Middle Chapters: Winter and Spring (9 - 17)

[retromom]

I kept thinking the same thing. Please let the all clear siren sound and get them out of there. I was so afraid Will would be unfaithful and that is what I fully expected. I too was shocked at his death. I was hoping Will would recover from Maggie's death and go home. As much as our hearts are breaking, I love when an author makes us really care this much about the characters.

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GreenFairyLV wrote:

I just finished chapter 13 and am heartbroken. Will was my favorite character, I'll miss him.  The whole time reading that chapter I kept thinking, "he better not sleep with Frankie, I don't care if it is a different time."  I never thought for a minute he would die.  I was shocked.

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[jenieliser]

How has Frankie's relationship to her job changed in these chapters? Is she as tough minded and directed as she was when we first met her in London? How does she treat the story of the Jewish refugees moving across Europe? What effect did her brief contact with Will have on her?

She seems more involved, with a greater purpose, but a little lost at the same time. She seems really excited and determined about the Jewish story. It's given her a little bit of focus, but the story is so overwhelming and depressing it has effected her.

What effect did it have on you that Will's death is a traffic accident, rather than a war death?

That was really sad! Quite unexpected! Call me crazy but I can imagine it hurting Emma even moreso to know that he was killed because he didn't look both ways when crossign the street  instead of doing something "heroic" that he wanted to do. Even though he was doing somethign "heroic", its not the way he died. sorry if that doesn't really make much sense.

How does Emma hold up? At the end of our current section, Emma is still getting daily letters from Will from before his death--how do you expect her to handle the news? Has your impression of Emma changed as the story progresses?

Emma seems fragile, but that is to be expected. I don't think she'll take it well when she finally gets the news about Will. I've noticed that Iris is looking after her more and Emma is accepting her friendship. That will help her a lot later I think. Emma seems a bit stronger now. Don't get me wrong, I still think she's fragile, but when she first got there she was a little out of place. She was the newbie and felt every bit of it. Now that she ismore part of the town-even if just with Iris, I'd like to think she's a little stronger for it.

[laurajzzz]

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How has Frankie's relationship to her job changed in these chapters? Is she as tough minded and directed as she was when we first met her in London? How does she treat the story of the Jewish refugees moving across Europe? What effect did her brief contact with Will have on her?

These chapters is where the story really takes off for me,   Frankie's journey thru Europe and the recording of the stories of the refugees really make the most impact for me.   Part of that is because I have read other accounts of this part of the war so I feel like I know what is going to happen to these people and none of it seems to be good.   I think that the combination of Harriet and Billy's mom dying then Will and then hearing Thomas's story has really changed Frankie.   It has made her more compassionate but I think that it makes her more determined to get these stories recorded.

How have your feelings for Iris changed during these chapters? Compare your initial impression of her in a doctor's office to the woman we observe efficiently managing this small town the post office. How well do Harry and Iris understand each other? Are they similar at all?

I find myself liking Iris more as she is there watching out for Emma.  Iris and Harry are a good fit.   Both are obsessed with their idea of order - her with the post office and him with the watching out for the enemy.

Will said to Frankie that his experience of London during was was that everything "adds up."  What does he mean by this? Why does Will seem happy? What effect did it have on you that Will's death is a traffic accident, rather than a war death?

I just had a feeling that something unexpected would happen to Will,  that he would die from something not related to the war and this phrase from the begining of the book came to mind:  "Every story- love or war- is a story about looking left when we should have been looking right."

How does Emma hold up? At the end of our current section, Emma is still getting daily letters from Will from before his death--how do you expect her to handle the news? Has your impression of Emma changed as the story progresses?

Emma is alone, pregnant and at some point I think she realizes that something has happened to Will but she does not want to face it.    She thinks that she is invisible because she has no family but once she has that baby she will make her own family.

Couple of things that stand out for me:    Will left a letter with Iris in case something happens,   Frankie has a letter that Will hadn't mailed yet and she assumes that the news of his death will make it back to his family.  Do these connect somehow?

Also was it common for women to travel alone thru Europe during that time period? 

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[literature]

I would third that suggestion.  Except Will's last letter to Emma was very short due the the Siren.  It really did not contain any crucial information.  Whether Emma gets it or not is really not that pivotal to the story.  Perhaps Iris already knows about Will through a telegram but intends to withhold the information to protect Emma till the baby's born.

