyer he would take him to buy whatever he wanted for his mom for her b'day. Sawyer wanted a digger, so they headed for the toy store. But then Sawyer changed and said he wanted to buy her a book--so they bought a Catherine Coulter mystery that Sawyer liked because it had a boat on the cover. Meg asked if I read Coulter, and I said yes, I enjoyed her. I took this one--the newest--out of the library, and I hate to tell Sawyer this but that's not a boat on the cover. It's Alcatraz. Yes, surrounded by water. But the novel kept me absorbed all weekend, and I didn't do a thing constructive. But, hey, I don't have to. I've met my deadlines, and the things on my desk now are without deadline--better I should have a time to finish them. Tonight I'm watching the mesmerizing PBS Ken Burns special on WWII. I don't remember that war, though I've been told so many stories--my first real "public" memory is FDR's death. My dad fought in WWI and was too old for that one, and yet WWII seems so real to me, because of stories about where we were when Pearl Harbor was bombed and the like. The series is fascinating--and horrifying.