Love in the time of World War II

Karen Campbell’s historical romance novel The Sound of The Hours opens in 1943 Italy and details the horrors of the Second World War through its two main characters, 18-year-old Vittoria Guidi and black US soldier Frank Chapel who, as a part of the Allied powers, is stationed in the country to fight the Germans. Guidi is a firebrand who’s determined to have her own voice in the deafening chaos of war. Chapel, on the other hand, is a student from Berkeley College, who often doodles in his journal while hoping that the uniform will ‘make him an American and give him a vote’. The two have nothing in common and yet, when they meet, their worlds collide and they fall in love. They struggle to keep their passionate affair alive even as Guidi works with the Italian partisans and Chapel and his troops are in the thick of the battle.

The novel chronicles the last two years of the war and a few passages on the destruction of war, though evocative, are tedious. But just as your interest wanes, Campbell surprises with a clarity of thought with lines like ‘After the war, you have to start afresh; if not to make your world anew, then what had been the point? It hadn’t been to preserve the old, for that had gone. Nor to give hope to the young, because they had been sliced away’. In her best form, Campbell makes you invested in her characters and, against common sense, makes you root for the (spoiler alert!) doomed lovers. She transports you to the battleground in Barga, where much of the action takes place. Vivid imagery and heroic characters help her recreate a time in history that’s been endlessly fascinating.

Issues of racism and prejudice make the novel wholly relevant today – Chapel and other black soldiers are segregated within the US army. Guidi wonders whether there would ever be a place where no one is loved according to the colour of their skin or hair. And considering current national and global policies, you realize with a pang, not yet.

It is also about complicated familial relationships – its Guidi and her Italian-Scottish father versus her fascist mother Elena, until the family is ripped apart and Guidi yearns for them. It’s a good opportunity to add another dimension to Elena’s character who heartlessly removes Guidi from school. And Campbell uses it.

The Sound of The Hours is about crippling loss, a kind of bravery that emerges from utter helplessness, extraordinary struggle and survival. It could have benefitted from some sharper editing, but is still worth a read for its unusual love story which gives the novel it’s somewhat fresh angle.

read the full story about Love in the time of World War II

#theheadlines #breakingnews #headlinenews #newstoday #latestnews #aajtak #ndtv #timesofindia #indiannews