Book Review: All Clear by Connie Willis

This will be my last Connie Willis book review for a bit, because I can’t seem to do anything else when I’m lost in one of her books.

The books Blackout and All Clear are really one book about the at-home heroism of England during World War II.  They are masterful depictions of the war.  I don’t know how Ms. Willis does it, but she acquaints us with an amazing number of characters in a short space, and then we care about what happens to them– as we do in real life.  What I love most about her story is the way she weaves in other literature and stories: Shakespeare, and Agatha Christie, and the amazing heroism of Ernest Shackleton on his voyage to the south pole.  While the books are primarily historical fiction (did you know thirty thousand civilians died as a result of Hitler’s bombing of London & surrounding areas?), Ms. Willis thinks critically about time and faith and hope in an amazing way.

P.S. I received no compensation for this review… well, if you don’t count being uplifted and inspired.  Which I do.

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