May 15, 2023
It's 1944, and Judy Washington needs a better job. Her husband, Herbert, is serving in the army overseas and hasn't been heard from for months. Judy and her mother are barely making it by taking daily cleaning jobs from the Bronx Slave Market, a place where Black women wait to be hired by white women in search of domestic help. One day Judy meets Captain Charity Adams, a recruiter for the Negro division of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WACs), who convinces Judy to enlist. While in Des Moines, Iowa, in training, Judy becomes close with Stacy, Bernadette, and Mary Alyce, a woman whose ancestry has been kept secret. They are all sent to England to be a part of the all-women-of-color 6888th Central Postal Battalion, a unique group tasked with sorting and distributing thousands of backlogged military letters. Sanders' debut novel, based on true events, is warmed by the letters' emotions and peppered with historical events, providing readers with a meaningful glimpse into the social and racial challenges facing these heroic women at home and abroad.
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July 1, 2023
A U.S. Army unit comprised of and led by Black women is deployed to England during World War II. It's 1944, and the war is lingering, creating significant hardship on the homefront--particularly for Black women, who have few opportunities for fairly paid work. This prompts Judy Washington, a New Yorker whose husband, Herbert, is fighting in Europe, to enlist in the Women's Army Corps in hopes of earning enough money to support her mother and doing meaningful work until the war ends. At basic training in Iowa, she becomes friends with Stacy McFadden, Bernadette Moore, and Mary Alyce Dixon; their unit is led by Capts. Charity Adams and Abbie Campbell, two Black women, longtime friends, who applied for and were accepted to Officer Candidate School together. In 1944, Charity is promoted to major, and her unit is sent to England to handle a backlog of millions of letters between soldiers and their families; their mantra is, "No Mail, No Morale." Over the course of the next few years, the women depend on their friendships for support, as Judy is personally affected by the mail backlog and the others deal with strained family relationships, racism, self-discovery, and new love, including that developing between the two officers. Sanders' debut novel is based on the real-life 6888th Central Postal Battalion and the historic work of Charity Adams, Abigail Campbell, and Alyce Dixon. The novel centers its period details and holds its characters at a distance, creating a muted reading experience that evokes primarily admiration rather than deep affection for its characters while illuminating a little-known aspect of history. A quiet novel about determination and friendship.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.