The setting is England in the early days of World War II. All the men have gone off to war, and the women of the village of Chilbury have defied the Vigar's edict to close the church choir. "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir" by Jennifer Ryan is the tale of five choir members and their struggles on the home-front.
The tale begins as the choir's closing is announced, and includes one of my favorite lines in the entire book. As the women are discussing the situation and their frustration, one of the women complains, "I don't see why we have to be closed down. It's not as if we're a threat to national security."
That made me laugh and left me looking forward to what was to come. Unfortunately, that was one of the high points of the book for me and I didn't find nearly enough such moments in the rest of the book.
There are five characters central characters through whom the tale is told: a widow whose son has gone off to war; two sisters, the younger of whom has a serious crush on her older sister's fiancé; a refugee from Czechoslovakia; and a conniving midwife.
This book has obvious similarities to "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society", with this tale being a combination of letters and diary entries. It all seemed a bit disjointed to me, perhaps because of the epistolary style. In any event, it did not hold my attention and I lost interest long before I made it to the end.
The book's title and description had me looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately for me, it didn't live up to its promise.
I received a free copy of "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir" from Blogging For Books in exchange for my honest opinion.
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