Hearts at War by Christa NonnemakerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed reading ‘Hearts at War’ very much. It was the kind of historical fiction that I find both demanding and interesting, but at the same time it was well drawn about the characters, their lives and their interactions with other characters. It covered a period of history, WW2, about which I wanted to learn more as well as a group of people, Japanese Americans during that war, about which I knew nothing.
The romantic aspects of the story were believable and done in a tactful and subtle fashion, such that I found I was rooting for Betty and Tosh throughout the novel. A couple of twists in the tale kept me turning the pages. I am not a prude at all but it was quite refreshing to find the author did not think it necessary to fling aspects of sexual behaviour into the face of the reader. While such writing is often included in a contemporary ‘romance novel’ it is usually too distracting away from what maybe a good plot, and therefore spoiling the plot.
The level of racism, from other people and even the central government plus in certain states of the USA, was shocking. It was good to find that Christa Nonnemaker did not shy away from including many examples of it in her novel. The internment camps for many loyal citizens of the USA who had non-white parentage came as a big surprise for me. This was just one example of the considerable background research that was done by the author. It all added to the authenticity that one hopes to see in a historical novel. The inclusion by Nonnemaker of the subject of Japanese-American internment during WW2, is something to be applauded by everyone.
While I can recommend this novel to any readers who enjoy a romantic story with important touches of harsh reality, there were some aspects that detracted a little from my enjoyment. Certain earlier conversations during the time when Betty and Tosh were still children came across as slightly unrealistic. They were both too formal and adult or lacked the inclusion of childish terms of familiarity. For example, I think a child is more likely to refer to their father as say, Pop, Poppa, Dad or Daddy, rather than Father. Of course similar terms can be found for their mother in childish conversations. I accept that it may be quite formal amongst other social classes and population groups; but that did not seem to me to apply here. There were some editing issues, typos and omissions here and there that could be corrected, since that may detract from this excellent novel.
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