Next to Love - Ellen Feldman

Summary from Goodreads:

For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Postmistress, and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, a story of love, war, loss, and the scars they leave set during the years of World War II and its aftermath.
  Set in a small town in Massachusetts, Next to Love follows three childhood friends, Babe, Millie, and Grace, whose lives are unmoored when their men are called to duty. And yet the changes that are thrust upon them move them in directions they never dreamed possible—while their husbands and boyfriends are enduring their own transformations. In the decades that follow, the three friends lose their innocence, struggle to raise their children, and find meaning and love in unexpected places. And as they change, so does America—from a country in which people know their place in the social hierarchy to a world in which feminism, the Civil Rights movement, and technological innovations present new possibilities—and uncertainties. And yet Babe, Millie, and Grace remain bonded by their past, even as their children grow up and away and a new society rises from the ashes of the war.
 Beautifully crafted and unforgettable, Next to Love depicts the enduring power of love and friendship, and illuminates a transformational moment in American history.

My Thoughts:

Okay, first of all, this book is *nothing* like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  I mean, other than they’re both set (sort of – Next to Love spans more years) in the same time frame.  But I think the similarities end there. 

Next to Love is the story of three friends as they go and grow through World War II and beyond into the 1960’s.  As they face love and loss and everything in between. 

It took me awhile to get into the book and the characters.  Even towards the end, they were doing things and things were happening that made me say “What?”  However, towards the middle and end I was more able to overlook those as I wanted to know where the story was taking the characters. 

Here are my caveats on why I maybe struggled with this book:

1.       I read it on my Kindle.  So I couldn’t easily flip back and forth to line things up as the timeline and story jumped around in and between characters.

2.       I read it in the midst of moving my family a few states away.  So chaos was in my head, and I perhaps transposed some of that to the book.

As I’ve said, I was thoroughly engaged with the characters as the book progressed.  All of the main characters were incredibly nuanced, which I appreciated. 

There are a lot of triggers in this book:  sex, drinking, violence, rape, some language.  So I’m not sure I would necessarily recommend it.  It was interesting but not my cup of tea. 

Also, I read the e-version from my library that had these great hyperlinks throughout.  You could click on one, and it would jump to the appendix and tell you more about Western Union or a particular location or whatever.  So that was a neat feature.  Although now that I think about it, that could have kept me from delving into the story sooner as well.