Not So Quiet...: Stepdaughters of War (Women & Peace) (Paperback)

by Helen Zenna Smith (Author)
Key Phrases: recruiting meeting, ghostly procession, The Bug, Etta Potato, Aunt Helen (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
This bittersweet feminist antiwar novel, first published in Great Britain in 1930 as autobiography, chronicles the experiences of six young Englishwomen who have paid to serve as volunteer ambulance drivers at the front lines in France during World War I. As they contend with bad food, lice, little sleep, grueling and gruesome work, and a merciless commandant, their middle-class parents swell with pride over their daughters' "doing their bit." Heaven forbid that a daughter should disgrace them by refusing to serve, choosing not to serve at the front, or coming home a coward. Brilliantly written, and cleverly mixing humor with bitterness, this novel originally won the Prix Severigne in France as "the novel most calculated to promote international peace."-- Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
This story offers a rare, funny, bitter, feminist look at war from women actively engaged in it. Published in London in 1930, Not So Quiet...(on the Western Front) 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 freezing cold, on no sleep and an inedible diet, under the watchful eye of their punishing commandant, nicknamed Mrs. Bitch.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093531282X
• ISBN-13: 978-0935312829
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #246,291 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Women and War, June 2, 1998

By	Calee Allen ([e-mail]) (Western U.S.) - See all my reviews

In Europe during wartime, well-to-do young women were recruited to be ambulance drivers, and very few of these women knew what they were getting into. Smith takes us just behind the front lines and deep into the lives of several of these women. More a story of courage, suffering, and survival than tale of war itself, it parallels the more well-known All Quiet On the Western Front, and was intended as a response from the women's side. Unapologetically and realistically detailed, it will take you away to a time and place that you will remember long after you've finished the book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eyeopening and Edgy, September 22, 2000

By A Customer

WWI, somwhere in France, freezing, exaushted and lice ridden Britain's upper class young women are "doing their bit" for England. This is a remarkable story, telling the experience of female ambulance drivers in the first world war. The subject matter is graphic, and the language which describes it is poetic and enchanting. It sucks you in to the madness, sleeplessness, and monotany of horror that goes on everyday in Smith's life. It is an excellent read and although fiction, it is based on the diaries of an actual female ambuance driver.

5.0 out of 5 stars Johnny Got His Gun from a feminine standpoint, May 28, 2008

By	Mardou Fox "mardou2" (OH United States) - See all my reviews

I found this book to be absolutely riveting. I have always been interested in female involvement in World War I, and this book tells in a very accessible way what it was like to be in the "Forbidden Zone" during this truly horrific war. It reminds me of Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun in that we see the VAD's struggling to keep their sanity in terrible circumstances. Well worth reading.