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Christie62 wrote:

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Just wondering, as she is carrying around Will's letter and these recorded messages, if Frankie is the title character, and not Iris?

-- C.

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Well said CJINCA.  I was wondering this myself, and also how Emma would feel if she knew that Frankie had developed such a powerful emotional connection with Will.

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C, it's funny that you mention if  perhaps Frankie is the title character and not Iris because I was having a conversation with my daughter this morning, who is also a participant, and she thought the same thing.  I believe it says either on the jacket cover or in a synopsis of the book that the postmistress did not deliver a letler.  Iris is described as the postmistress.  We'll see.

[literature]

thewanderingjew wrote:

I wondered if, after Will's death, she and  Jim Tom might not team up. In a weird sort of way it might seem like the ultimate form of justice being played out. The children would no longer be motherless, Emma would not be alone with her new baby and if Will was in heaven looking down, maybe his soul would finally rest. He would feel justice was done. I hope this theory doesn't sound too warped but Jim Tom seemed to be handling his crisis far better than Emma was, so it seemed like a workable solution to me, in a more perfect world. I will have to finish the book to see what ultimately happens so I may eventually feel foolish for positing such a plan. I am reading on schedule this time!

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Debbie's response:  Hi TWJ, I also wondered about that, but only for a second. It seems that they come from very different worlds, but then maybe he could provide the security that Emma seems to need. So I guess we'll see.

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I can't see Emma with Jim Tom.  They seem so different.  Jim Tom is handling the situation better because he has children to take care of and he must continue to function so there is continued normalcy for the children.  Whereas, Emma is pregnant with her first child and she is still just taking care of herself. 

My take and I am only about 2/3's through the book so I don't know what happens:  I think Emma and Otto have more in common and seem to be very comfortable with each other .  I don't have my book/notes with me but Emma seemed to be looking quite intently at Otto's body when she first saw him painting the trim on her house.  As I remember it, there were quite a few comments about Otto's long, lean body and how his body looked when he stretched to reach the trim.

[maryfrancesa]

Reguarding Frankie's relationships I think that after Will's and Harriet's death she became more into telling the plight of the european jews.  I don't think that she initally had a plan but she stumled onto telling their stories through their eyes.  I think that she was really trying to reach the uninterested Americans who generally felt that we were safe way over here in the Altantic.

Iris had already shown that she is a "take charge female" with the virgin certificate.   I think that somehow Will reached her in the sense that she was keeping an eye out for Emma and in a sense for the whole town.. Her's was the meeting place. 

From what harry and IrisI guess that they are similiar older adults finding each other.  I a sense both are looking out for the town.  I suspect that Iris knew before Emma that something was not right with Will. 

Will is alittle difficult to read.  at times I felt that he expected to die over there maybe not before he arrived but soon afterwards.  I guess in his shoes if all I saw and dealth with was death and dfying I would have developed a fatalistic alltitude.  I think that he had all the attentions of returning to his little apratment or else I feel that he would have completed the last letter to Emma.  I wonder why Frankie forgot about the letter and had good intentions of sending it but never did. In a sense Will felt that it was his duty /destiny to die then.  I do agree that when it's our time it does not really matter where or what we are.

[maryfrancesa]

To continue I am pround of how well Emma appears to be doing.  She is going on with her life, at first timid but then she starts with the home improvements. 

[Biblio_Sue]

C, it's funny that you mention if  perhaps Frankie is the title character and not Iris because I was having a conversation with my daughter this morning, who is also a participant, and she thought the same thing.  I believe it says either on the jacket cover or in a synopsis of the book that the postmistress did not deliver a letler.  Iris is described as the postmistress.  We'll see.

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I guess both Frankie and Iris are messengers in one way or another

[BookBobBP]

I totally disagree with you about Emma.  Emma is an orphan who lost her parents and she is now pregnant and her husband is far away and will not be coming back as we find out.  I think it is hard for Emma who experiences so much lost to let others in.  Yes I was taken back when she made that comment to Maggie's husband.  But you have to look at what Emma has been through. 

[valbea2]

How have your feelings for Iris changed during these chapters? Compare your initial impression of her in a doctor's office to the woman we observe efficiently managing this small town the post office. How well do Harry and Iris understand each other? Are they similar at all?

Iris seems to haven softened a bit.  I like her better now than at first.  It seems to me that the only thing she and Harry have in common is that they are both very eccentric.  Her with her tidy little post office and him watching the waters for the enemy to appear.  Other than that, I just ask myself - what is the deal with these two people?  Are they just a convenience to each other?  Just two lonely people fulfilling a need in one another's lives?  Interesting....

