Product Description

Praised by the Chicago Sun-Times for its 'furious, indignant power', this story offers a rare, funny, bitter, feminist look at war. Published in London in 1930, this is a novel in autobiographical guise that describes a group of British women ambulance drivers on the French front lines during World War 1. As Voluntary Aid Detachment workers, the women pay for the privilege of driving the wounded through shell fire in the cold, on no sleep and an inedible diet, under the watchful eye of their punishing commandant, nicknamed Mrs Bitch.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57030 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

A riveting account of the Great War deserving more acclaim
This semi-autobiography, moulded in the style of All Quiet on the Western Front (hence the pun on "Quiet" which also connotes the supposed passivity of women during wartime), is a merciless but utterly gripping account of female ambulance drivers on the Western Front. It's a welcome breath of air, because it doesn't give the usual take on the war and it doesn't have the sort of reservations and evasion that even lauded war writers like Sassoon or Graves use. This is non-stop trauma and vitriol, but it's so well written it sucks the reader in from the start. Unlike the whininess of Vera Brittain (proclaimed the "mistress of self-pity" by De Groot) this is by no means a feminist book, but has a real punch to it. It is impossible not to empathise with the narrator, again an often fraught task with the more accredited war writers. "Smithy's" hatred of the war and its dehumanising conditions (both of the soldiers and her fellow drivers) is tinged with obvious signs of war neurosis. Particulalry gripping is her friend "The Bug" succumbing to shellshock and being told that she has exhibited "a disgraceful exhibition of cowardice on the part of an Englishwoman", and the description of driving towards field hospitals in terrible conditions listening to the men in the truck screaming.

Smith intentionally dehumanises the men throughout the book in an attempt to distance herself from their condition and one is left under no illusion that this is one of the only ways to preserve her own sanity. The author's contrast with the heroic claptrap in letters from home is also presented with such force and anger it makes the reader wince with empathy. A grim job that was always sold high, this is a real eye opener both in terms of the female perspective on war and the situations faced by them. Cracking stuff.

Totally compelling account of a woman's experience of war
Helen Zenna Smith is the pseudonym of Evadne Price who served as an ambulance driver in France during the FWW. This totally compelling fictionalised account of a woman's experience of the War should be ranked alongside E. M. Remarque's 'All Quiet on the Western Front', Siegfried Sassoon's 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' or Edmund Blunden's 'Undertones of War'. The value of the experiences of women who saw active service during the FWW are beginning to be recognised in academic circles thanks to the work of feminist critics, but it is time that such recognition came from the general public as well, and this book is one of many that is capable of bringing those experiences to wider attention. A wonderfully written book that is worth reading. Highly recommended !!

Not So Quiet
I was assigned this book for a class and therefore went into the book thinking that I would hate it. I didn't want to read it and then I picked it up and started reading. This is the best book I've ever read for school. It's even in the top ten of books I've ever read. If a teacher needs a book of this sort for their class, I recommend this book because your students will overwhelmingly love it. There is so much that can be paralleled to modern day and the characters are so realistic and they seem like someone you know already. You will love it, I promise.