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    Next to Love: A Novel
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    Next to Love: A Novel
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    Next to Love: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Next to Love: A Novel

    Written by Ellen Feldman

    Narrated by Abby Craden

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 26, 2011
    ISBN9780307967244
    Unavailable
    Next to Love: A Novel
    Author

    Ellen Feldman

    Ellen Feldman, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow, is the author of The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank, Scottsboro, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and Next To Love. She lives in New York City with her husband.

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    Reviews for Next to Love

    4/5

    200 ratings57 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Two stars at best. i WANTED to like this book, was excited when i got it...yet, i could not waste the time to finish it which is highly unusual for me. Somewhat boring and disjointed, i may be one of the few here who just did not get the oomph i need to slog through the entire book. Maybe i missed something 3 pages away......
    • 4/5
      This was a novel of woman's friendships from just before WW2 up to the mid 60's.Wonderful character development and interesting telling of the societal changes during thistime in history. I enjoyed this book as much as her other ones I read,Lucy and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank.
    • 4/5
      Ellen Feldman's last book, Scottsboro, made my "best of" list in 2009 and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. It was an amazing, thought-provoking book. So I was very happy to see that she had a new book out called. Set during and after the Second World War, Next to Love follows the lives of three women as they watch their husbands leave to fight in the war, with some never returning home and those that do are changed in fundamental ways. Feldman is both a talented writer and a gifted storyteller, so her three women and their stories make for a compelling read. There's Millie who, having lost both her parents young, feels that she can't possibly lose her charming husband, and Grace, who puts great store in the life she and her husband Charlie imagine they'll share when he returns to her and the baby. The greatest focus and most interesting character is Babe who, despite growing up in the wrong part of town, nonetheless falls in love with a boy from a good family and they continue their relationship despite the disapproval of many. Babe is well aware of how and why she doesn't (and cannot) fit in and be accepted and while it gives her an edge, she doesn't allow it to make her bitter. The war gives her more freedom than she could have expected, allowing her to work at the Western Union, instead of cleaning houses or at the five and dime. She's determined to make her own path, even if it's well within the boundaries of her small Massachussetts town. I had a hard time putting this book down. It's highly readable but, in the end, it lacks the fire and bite of Scottsboro. This is a straight up historical novel with sympathetic characters doing their best at a turbulent point in history. I enjoyed it, but doubt I'll still be thinking about it in a few days. I hope this isn't a direction that Feldman has decided to go, although it's probably a much more salable book than Scottsboro.
    • 4/5
      I read a lot of books about the 40s and this was one of the better ones. The book follows three friends through the years before, during and after WWII. But its more than a book about the war, its also a book about love and friendship. We see the characters evolve from teenagers and the changes that the war caused in their lives and we also see the changes that occured in the US as a result of WWII. I thought that this was a great read with well developed characters.
    • 3/5
      Author Ellen Feldman introduces readers to childhood friends Babe, Grace and Millie during the early years of World War II. Their husbands all serve their country in the war, but not all return, and those who do return are not the same as when they left. The women must somehow move on with their lives and marriages must travel lonely roads to be made whole again. I recommend this book for those who are interested in learning about World War II and the roles of women during that time.
    • 5/5
      I won this book from a Goodreads contest. I truely enjoyed it.This book is a story about 3 women and their lives before, during and after World War II. They take the journey thru the love and loss of those that leave them behind and how they cope to find peace in their hears once again. This was definately a great read.
    • 1/5
      A publication reviewing summer editions to read noted this book as "impossible to put down." I have to rightfully accuse the reviewer of false advertising.While I initially enjoyed the story of three women whose lives were dramatically impacted by WWII, mid way through the book seemed to spin into la la land and, what was a dramatic tale became trite and over done.The author was inspired by the real life story of young men in Bedford, Virginia, a small town of 3,000, who lost nineteen men in the first minutes of the D-Day invasion.Using this as a springboard could have equated into a powerful book. In Next to Love, two husbands never returned; one came home physically and emotionally wounded. Analogous to those who became disenfranchised with America's patriotic hype of the glory of WWII, I soon grew to grow weary of the story line of this book.
