Letters from an Unknown Woman

Starred review from August 29, 2011
Woodward’s brilliant exploration of ordinary lives caught in extraordinary circumstances showcases an imaginative wit, pointed insight, and a flare for the unexpected. After her husband, Donald, is called up to the front during WWII, Tory Pace sends her children to the English countryside and reluctantly accepts her mother’s decision to move in with her in London, despite the prospect of air raids. When Tory receives an official letter declaring Donald “missing,” she’s devastated, but when she gets a second letter, from Donald himself (with a very out-of-character request), she’s shocked; he wants his heretofore unexpressive wife to write him “really filthy” letters “full of all the dirtiest words and deeds you can think of.” This appeal sends Tory on an hilarious and, at times, touching quest to satisfy her husband’s unusual demand, culminating in an affair with her gelatin factory boss. Woodward (A Curious Earth, shortlisted for the Man Booker) takes a unique approach to the hardships women faced during wartime, the impact of the war on the men who survived, and the ways in which the children who lived through it tried to make sense of their upended lives, turning a story about one family’s struggles into a tale of self-discovery, overcoming despair, and finding one’s rightful place in the world. Best of all is the ingenious use of Toby’s salacious letters and Woodward’s not-so-subtle indictment of commercial publishing.

September 15, 2011
Woodward is best known for a trilogy about the eccentric Jones family, especially I'll Go to Bed at Noon, shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. Here he swings between humor and tragedy while depicting the deprivations of the Pace family during the Blitz in London. Tory is living with her cantankerous mother, Emily, and working in a gelatin factory, while her children have been evacuated to the countryside, and her husband, Donald, has been taken as a POW. She receives a strange request. Donald wants her to write him a dirty letter, really filthy, full of all the dirtiest words and deeds you can think of. Tory's comical quest to come up with such a letter culminates in a torrid affair with the factory owner, which provides plenty of inspiration. When the Paces are ultimately reunited, the novel takes a poignant turn, detailing Donald's difficult readjustment to peacetime and the intellectual eldest son's depressing stint as a factory worker. Infused with plenty of warmth and charm, Woodward's latest offers a unique spin on family dynamics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)