I'll Be Seeing You

July 8, 2013
In this epistolary debut novel, Hayes and Nyhan, who have never met directly, tell the story of Glory Whitehall and Rita Vincenzo, two pen pals who have never met in person as they begin a correspondence that sustains them both through WWII. The authors have composed letters that, if found in your grandmother's attic, would make you want to stay up all night reading through the cross-outs and the water blots with a head full of questions for the morning. However, the limits of a letter writer's self-knowledge, or perhaps a desire for self-protection, preclude the sort of no holds barred disclosure the story lines beg for: "Was it really that easy to kiss your husband's competition while he was away, Glory?" "Tell us more about how you came to accept the girl who, at first, wasn't good enough for your son, Rita." Aside from the climactic sequence, the epistolary format never fully gels, as too many episodes call for a narrator's omniscience. Nevertheless, Nyhan and Hayes show us that letters from a cherished friend have a particular role to play in shepherding us through life's loves and losses.

Starred review from April 15, 2013
Two World War II soldiers' wives begin a pen-pal correspondence and help each other through the emotional upheaval of war. Rita is a middle-aged professor's wife in Iowa, and Glory is a young mother in Massachusetts. Through a pen-pal program, the two become fast friends in 1943 and share their fears, temptations, trials and triumphs as they move through the war years. Rita's husband and son are both in uniform, her husband in Europe and her son on a ship in the South Pacific. Glory's husband is overseas, too, but her life is complicated by the shadow of a past romance with her husband's best friend, who is medically unable to serve in the war. Glory has two children under 5, and Rita's son is apparently in love with the least acceptable girl in town; Rita is a German-American married to a second-generation Italian, while Glory hails from New England money. The two establish a solid friendship that grows ever more devoted, and through their letters and the occasional correspondence to and from secondary characters, we get a powerful, fascinating look at the war years and at the interesting choices and tragic consequences of a nation enduring an overseas war. Engaging, charming and moving, a beautifully rendered exploration of WWII on the homefront and the type of friendship that helps us survive all manner of battles.

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June 1, 2013
Readers of Hayes and Nyhan's entertaining epistolary novel will be transported to 1940s America, when people on the home front watched, waited, and worried about loved ones fighting overseas. Two women, separated by age, circumstances, and geography, find each other through a 4-H address exchange for war wives. Their correspondence reveals that Glory, from well-off New England society, is a young mom who went from debutante to war bride, while the more practical Rita is a professor's wife who lives in the heartland and has both a husband and a grown son in the armed forces. Authentic touches bring the era alive. Allusions to sharing an easy recipe that doesn't touch the sugar ration, recycling tinfoil, anti-German bigotry, blacked-out portions of censored V-mail, and victory gardens all provide a specific, everyday context for such timeless and universal passages and struggles as birth, death, grief, wartime temptations, divided loyalties, and hope. Interspersed is correspondence with the men in service, adding layers to Hayes and Nyhan's deeply satisfying tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)