    • 4/5
      The story follows three women friends from teenage years through young adulthood and marriage. The aftermath of their husband's service during WWII on their lives, how choices unfold ove the years is set against the backdrop of the war years and the societal changes that followed in its wake. The casual prejudice is striking viewed from this vantage point - American is less overt in its prejudice now.
    • 4/5
      My husband asks me why I read books about people in difficult situations. I like to see how other - albeit fictional - deal with circumstances. This was worthwhile book for that reason, and because it opens the door to the aftermath of war for both soldiers and their families. At times it was slow, and I set it down a couple of times for other books. Nevertheless, I recommend it, and it's truly not a downer.
    • 4/5
      Overall I enjoyed this book but I did find it hard to really "get into" the book for a while. I think this is mostly because it was written in the third person point of view. This is just a personal preference but, for me, it hinders my attachment and involvement with the characters. Eventually I was able to connect and did enjoy the story of these women.
    • 3/5
      I found this book to be merely adequate. It is written in present tense "He is remembering..." "He goes down the stairs....", which seemed weird to me. The most interesting aspect of the book, for me, was the descriptions of what life was like in the 1940's and 1950's.
    • 4/5
      I won this book, which is coming out May 15th, from LibraryThing. If you are in a book club, I hope you'll consider reading it for discussion. I think it would spark quite a conversation about the life, loves, and responsibilities of women in marriage, regardless of whether they have children and regardless of the age in which they live.The book spans the years from just before World War II through 1964, and the only complaint I have is that segments go back and forth between a few years which makes it a bit confusing. The main characters are Babe, Millie, and Grace who we follow through high school friendship, to heartbreak and hardship caused by the war, and on to mature married life and motherhood (or not). Babe is the one we get to know best and some of her decisions in life are bound to cause a visceral reaction in anyone over the age of 30. She is the one who arguably is most mature of the three.World War II is the defining moment of the lives of their husbands and therefore of these three women. They live in small town America and each is a sort of everywoman that we can all relate to in some way. During the war some of the town's families lose a son and/or husband on D-Day or another battle. Some families never recover from that loss. Other young men return home emotionally, psychologically broken, shell shocked, healing only very gradually through their adult lives. Others who have served their country valiantly come home expecting to be treated like first-class citizens but instead find the old class system intact. We also see through these women the changes in America through the decades, particularly in the 60s. Bigotry is as common in their small town as it is anywhere else in the country, and persecution of Jews as well. We see the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement even in this little place far from the action, and we see how hard it is for many of the older generation to accept those changes.My reaction to Next to Love is mixed. Perhaps it's been too long for me to go back to how people felt in the 50s and 60s, but maybe it's just that the views disgust me. I can't deny that the book strikes a chord in my mind, but it also makes me long for bigotry and racism and anti-Semitism to be gone already. We were so hopeful in the 60s that we could do away with such awful things yet they remain.The struggles of Babe, Millie, and Grace to find a happy life will resonate with women, and probably find a place in the hearts of women who are the mothers and wives of returning soldiers today. I recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      This book about life at home in America during WWII and post-war is very well written. I liked and cared about the three main characters, and while the story was not uplifting, it seemed real (although I have no idea, I was born in the 70s). I agree with some of the reviewers who thought that the author was trying to pack too much into the end of the book, although I do think the accelerated pace reflected the tumultuous times. As usual, I have opinions on the way it's marketed--the cover is way too breezy for the gravity of the book's themes and tone. Also, it's not anything like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Both books are very good, but to compare them is quite a stretch.
