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heidirgorecki 's review for:
Women of the Post
by Joshunda Sanders
I was really conflicted about this one.
For the positive, I’ve read about the 6888th before and was looking forward to fleshing out more of the history and little-told story of Black women serving in WW2. This book did that well, explaining a little more detail of the history than what I read before, and gave a really good look at the racism these women sadly faced. I think I would find it really hard to come back to the US after seeing such a lack of segregation and a lesser amount of racism overseas, but it’s commendable the way so many of those black women and men who came back used their experiences to push forward the Civil Rights Movement. The Bronx Slave Market was a new piece of information to me as well, and as awful as it was, I am glad to have learned of it.
I also enjoyed the look at female friendship the women in their battalion had, and it was portrayed well. Always a favorite focal point for me.
What I did not care for, was first, some of the writing style being very narrative, and at times, almost like a documentary or non-fiction book. I get that the author was trying to convey a lot of history as well as a fictional story, but it felt a bit dry or slow at times.
Mostly though, I was really annoyed at the change of Charity Adams’ - who was a very real person - character being fictionalized as a lesbian when she was not. And not just mentioned here and there as a gay person, but most of the Charity POV was primarily focused on her feelings for her friend/love interest. It’s a fictional book - it doesn’t make any sense to alter a *real* person like that just to introduce a gay perspective when there were plenty of fully fictional characters at the author’s disposal if that’s what she wanted to do, as stated in her Author’s Note. If you wouldn’t change a real historical person’s race, nationality, or gender, why would you change her sexual orientation for no real reason? It felt sensationalized, false and wrong to her memory to change her on a whim and with that much focused content if that’s not who she was.
For the positive, I’ve read about the 6888th before and was looking forward to fleshing out more of the history and little-told story of Black women serving in WW2. This book did that well, explaining a little more detail of the history than what I read before, and gave a really good look at the racism these women sadly faced. I think I would find it really hard to come back to the US after seeing such a lack of segregation and a lesser amount of racism overseas, but it’s commendable the way so many of those black women and men who came back used their experiences to push forward the Civil Rights Movement. The Bronx Slave Market was a new piece of information to me as well, and as awful as it was, I am glad to have learned of it.
I also enjoyed the look at female friendship the women in their battalion had, and it was portrayed well. Always a favorite focal point for me.
What I did not care for, was first, some of the writing style being very narrative, and at times, almost like a documentary or non-fiction book. I get that the author was trying to convey a lot of history as well as a fictional story, but it felt a bit dry or slow at times.
Mostly though, I was really annoyed at the change of Charity Adams’ - who was a very real person - character being fictionalized as a lesbian when she was not. And not just mentioned here and there as a gay person, but most of the Charity POV was primarily focused on her feelings for her friend/love interest. It’s a fictional book - it doesn’t make any sense to alter a *real* person like that just to introduce a gay perspective when there were plenty of fully fictional characters at the author’s disposal if that’s what she wanted to do, as stated in her Author’s Note. If you wouldn’t change a real historical person’s race, nationality, or gender, why would you change her sexual orientation for no real reason? It felt sensationalized, false and wrong to her memory to change her on a whim and with that much focused content if that’s not who she was.