Customer Reviews

Carries War (New Windmill)

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There is a very simple test that you can perform on a children's book to figure out if it is a good book or a bad book. All you have to do is look at the bad guys and the good guys. Now, are the good guys good all the time and never deviate from their holy quest? And are the bad guys bad at all times and never show even the slightest human emotion or small moment of of conscience or pity? Well congratulations! You are currently reading a bad book! and it doesn't matter if the book you are reading is intended for a five-year-old or a fifty-year-old. If characters appear in perfect black and white at any and all times then the author of the work is not a mature enough writer to give their characters any depth or ambiguity. I mean heck, even "Harry Potter" has the deliciously maybe-he's-bad-maybe-he's-good Severus Snape. Which brings us in the most roundabout way possible to Nina Bawden's 1973 classic, "Carrie's War". A delicate deeply interesting book that remains basically forgotten today, Bawden's best-known work is still as good a read now as it was way back in the early 70s. Ya gotta respect that kind of staying power.

It's the middle of the Second World War and Carrie and Nick are on a train to the deep depths of Wales itself with a load of other schoolchildren. Their father is a Captain in the war and their mother a volunteer ambulance driver so it's just the two kids making their way northward. Once there, they're taken in by a kindly, if skittish, older woman and her domineering older brother. They also make the acquaintance of a mysterious lady who lives in a dark hollow called Druid's Bottom. There the woman lives with her simple companion and the elderly woman she tends. In their new home, Carrie finds herself sympathizing with Mr. Evans, her rough guardian, while Nick leans more towards Mr. Evan's sister, Auntie Lou. Yet when Carrie is caught in the middle of an unpleasant family drama, she takes an action that she will regret for decades and decades, only to be remedied, at last, by her own children.

The only other work of fiction that comes to mind when I think of plots centered on kids sent to the English countryside during World War II is, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". Not bad company to be in. "Carrie's War" is a bit subtler than your average work of kiddie lit, though. For one thing it dares to think about the background of its "villain". Mr. Evans is your typical storybook ghoul in many ways. He's a bully, a cheapskate, and the unquestioned lord of his little roost. His sister quails under his leadership and the children are, at first anyway, deathly afraid of him. Over time, however, Carrie learns a little more about Mr. Evans' history and what made him the way he is. If he's cruel or sharp it has much to do with what he lost when he was young. Even when she attempts to confront him as a villain she's struck by his small kindnesses and acts of generosity. Sure, he can be awful. But who isn't awful once in a while?

Other clever writing techniques employed by Ms. Bawden include her choice of beginning the book with an older Carrie lamenting an action she made years and years before. There's even a hint that she may find a romantic interest with an old friend, though nothing explicit is said. And on top of all of that, the writing in this tale is top notch. Really lovely stuff. Bawden gives us a realistic view of adult relations through the eys of a child while never sacrificing plot, motivation, or believable interactions. As an example of just being a wonderfully written book, "Carrie's War" takes the cake. A great tale that deserves to be remembered.