    • 2/5
      While the premise of this book's plot is good..3 friends and their lives as women from World War 2 through the 1960's, I found the book didn't quite live up to all the hype. The book had numerous plots: women's rights. women making the transition from independence back to wife and motherhood, and civil rights. The author, while telling the story never delved into these plots deeply enought to make an impact on the reader. I felt the characters had the potential for much more depth than given. It was a good book, but had it gone deeper could have been greater.
    • 3/5
      This book followed the lives of three women who grew up together in the same town and the different paths their lives take during and after WWII. While some of it was the stereotypical events (love, loss, courage) we think of during that time period, the author did a good job of digging into the psyche to show the inner workings of the woman and her home life - something that I at least haven't seen done that frequently. We always talk about how the fighting men from this generation took forever to talk about what they saw, but I think the women still don't really talk about it because it's home life: private, especially for a generation taught not to air dirty laundry. As a current military spouse it was interesting/nice to see that some of the feelings that occur when a husband leaves for combat still apply...they're not generational, they're inherent.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book. It was a eye opener about how war negatively affects not only the soldiers, but their friends, family and descendants for generations to come. it started out great, then got a little slow in the middle. It picked up again until the end. it has been compared to Guernsey... but I loved that book and gave it a 5 star rating.
    • 3/5
      While this was a good book, it doesn't measure up to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as the publisher suggests. This is the story of 3 lifelong friends and their families. The first half of the book is the best. It takes place during World War II, and we see how the three friends and their husbands cope with the war, the separation caused by the war, and ultimately the death or wounds suffered by the soldiers.There were times when I wondered why these three women were friends. They seemed to live in very different worlds and have little in common other than that their husbands went off to war as did many other men in the early 1940's. However, this was also the most developed part of the book and offered the most insight into the individual characters. The last part of the book covered the period from 1945-1960. It seemed like the author skimmed over these years and this time period added little to the story. I think she was trying to show the changes in society caused by the Korean War and the civil rights and the woman's rights movements, but much of that was lost in the shear volume of time covered. The book would have been better if it had ended with the end of the war and the adjustments the characters made to their immediate circumstances.All in all, not a bad read, but this book does not live up to its hype.
    • 2/5
      Next to Love is the story of three women, Babe, Millie and Grace who grow up together in small town South Downs. Just as they are starting their young married lives their husbands are called off to serve in WWII. The prologue pulled me in with it's haunting vision of the realities of war. It was a beautiful story about relationships between these women and the men they fell in love with and the harsh toll war takes on their lives and how some survive better than others. But I was also expecting a story of enduring friendship between the women and that never appeared. Rather I felt that they were friends of convenience, having grown up in the same small town. They never seemed to share the intimacies that best friends share even though they always managed to show up at times of crisis, there was not the bond of crisis that should have resulted. In one scene they are having lunch together, as one of them is really struggling with emotional issues, and we have no dialogue from that lunch, just some bickering beforehand and some discussion about paying for lunch afterward. And they do not share their deepest secrets with anyone. I also felt that the present tense narration did not serve the novel well. It made it feel less like a real story and more like a diary entry. The book is told from the perspective of all three women, taking turns between a third person narration of Babe, Millie and Grace spanning various time spans. However, the narrative became quite confusing by using this technique. Just as you finished up with Babe in 1951, you were forced back into 1946 with Millie. This took away from my enjoyment of the novel as I had to remember back to a different time frame. The book would have worked much better with a straight linear narrative and no present tense because I felt there was a really good story underneath this all. These may have been obstacles for but me may work for other readers so I encourage anyone who loves stories about love and loss amidst WWll to pick this book up and dive in. There is some beautiful writing and I was left with a longing to see these three women find closure of their pain and an ability to forge out new lives which I think they all did. Overall I would say that it was a well intended story about relationships, loves lost and found and the strength to move on, sometimes lost in the details.
