As well as writing war time historical fiction, I love to read it too. I just finished reading Brisbane author Melanie Myers' excellent book, Meet Me at Lennon's. For those who live outside Brisbane, Lennon's was a classy club, bar, and restaurant in the centre of Brisbane which had its heyday during WW2 when the city became the centre of operations for General MacArthur and his American troops. You can read my review at Goodreads or here below:
Meet Me at Lennon's is a surprisingly clever work of historical fiction. Well-written and strongly evocative of the Brisbane I've known for 30 years now, it also brings to life the WW2 history here I knew little about.
At times I found it hard to follow because there are so many female characters - and I was tempted to feel there were too many. But about halfway through I realised the literary choice being made with all these characters. This is, in effect, the literary commentary that this book is making: in wartime Brisbane there were SO many women - TOO many women to keep track of - who fell prey to the charms, sexual intentions, and sometimes vicious attack of servicemen stationed here - be they American or Australian, that it is impossible to remember them all. The sexualisation of women, the abuse of whom went mostly 'swept under the carpet' by police, the military, and even their own families, is an atrocity that had generational ramifications for many. The more positive side is, of course, that many women found good, honest, and dedicated American husbands among the visitors, or were supported by their magnificent home-coming Australian ones.
I am not surprised this book won the Queensland Literary Awards for emerging writers: it is literature in the sense that it makes an important social commentary on a specific time period, and it's a great story that uses the dual-timeline historical fiction mode expertly as a means to uncovering the past in an engaging manner.
Great writing, Melanie Myers, and I'm more than a little envious of your gloriously publishable, roll-off-the-tongue, alliterative name!
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