Sarah Harrison's The Flowers of the Field is an unputdownable sort of book, which I enjoyed immensely. I'd rather not admit how long it lingered in my TBR pile (years and years). It always looked tempting, but the sheer size (close to 700 pages) always put me off a bit. I'm glad I finally got over my fear of starting such an oversized read, as literally from the first page I found myself immersed in a time and place that I've had a great interest in lately. While this is perhaps not the most profound novel of World War I out there, I thought Harrison did an admirable job of taking what might otherwise be considered a fluffy sort of read and adding some serious weight to it.
The story revolves primarily around three women. Sisters Thea and Dulcie come from an unconventional yet wealthy upperclass family, and Primmy is a housemaid working for them. Life is simple and cushy (well for some anyway) at the outset of the novel. The worst thing to happen to either girl is being shunted off to relatives in Vienna when Dulcie becomes entangled in a minor indiscretion with Thea's good friend, and what the reader assumes will be a possible love interest, Jack Kingsley. Thea is the practical, intellectual sister and Dulcie is, well, a bit of a vamp. She's self-absorbed and more interested in pleasing herself than anyone else. Primmy has been in service to the Tennant family for years. She's the oldest of the group, hard-working and no-nonsense. Soon life will be turned upside down and opportunities will open up to her never before imaginable.
Being sent to Vienna is hardly serious penance for sins committed against the good name of the family. Thea and Dulcie's aunt has married into even greater wealthy and the Austrian nobility. It's hoped they'll learn the proper manners and how to act in Society. Instead Dulcie runs off with the family's tutor and Thea falls for the older son. But War looms on the horizon and everyone's lives will change irrevocably in August 1914. So you see things are set up perfectly for a great, dramatic story. There were a few coincidences that I raised an eyebrow at, but I feel slightly nitpicky to even mention them as this is an otherwise well told story.
Although there is no afterword or note of explanation, I am assuming that Harrison must have done quite a bit of research. Between period details and battlefield scenes the story felt very realistic. While it's told from multiple vantage points and has very epic outlook to it, Thea seemed to tell most of the story. The War is portrayed as a bloody, grim affair, which of course it was. There were parts that were heart wrenching, and at one point I teared up while riding the bus making a fellow passenger comment on my book (that never happens, of course I stopped reading, and why was he watching me that closely anyway?). Thea becomes an ambulance driver, and I believe these sections were my favorite. It's no wonder women's lives were never the same after WWI.
I'm biding my time before jumping into Harrison's sequel A Flower That's Free, but I'm not sure how long I can hold out. Needless to say I'll be looking for more books on WWI. I wonder if I can find any actual memoirs by women who drove those ambulances? For the short term I've started listening to Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August (yes, two audio books at once, something I said I wouldn't do, but as it was already handily loaded on my player, what the hey), which covers only the first month of the War. I'm sure I'll find much more to read on this subject. Flowers of the Field is out of print, but there are cheap used copies out there. And don't be put off by the size. Once the story grabs you, you won't want to put the book down.