[valbea2]

How have your feelings for Iris changed during these chapters? Compare your initial impression of her in a doctor's office to the woman we observe efficiently managing this small town the post office. How well do Harry and Iris understand each other? Are they similar at all?

Iris seems to haven softened a bit.  I like her better now than at first.  It seems to me that the only thing she and Harry have in common is that they are both very eccentric.  Her with her tidy little post office and him watching the waters for the enemy to appear.  Other than that, I just ask myself - what is the deal with these two people?  Are they just a convenience to each other?  Just two lonely people fulfilling a need in one another's lives?  Interesting....

[Carmenere_lady]

Yeah, I caught that too.  Otto still has a wife in Europe and she may present a problem for them hooking up.

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literature wrote:

My take and I am only about 2/3's through the book so I don't know what happens:  I think Emma and Otto have more in common and seem to be very comfortable with each other .  I don't have my book/notes with me but Emma seemed to be looking quite intently at Otto's body when she first saw him painting the trim on her house.  As I remember it, there were quite a few comments about Otto's long, lean body and how his body looked when he stretched to reach the trim.

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[DSaff]

She'd get her house painted. LOL

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retromom wrote:

See now I was thinking maybe the German man who wants to paint her house would become her new beau. Wouldn't that make life in town interesting?

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DSaff wrote:

I had the same thought about Jim Tom and Emma. You are not alone. <grin>

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thewanderingjew wrote:

At first I thought that Emma was acting like a spoiled brat. Then I thought, wait a minute, she is pregnant. Her hormones are bouncing around. She is alone in a strange place, in essence abandoned. She has no family, no one to confide in. She has to be plain lonely and scared and she is reacting out of those confused emotions.

I wondered if, after Will's death, she and  Jim Tom might not team up. In a weird sort of way it might seem like the ultimate form of justice being played out. The children would no longer be motherless, Emma would not be alone with her new baby and if Will was in heaven looking down, maybe his soul would finally rest. He would feel justice was done. I hope this theory doesn't sound too warped but Jim Tom seemed to be handling his crisis far better than Emma was, so it seemed like a workable solution to me, in a more perfect world. I will have to finish the book to see what ultimately happens so I may eventually feel foolish for positing such a plan. I am reading on schedule this time!

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Rachel-K wrote:

How does Emma hold up? At the end of our current section, Emma is still getting daily letters from Will from before his death--how do you expect her to handle the news? Has your impression of Emma changed as the story progresses?

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[Sunltcloud]

Right now I can't stand Emma. I am working on the first few pages of Spring 1941. Emma talks to iris and this is her contribution to her marriage, I suppose:? (page 138)

"He sounds so happy in his letters," she said wistfully, after a little.

"He believes in what he's doing."

"Yes, but what am I doing? What about sitting here and waiting for word? All I think is getting the news, and I can't see straight sometimes. ............."

Here is my adivce to Emma: "What kind of attitude is that? Do something with yourself. Go bake a cake and invite some neighbors. Learn to knit. That's what women do who aren't out there reporting the war or entertaining the soldiers. Knit some socks. Support your husband. We don't always understand why a man does what he does, but shouldn't you give him a chance? You should be glad that he is happy. Have some faith in him. Write him a long letter, more than two words long anyway."

Good. I feel better now. I might not continue to read for the rest of the day; I might go and knit. Hey, it worked after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. I knitted myself through the worst period of time and we made a whole lot of people happy in the process.

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How does Emma hold up? At the end of our current section, Emma is still getting daily letters from Will from before his death--how do you expect her to handle the news? Has your impression of Emma changed as the story progresses?

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[pattycakeMN]

I think Emma and Jim Tom would be good for each other - each with children (child0 and no partner.  Jim Tom seems to be optomistic about things, and perhaps that would help Emma.

Patricia

[BDonnelly]

I found these chapters brought the characters to life for me.  Prior I was not so interested in their stories and now I find my interest awakened.  I especially like Frankie and how she has taken up the plight of the Jewish refugees.  I find her job is not just a job any more.  She has become passionate about bringing their story to the people and hopes to have an impact.  She, herself, has become engaged in their plight.

