Review: The vagaries of love in time of war
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 24, 2014
Author Bobbie Barton knows the territory about which she writes. This is her fifth romance novel and though this reviewer has not read her other works, this book is strong enough to suggest that she has been overlooked. Biographical data is sparse, but what we do know is that Bobbie Barton has spent her life in the state of New York. Born on Long Island, she was moved in infancy to Brooklyn where she matured, was married to a soldier, moved to Berlin and returned to Long Island with a daughter. Two more children followed, then divorce, and a remarriage that increased her family to five children and new husband. When her husband died she began writing and all of the imagery of her youth and family life come brimming out in her books. She writes with a solid hand, able to create emotions and events, passages of time and the vagaries of fate with complete ease. She deserves a large audience.Barton's tale begins in the early 1940s when her main character Mary is a mere thirteen years old, soon caring for the new arrival of her sister Sally born to her mother Alice as a farewell impregnation when her father Lou went off to war. Mary is assisted by her mother's sister Trudy and by the kindness of the landlord's son Felix. But as Mary enters puberty and begins her role as a woman her childhood friendship with Felix grows deeper. Felix is tender to Mary, to Sally, and to Mary's small family, but as he becomes eligible he enlists in the Army and goes to Berlin as part of the American occupational forces, promising to marry Mary at war's end.  In his absence the now fully mature Mary is cruelly raped, becomes pregnant, decides against informing Felix for fear of losing him, but as the pregnancy becomes obvious she yields to the attention of Felix's brother Miguel who has always loved Mary, and who protects her situation of being an unwed mother. His devotion eventually wins Mary's heart and she marries Miguel. They honeymoon, encounter Felix who has become enamored by a girl named Minna only to lose her to an old visiting friend from Brooklyn. The manner in which Barton weaves this tapestry of ill-fated romance is uniquely creative and encourages the reader to participate in the questions of love and responsibility she has raised. It is a story well told and certainly one that deserves a wider audience. Grady Harp, January 14