The House on Q Street: A Novel [Paperback]

Ann L. McLaughlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

An entertaining tale of a bright, courageous girl on the verge of young womanhood in 1942 when her family moves to Q Street Washington, D.C. Joey is ten, and he father, an atomic physicist, brings trouble to the family with work pressures and a love affair. He eventually leaves for the atomic lab in Chicago. Joey's mother rents out rooms and takes a job, leaving Joey and her sister to fend for themselves. Joey's father returns, working feverishly on a secret atomic project, but, with a small group of other scientists, protesting its use. Observing split loyalties--between family and work, the war effort and humankind's future, Joey learns to think with her heart and listen with compassion to the imperfect adults in her life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Daniel & Daniel Pub (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880284596
• ISBN-13: 978-1880284599
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,858,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up on the Homefront: Love, Fear and Responsibility, October 30, 2002

By 

Robert L. Stukalin (Suffern, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The House on Q Street: A Novel (Paperback)

Ann McLaughlin's novel The House on Q Street captures the spirit of togetherness and the stress of the WW II homefront perfectly. As you read this book, you are growing up alongside Joey Lindsten the 10 year old narrator as she encounters the joys and frustrations of moving from childhood into adolescence during a time of tremendous personal and societal upheaval. Her loving family is fractured as her father is consumed with work on a top secret project and distracted by an extramarital affair. How Joey, her sister Madeline, and their mother cope is portrayed with realism and compassion against a background filled with urgency and evocative detail. The news, the music, the victory gardens,scrap drives and rationing are all there. You really come to care and admire the characters, their courage and determination to fulfill their responsibilities and perhaps find a little love in these very uncertain times. There is a sense of selflessness and sacrifice for the common good that is a refreshing reminder of how it once was and could be again. This is a wonderful book, and it is definitely the best I have read this year.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A ten-year-old's coming of age, November 10, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House on Q Street: A Novel (Paperback)

Ann McLaughlin's House On Q Street tells of a family which moves to Washington in 1942 when war is preoccupying the country. A ten-year-old's coming of age in this time of conflict is recounted in a moving story of change both personal and political.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 70's book set in WWII DC, June 2, 2010

By 

Austen lover "bridget" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House on Q Street: A Novel (Paperback)

This is a very nice book about a family going through a breakup. But both the emotions and the feel of DC seem to be more about the 1970's than the war.

If you're looking for a book about growing up in WWII Washington, this is not it.

There's lip service paid in the sense of radio soap operas and wartime music (but nothing about going to listen to bands downtown) She mentions Woodies, but says nothing about going to see the windows at Christmas. She has no concept of the heat of a pre-air conditioned DC (which really was a major factor of life in this city before the 70's) She complains about the noise and smell of buses, although on Q Street at that time, I think they would have been using the streetcar.

And no sense of the sheer overcrowding of the city. The family rents a house, but no mention of the landlord (who would have been coming around to collect the rent); mention of sharing a house (but not oddly enough with their best friends in the world who move in right next door). No sense that when Dad is reassigned, the family would have lost their housing priority. Ready access to a car but no sense of how difficult it was to park and maintain a car in DC at that time.(No rubber for tires, and 1940's cars need a lot more mechanical intervention) A lot of men (which there were) but no sense of the sheer overwhelming crush of women. No sense that this was a three (possibly four) newspaper town during the war and which newspaper you read mattered.

And women roll bandages and run the USO. Except in DC women ran typing pools and worked at the Navy Yard.

The children walk to the neighborhood pool, but never take the streetcar out to Glen Echo or the Wilson Line down to Marshall Hall. No mention of baseball or alleys or GC Murphy, the DGS, or any of the things that made DC DC before the suburban flight.

If you ignore when it's supposed to be set, it's a fine book. But if you're looking for wartime DC, keep looking.