    • 2/5
      This book started out strong for me. I was instantly drawn to the characters of Babe and Claude wanted to know them. When the book changed format I had trouble following the story. After the initial start to the book, the sections following covered a period of time. Instead of telling the story through the time period the author wrote one at a time of each character and repeated events from the view point of each. I still cared about Babe and wanted to see how her story resolved itself, but I never really got interested in the other characters. Overall, I think the author had a lot of good ideas. They just didn't come together in a way that was satisfying to this reader.
    • 4/5
      Covering two of my favorite eras and settings, Next to Love follows three friends from their WWII marriages through the Civil Rights era. The irony of the three women's outcomes and how they see each other is probably fairly true-to-life We all think someone else has it easier, but a story like this really shows you how we're all struggling. The only thing I didn't care for was the jumping back and forth in the timelines. Flashbacks are typically ok, but the forward a few years, back a few years, forward again threw me off a little.
    • 4/5
      Really a nice read! I got an advanced copy from Early Reviewers and although the story line jumps back and forth it was a good book and I enjoyed it, read it in 2 evenings... Pay attention to chapter headings, had to to follow it.Hope to see more from this author.
    • 4/5
      [Next To Love] by [[Ellen Feldman]] follows the lives of 3 friends: Babe, Grace and Millie as they become young war brides at the beginning of World War II. It follows their intertwined stories through the next 20 years, including widowhood, children, remarriage and the changing times from the end of WWII to the beginning of the Civil and Women's Rights eras. While the stories were interesting, I never really connected with any of the characters. It is a quick, easy read, but ttries to do so many things that it feels a little thin at times.
    • 5/5
      "War...next to love, has most captured the world's imagination." Ellen Feldman chose Eric Partridge's observation to open her novel about love and war. Babe, Grace, and Millie have been friends since kindergarten. Their husbands all serve in World War II. Claude comes home, missing two fingers and much of his mind. Pete and Charlie are killed during the D-Day invasion. How do the women (and their children) cope with loss and post-traumatic stress? This is the primary question, but Feldman addresses much more: prejudice, the healing power of time and love, fidelity, and family dynamics. The characters are very well-drawn, and very believable, struggling with everyday problems, trying to do their best for themselves and their children. Perhaps more than any novel I've read, this one made me see how war reaches far beyond the battlefield, into the lives of those on the home front and into generations to come. In the final pages, as Pete's son enlists to serve in Viet Nam, Babe and Claude try to imagine what the world would be like if there were no war. A moving and thought-provoking story.
    • 4/5
      This novel follows three women during and after WW II--through love and marriage, pain and happiness. A touching glimpse of history, love, and loss.
    • 4/5
      This is one of those books that I read and really enjoyed even though I wouldn't consider it good literature. The three main characters, Babe, Millie & Grace are all likeable even though they have their faults. The author, Ellen Freedman, is good at describing the relationships between the characters. Also the book is well written and is an easy read.My issue was that the when the book tried to deal with the more serious issues such as antisemitism and race relations it fell short. But if you can overlook that flaw it makes for a great beach book.
    • 5/5
      For me, daughter of the Greatest Generation, this was both an insightful and personally helpful novel. My parents, who came of age in the early 1940s, were among those couples for whom World War II was a formative experience. Although they never really talked about the war, the pictures that we have of dad in uniform both at home and in Italy, as well as those of mom in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Jacksonville, Florida, and back home in Chicago awaiting his safe return in 1946 helped to draw me into this story in a way that many probably cannot appreciate. But for those who were born during the war years or shortly thereafter, of parents who experienced and endured through WWII, this novel is a must-read. I particularly appreciate the difficulties expressed as women experience the aftermath of war widowhood, and men what we recognize today as post-traumatic stress. I believe I understand my own parents in a new way through reading this book, and hope that others will have a similar experience.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully and carefully written story of three women from the years 1942 to 1961. Babe (the main character), Millie and Grace live in small town in the South, and the stories of their lives from right before WWII to the beginning of the Vietnam War.
