The Victory Garden: A Novel

It is now no surprise to me at all why this novel and author have received so many awards for an outstanding literary work of historical fiction. From the moment I started the first chapter I did not want to stop reading. Soon I was praying for a sequel so I could continue to live with the characters who were so precisely drawn through their physical and psychological descriptions. It was so interesting to me, an American woman in 2024, to delve into the lives of these women living through what they thought was “the war to end all wars”. Their positions in society, and the constraints from those positions was clearly shown. Human emotions are also the same whenever in time. And oh! the wealth of information about herbs and homeopathic medicine is just as valid now as then. What a worthwhile novel in all ways! So glad I didn’t miss it. That being said, I’ll be reading more from Rhys Bowen while being ever so grateful for her writing.

This is a charming and engrossing book which, despite my being very busy, I gobbled it up in a few sittings. Historically, it was interesting to me, because I knew nothing about the Land Girls in WWI. I’d heard about the nurses, therapists, etc., but I’d never heard of the Land Girls despite the incredibly valuable role they played in England during the war. The story is quite engrossing and you will hate to put it down because the trials and tribulations of the main character and her friends are so interesting and believable. I had just gone through all of Rhys Bowen’s “Her Royal Spyness” series and was sad that the next one doesn’t come out for several months, so I decided to explore her other works. I’m so glad I did, because this was a delight to read. I highly recommend this book as well as all of the “Her Royal Spyness” books. Now, I’m going to find some more of her works, which I suspect I will be recommending too.

It was 1916 & the Great War was still raging; almost everyone had lost a loved one by now & there few, if any, healthy young men to be found in England. Emily was just about to turn 21 when she fell in love with a handsome Australian fighter pilot who was recovering from his injuries at a nearby estate which had become a convalescent home for officers. Her overprotective & class conscious parents did not approve of her choice & when they took steps to thwart the relationship, Emily left home to seek employment that would contribute to the war effort & make it possible to continue to see her lieutenant, finding herself unexpectedly agreeing to serve as a Land Girl, one of the bold women who volunteered to help with the grueling farm work which had previously been performed by the absent men. This is not just a fish-out-of-water story, but one of overcoming adversity, of endurance, & of survival. Also…love, but not only the romantic kind. I was happy with the conclusion of this tale but would be even happier to read a sequel!

This author nearly corners the market on the English upper class during the time surrounding WWI; she is a wonderfully descriptive writer with great insight into the human heart; her characters are well realized & compelling. She’s one of my very favorites!

Usually, I don’t read Historical Fiction as a genre but this seemed interesting to me. It was pretty devastating to say the least that despite this being completely fictional, I felt a sense of loss for real people that lived through ww1. I felt that we were really, truly following Emily’s journey during the events and I think the book did its purpose in telling that story. What was a bit disappointing was that in the synopsis, it was said about how Emily grows herbs and that was true, it was a little misleading. I assumed it was for the war soliders not for villagers in the town. And we followed Emily’s life moreso than anything else. I think the title is true to the story cause not only did she work on the land, she also created concoctions to make people feel better. I think especially given the circumstances, it represented hope. Hope for people during the war.

The description on the back of this book was on point, nothing else to this story. So, I am going to review my likes and dislikes.

This follows the fictional life of the main character Emily during WWI. The story does include her life among the Women's Land Army, albeit not into much detail. Since the book covers the very end of the war, the land girls and Emily's life there were only given about one fourth time of this novel. I was disappointed. Next, the story tries to then focus on the main character using natural herbal remedies as the next chapter in her life, but this aspect just seemed tacked on. Emily's herbal remedy potions had little to do with what she learned being a land girl. It was like the story needed somewhere to go. I kept reading waiting for everything to piece together, but it was weakly done. Something I found interesting and was hopeful about was the pregnancy of the main character. Refusing to go to a home where she can have the child placed for adoption, she was determined to have the child on her own and make ends meet. She has the child out of wedlock during a time period where this was unacceptable, so this is what kept me reading. Yet, I found her unrelenting ability to always prevail and meet her challenges successfully during the pregnancy far-fetched and romantical rather than historical.

Not as impressive as The Tuscan Child, which I was a huge fan of. I didn't feel like I was immersed into another society or culture. BUT a quick and very easy read. I would say 2.5 stars. Although some things were very predictable, it was entertaining at times.