I found the interaction between her and Will interesting as well.  Everything adds up.  I guess for Will, he knew (or hoped) he would die in England and hoped that would make up for his error.  And I do see that.  Especially since his death was not brought about from the war.  It was another accident - looking the wrong way - and his error again.  So do things add up because his death cancels out his patient's death or do his two errors cancel each other out?  And, if things add up, what about the Jews?  How do they add up for the Jews?

[DarcyO]

I also thought Jim and Emma might make a good pair. Emma's feelings of being alone would surely be assuaged if she and Jim were to get together.

On a side note, I found it suspicious that Otto offered to paint Emma's house white. If he is a German spy, it would sure come in handy for him to use her house as a point of reference to incoming ships.

[JoyZ]

In these middle chapters we discover so much more about Frankie.  She went from reporting things to actually becoming an investigative reporter.  When she first boarded the train she thought she would be interviewing people who are happy to be headed out of the war zone.  She soon discovers the fear in the hesitancy and whispers as they answer her questions.  Then after the mother and son are separated and Thomas is shot, she delves deeper into the story. 

Iris and Harry are similar in their stubborness and their watching out for others which may be what brought them together.  I don't think relationships, and sex, were any different then than now, people just didn't talk about it.

Emma, who felt the need to live through her man, has now been able to continue on by herself.  I felt she was weak but now see that she is a survivor.  Even though she doesn't yet know that Will has passed, she has been able to continue on alone.

[Sunltcloud]

When Will decides that he has discovered the grand scheme of things he frees himself from his guilt over Maggie's death. He now believes that you can't stand in the way of anything. "You can only stand alongside."And though this looks like a rather passive attitude to me - and Frankie - it is an epiphany that makes him happy. Whether this is a delusion or philosophical insight makes little difference as it probably enables him to become more efficient in his work. He seems to become almost detached from death; "You can't stop the mess. You can't change what's coming" he says to Frankie (page 158)

I find it interesting that Will gets killed turning to look at a woman with a baby in her arms. He was, in his final act, looking to recapture his wife's face in a woman he passed, and he might have gotten a glimpse of the future. (page 161) "...but something the woman did made the doctor turn and look at her, as though he had recognized her, and didn't see the London taxi coming from the direction no American thinks to look....."

(And oh yes, the direction of traffic, how well I remember this very confusing moment of fear, standing face to face - I mean my face only inches away from the windwindshield - with a bus in front of Victoria Station.  Coming from a country with traffic on the right side of the street I was taught at an early age to look to the left for oncoming traffic. It is hard to change instantly though later I trained myself to look to the right before crossing the street.)

That Will died in a traffic accident seems like a metaphor for his somewhat misguided attempts to flee the past and an answer to his awkward decisions. Almost as if "death by war" would have let him off the hook. "Death by war" would have made Will a hero. Will was not a hero in my eyes. "Death by taxi" validates his pedestrian struggle.

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Rachel-K wrote:

Will said to Frankie that his experience of London during was was that everything "adds up."  What does he mean by this? Why does Will seem happy? What effect did it have on you that Will's death is a traffic accident, rather than a war death?

[Ronrose]

Mr Murrow's quote, "Our job is not to persuade just provide the honest news.", tells us the difference between trying to report the news as an observer and being a commentator or interpreter of the news. It was important to him to get the facts of a story and to let the reader or listener interpret those facts and reach an opinion of their own. As Frankie is drawn into the plight of the refugees and witnesses first hand the autrocities, she becomes less of a reporter and more of a commentator. She feels that it is not enough to merely report cold facts. She has to act on them, as when she hums the first four notes of Beetoven's Fifth into the microphone in front of the censor. For all of us there is a point where we cross from being an observer of the life around us and a participant. In the story, the people at home in the U. S. are rapidly approaching this time as we are told of the harbor filled with warships waiting to be sent to Great Britain as part of the lend-lease policy. Also the draft has been reinstated, just as a precaution, the people are told.

[nicole21WA]

When I read the opening of the book, I thought Frankie was talking about Iris.  I figured that since she's the postmaster, she would be the one to not deliver the mail.  Now that Frankie has Will's letter, which she told herself she would mail in France, but didn't when she went into the post office to use the phone, I think she's the one she was talking about.  It's still possible that it'll be Iris, but at this point Frankie doesn't know her.  That indicates to me that Frankie wouldn't be able to tell a story about her.

I'm also really not liking Frankie now.  I don't know if it's because I think she's never going to give Emma the letter or what, but she's annoying me with just about everything she does.