Customer Reviews

The Future Homemakers of America

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

My daughter recommended this book to me over Thanksgiving. In fact, I took her copy home to read. From the first meeting of all the characters, I loved these women and could commiserate with their lives. Graham perfectly describes life in the Uk right after the war. It was still pretty dull and dreary. Country people were just like Kath.

Peggy, the protagonist, is the glue that holds the book and the characters together. Through life and death, famine and fortune, as well as the normal ups and downs of daily life, we are given a good dose of tolerance as well as hope.

Peggy waits it out for a better relationship with her daughter. She is ahead of her time by befriending and choosing Grice as her co-worker. She is patient with the bizarre behavior of her other friends.

I did find it rather sad that so many of the men in the book were losers. However, by being such, these women were given more of a chance to develope themselves into more interesting people.

The fifties were a time of change. Women had so much freedom during the war years and now their men came back and could not tolerate having wives as smart if not smarter than them. The military wives even more so had to play the game.

Graham does a wonderful job of describing in detail the appearances, clothing, and decor of every character and setting.

The saddest thing is the condition that was passed on from John Pharoah's liaison with Lois. With little information in those times, an unsupervised John was an accident waiting to happen. It shows though that with the changing times, Kath brought the issue to the forefront, thus sparing another generation agony. Although, Kirk's son tested free of the dreaded Huntington's disease.

I want to read more of Laurie Graham's book now. They are wonderful, relaxing and hard to put down. Just one tiny error. She has President and Mrs. Reagan attending Diana's wedding, when in fact it was Mrs. Reagan alone.

A fun and lovely read but that is all!
It didn't move me like " divine secrets of the ya-ya's" and certainly didn't "stay" with me.
I didn't think all characters were fully developed and Laurie Graham rushed the story...like she had other places to go.
In my opinion there was great potential here...such a shame that she didn't take the time to let the characters grow on you!

This book truly did have a slow start - had to force myself through the first 40-50 pages. After that, the characters began to come to life and grow. As American military wives during the early 1950's in rural England, the five women are left to fend for themselves while their macho husbands train. As a working mother in 2002, their narrow minded devotion to and acceptance of their situation within the military seemed almost overblown. They were known as "DW's", dependent wives, and they lived up to their acronym. It was fun to watch as they grew up and out of the military cradle, learned to function without the safety net and deal with the turmoil around them. The setting of current (for that time) events in the US grounds the story in a more realistic vein as the book progresses. It was also interesting to see that as flyers, friends and co-workers, the men had brought the women into the situation where they became friends, yet after they left the military, the men drifted completely apart and the women stayed in touch. As I got to know the women, I laughed at Betty, worried about Gayle, wanted to thump Lois, and figured that Audrey would get what was coming to her. This book is a great read once it gets going.

While a lot of reviewers have remarked that this book was slow to start, I personally thought it was written at just the right pace in order for us to learn about all of the characters and be able to distinguish them from each other.

For me, the book was very enjoyable. It gives a little bit of historical perspective on military wives in the 1950s. I'm not sure how accurate this book is in the portrayal of military life and thereafter, however, it seemed very believeable and all the characters were interesting to read about as they matured over time.

I give it 4 stars since it's not the best book I've ever read, however I would recommend it as a well written light read with substance.

After reading several masterpieces of literature with unlikable characters, this book was exactly what I craved! I wanted a light and fun read with characters I could care about.

This book reminded me of the Ya-Ya sisters with a lot less disfunction. (Of course there was enough disfunction to keep it interesting.) I agree with the criticism - especially about the males being extremely stereotypical, but I appreciated the evolution of the female characters, how the most irritating characters evolved into the more likable after many years.

I recommended this book to the women in my book club who wanted something between ultra-serious novels. Sometimes reading should be simply fun, and this book is!

I really enjoyed this book. My only critique is towards the end it started to get a little tired. The story may have gone on a bit to long, but it wasn't bad. Comparable to The Saving Graces and Angry Housewive Eating Bon-Bons, both of which I enjoyed, it really is a nice read.

This book did have a slow start...but after plowing through the first 50 or so pages the story picks up! I cared about each of the characters and loved how it was so true to life....one minute your inseparable friends, th enext you only get together in crisis or celebration (Funerals, weddings...).
I loved the developement of Kathy and her relationship with the women.
I also loved the way that the author subtly incorporated what was going on in society into the book (Crystal's jaunt in "flower child", Grice's coming out, The greedy 80's (Through Gayle and Lois) and woman's liberation in general for all these characters.
And, a previous reveiwer refers to the "going to London to see Queen Elizibeth's Coronation" saying it did not happen....it did happen...it just wasn't the main character, Peggy, who went.

Don't get me wrong; it was a good story. I enjoyed the various escapades of all the women as they grew from young wives to mature women. The men, however, are such shallow caracatures of the sensitive good husband, the redneck jock, and the abuser, that we never really get to know them.

As Peggy (the narrator) matured and became a top bridal consultant in Dallas, her grammar was still as stereotypical "Texas" as it was when she was an uneducated young wife.

Another thing that bothered me was that the blurb on the back refers to the wives "going to London to see Princess Elizbeth get Coronated". This never happened.

This is the story of five American Air force wives stationed at a US airbase in the Norfolk Fens in 1953, the year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Their common thread is having husbands flying for the 68th bomber wing, and that they are military wives in a foreign land. Their social life brings them together, even though life will force them apart in distance and social rank as the story moves over the next 40 years.

I was confused about the Future Homemakers of America title, but by novel's end, the meaning rang true as the five women's lives tied back to Peggy and Betty's lives in Texas, near San Antonio where they grew up.

This is the second novel I have read in recent months that has revolved around the genetic horror of an inherited disease, Huntington's Chorea. And I was fascinated at Laurie Graham's plot links from unfaithful Lois's affair with odd John Pharoah, the English odd-ball brother of Kath, who becomes Peggy's dearest of friends.

The devotion of these women over the years through widowhood, remarriage, divorce, cancer, ambition and true friendship is worth the read.

I especially enjoyed the humorous episodes of Peggy's in her wedding and then party planning business. And her association with her dear business partner, a younger man, who is gay, is delightful.

Apparently incorporating a gay character is a trait of Laurie Graham's novels. And the reality of that incorporation is that many women find their best friendships to be with gay men.

There is a feel of a Maeve Binchy read in this Laurie Graham book.

I liked this book and will look for other Laurie Graham books. My only nit-picking is: I'd give it 5 stars if the "English" dialogue didn't sound exactly like the American--- an Englsih country woman certainly wouldn't use the same words and phrases as a American/Texan. (I've lived in both places)
Other than that, I enjoyed the writing, and the story of just some regular gals married to some regular guys trying to make the best of things. Nothing too fancy, just a slice of life.