I read a lot of books that I don’t particularly enjoy. It’s my preference to finish them nonetheless, so I power through and once I’m done I probably don’t ever think about the book again.

This one though… oh boy. I finished reading this book at 12:30 in the morning and it left such a horrible taste in my mouth that I got out of bed, grabbed my computer, and started hate typing this review.

TLDR Version: For me this novel has absolutely no roots. Nothing drew me in and nothing made me care about the characters. In fact, the protagonist is so unlikeable that it ended up souring my entire view of the story. If you want to waste your time reading a book about a girl who is saved by her social class and literally nothing else, due to a complete lack of positive attributes, then this is the book for you.

Lack of Character Development -Emily: Emily’s storyline is utterly predicable, and the setup of her character is so haphazard that I couldn’t care less about her situation. I get that 1918 was a different time, and that in some instances courting accelerated quickly, but in Emily's situation I just wasn't buying it. She starts off writing a whiny letter to her friend who is working as a nurse in the war trenches of France, which ruined my first impression. Throw in the absurd fairytale romance with "the most handsome man [Emily] had ever seen," and I simply could't stand her.

Because I had this issue early on in the book, it inhibited my ability to care about Emily throughout the rest of the story. I couldn't shake the feeling that she was a whiny, upper class brat who was saved by her social standing and nothing else (more on that below).

-Clarissa: Speaking of Clarissa, the friend from the trenches. Clarissa acts as whiny Emily's sounding board, makes it back to the country, and then dies from fighting others. The end. As soon as it's clear to Emily that there's no longer an option of living off Clarissa it's the last we hear of her.

-Mommy & Daddy: The story arc of these two characters was just dreadful. They are rude and unloving for the entire novel, and then suddenly at the end they are a happy family full of smiles who have forgiven each other for everything? They are completely different at the end of the book, but as readers we have no idea how they got there. Before he comes to rescue his daughter, the last we saw of Daddy he was a red-faced jerk spouting horrible things about illegitimate pregnancies. And then, suddenly he's saving his daughter from being arrested and is all sheepish and smily with her?! It was like we teleported from one side of the world to the other.

-Other Cast of Characters: Total Downton Abbey rip-off. The scary old dowager who's actually friendly. The scheming housekeeper who almost ruins everything. The simple village-folk. There's not much else to say.

Class Divide Issues This book provides an unsettling picture of the vast class divide in early 20th century England. Of course this class divide existed and was just as true as described in this book (if not worse), but there was virtually no attempt to develop the characters from a lesser social standing and to give them a dynamic story. There are two main issue I had along this theme.

(1) The character of Daisy: When we first meet Daisy, she's a shy young girl who tells Emily the following: "I saw how hard my mum worked all her life, and I made up my mind that I wanted something better for myself." This planted the seed for a character from the service class to rise above her circumstances, but at the novel's conclusion she ends up as a housemaid! I don't care if she's the head housemaid, she's still in the exact same stratum in which she started. As if this weren't bad enough, Emily treats Daisy like dirt the whole time. There were numerous times at which Emily said she would teach Daisy to read, but this never happened. And once Emily had her illegitimate daughter, Daisy was her de facto caregiver whether she wanted to be or not. "Just let me fetch Daisy to look after the baby" is just one example of Emily's completely flippant attitude.

(2) Privilege Privilege Privilege: If any of the other Land Girls had found themselves in a situation like Emily's, they would've been completely ostracized from society. There would be no judge Daddy coming to save her, no rich lady to take her in, and no local head of the WLA would would be uncharacteristically friendly towards her. This fact is painfully obvious throughout the book, but to me it's not properly addressed within the tory itself. Emily could've been someone who didn't rely on her social standing to solve her "troubles," which could be compelling, but literally nothing else got her through her situation apart from her privilege. What's worse, although Emily helps a number of the other Land Girls settle into new lives, there's a savior complex issue at play and Emily still thinks she's better than everyone else. For example, to me Emily doesn't get any credit for inviting Alice and Daisy up to the big house multiple times because she never chose to spend time with them. She knew how uncomfortable they would be, and her invitation was akin to offering somebody the last cookie while it's halfway to your mouth.

Part of the reason I feel so strongly about this book is because I read it during my COVID-19 quarantine, which has been a reminder of our own class issues in 2020. With that said, even in the best of times I would feel exactly the same way (possibly with less vehemence).