    • 5/5
      I could simply say that this was one of the best books I've read this year and be done with it but that wouldn't be very fair, would it? So here goes. Babe, Grace and Millie are great main characters with an equally strong supporting cast. They are the girl from the wrong side of the track working to support herself, the debutante with her husband's family taking care of her and the orphan convinced that she's earned the right to have her husband come home alive. The maid just wants her son to go to college and scrubs and cooks to make it happen. The father who's lost his son is angry at all those who survived and came back. They are all well-written, they all ring true and as I was reading the book I felt like I knew if not someone exactly like them but people who have their personality traits. The relationships between friends are very spot-on in that while they'll do anything for each other they don't always like each other very much. Marital relationships are equally balanced and very realistically require work, which we especially see in Millie's case. It was a little difficult at first to follow the course of events because the book isn't done in strict chronological order. It's done in sections by point of view, with Babe's being the dominant one, and chronologically within those sections so the accounts of events overlap each other and by the end of the book we have a fuller picture of everything that happened and how the events shaped the different characters. Next To Love is a rather ambitious project in terms all the subjects covered in it and I love that Feldman didn't shy away from the difficult and the traumatic. It's all there: racial tensions, separation between social classes, position of women in society, raising children without their fathers there, rebuilding families once the fathers have returned, soldiers returning to their lives and suffering from not being able to go back to normal. While the first three may not be a dominant concern any more the rest on this list are still relevant for us today. We are a nation at war after all, we have children growing up with one or both parents only a memory and a portrait on the mantle, we have soldiers coming back with PTSD and reliving what they've seen time and time again. As Feldman said closer to the end of the book "there is no after to war". There's so much more I can talk about but time is short. I loved it for the characters, the language, the narrative voices, the powerfully unhurried development of the story, for not revealing plot twists before their time but merely hinting at them, for keeping me on the edge of my seat on occasion and in the end making me wish the story didn't end. Now go read it and discover for yourself why it's so good, there are plenty more reasons between those covers.
    • 5/5
      Next To Love is the story of three women and the role World War II plays on their lives. In the beginning of the story Babe, Grace and Millie all end up sending their men off to fight World War II. The three women have to deal with the separation of war and the constant fear of receiving bad news. Babe works in the Western Union office and gets to see the news that will change peoples lives on a daily basis. We see the women dealing with their lives back home while the men are off fighting the war. Grace is a young mother and wife, while Millie is expecting her first child as their husbands leave to fight the war. All three women have been friends since childhood and stand by each other during this difficult time.The next part of the story deals with the women and how their lives change after men come home, and the war is over. I really don't want to say too much as I want this review to be spoiler free. Let's just say the war has long lasting effects on all involved. There are losses and demons to be dealt with.As the storyline continues, we see changes in American history that also brings changes to the three friends and their families. Reading this book made me realize how much our country changed in the time period that the book takes place, 1941-1964. I knew the Women's Movement and the Civil Rights Movement changed life as it was but never gave much thought to the technology changes during this time period. I never thought much of the correlation between all these changes and the war but after reading this book, I see now how World War II played a role in our country's changes.The author has written this book in a way I found most unusual. Some of the time periods and chapters overlapped. It sounds confusing but as long as I read the heading on the chapter with the date, the story flowed smoothly. The story was told through the viewpoint of each of the women. I found it interesting to read about a certain event through the eyes of two different women. The way the story was told was very effective.I enjoyed the nostalgia of this book. It took me a very different time in our history and made me understand my mother a bit more, seeing she lived through this time period herself. I enjoyed taking this journey with Babe, Grace and Millie. I highly recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      It's WWII and the two wives and one girlfriend of three soldiers are sisters in a strong, warm family. Every evening after dinner dishes, the family gathers around the kitchen table and listens to letters from lonely GIs the girls had met through USO dances and promised to write. Then the girls quietly write to their mates. We get to know each soldier as well as we do each sisters. I really hated for this book to end. I cared about all of the characters and respected them. They were loyal to one another the rest of their lives.