Editorial Content for No Better Time: A Novel of the Spirited Women of the Six Triple Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
NO BETTER TIME is an important novel. You may think you know everything about World War II, but here comes Sheila Williams with another missing chapter of the full story.
The Black women who served with the Women’s Army Corps (commonly referring to themselves as WACs) during World War II were a distinctive group of enlisted females working overseas. Their contributions were imperative and progressive. They were among the first women who ever formally agreed to join the military and see actual time on the front. Williams was inspired by her cousin, who was a WAC. She took the stories of their brave and bold experiences, along with their deep abiding friendships, to produce a dramatic, compelling and heartwarming novel.
"[NO BETTER TIME] effectively calls out the Army’s inability to stem racism and misogyny, while also celebrating the ability of the women to dedicate themselves to each other and ensure their safety amidst the evil of the war around them."
Leila Branch doesn’t know what she wants out of joining the WACs except a good steady paycheck. Her mother and toddler son need her to provide for them back home. No one thinks she should go this far to make a living, but she feels that she needs to embark on this journey and try to make it the best it can be. She finds kinship and camaraderie with the other women who have made a similar job choice. Among them are Dorothy Thom, who is a Spelman grad, a librarian and a lover of all things French. Between the two of them, there doesn’t appear to be any situation that they can’t manage to squeeze through. Even though the Army made a call for women to join the service, no one seems to know what to do with them. There are hundreds of them with skills and dedication to spare.
The women learn to deal with the basic training nightmares, not to mention the misogyny and racism created by the segregation of the volunteers. Williams makes this point very clearly when we see how even the German POWs are given better quarters and rations than the enlisted women. And this is before they hit the front lines in Europe.
When they finally make it to the European continent, their details are insane. They must process over 17 million pieces of mislabeled, misaddressed mail and packages that have been sent to the soldiers abroad. As culture shock settles in around them, they find the British people far more kind and inviting than their own communities back home. Their work brings further joy and closeness when the people to whom they are communicating about the mail and packages thank them for their diligence in trying to locate the rightful owners. The women find a sense of duty and belonging, and a new way of looking at themselves, their lives, their skills and their friendships as they manage to stay afloat in one of the most difficult workplaces in the world.
NO BETTER TIME takes no time at all introducing readers to the brave and virtuous females we meet here --- stand-ins for the real-life women who made history against all odds. It effectively calls out the Army’s inability to stem racism and misogyny, while also celebrating the ability of the women to dedicate themselves to each other and ensure their safety amidst the evil of the war around them.
Teaser
In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Dorothy Thom joins the Women’s Army Corps. Women from all levels of society work together to navigate a military segregated by race and gender. In early 1945, Dorothy and 800 African American WACs cross the turbulent North Atlantic to their post in England. Their orders are to process the mail sent to GIs from their loved ones back home. They arrive to find mail stockpiled for over two years in warehouses and airplane hangars. Many pieces are in poor condition, and the names are illegible. In England and France, the WACs traverse a landscape of unimagined possibilities. With their outlooks changed forever, they return to the United States as the catalysts for change in America and build lives that transcend anything their ancestors ever dreamed of.
Promo
In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Dorothy Thom joins the Women’s Army Corps. Women from all levels of society work together to navigate a military segregated by race and gender. In early 1945, Dorothy and 800 African American WACs cross the turbulent North Atlantic to their post in England. Their orders are to process the mail sent to GIs from their loved ones back home. They arrive to find mail stockpiled for over two years in warehouses and airplane hangars. Many pieces are in poor condition, and the names are illegible. In England and France, the WACs traverse a landscape of unimagined possibilities. With their outlooks changed forever, they return to the United States as the catalysts for change in America and build lives that transcend anything their ancestors ever dreamed of.
About the Book
The acclaimed author of THE SECRET WOMEN and THINGS PAST TELLING returns with an engrossing historical novel about a little-known aspect of World War II --- the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only Black WACs to serve overseas during the conflict.
In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Dorothy Thom --- Spelman graduate, librarian and Francophile --- joins the Women’s Army Corps wanting to do her part for the war effort. Longing for adventure, she has one question for the recruiter: “Do you think I’ll get to go abroad?”
As Dorothy and her sister WACs discover, life in the Army is an adventure filled with unexpected deprivations and culture shock. Women from all levels of society, secretaries, teachers and sharecroppers, work together to navigate a military segregated by race and gender. At boot camp, the “colored girls” are separated for processing. At Ft. Riley, the women’s barracks are rustic and heated by coal-burning pot-bellied stoves while German POWs spend their incarceration in buildings with central heat and hot water.
In early 1945, Dorothy and 800 African American WACs cross the turbulent North Atlantic to their post in England. Their orders are to process the mail sent to GIs from their loved ones back home, an estimated 17 million pieces. The women arrive to find mail stockpiled for over two years in warehouses and airplane hangars, many pieces in poor condition, the names illegible.
In England and France, the WACs traverse a landscape of unimagined possibilities. With their outlooks changed forever, they return to the United States as the catalysts for change in America and build lives that transcend anything their ancestors ever dreamed of.
NO BETTER TIME illuminates a love of country and duty that has been overlooked until now.
Audiobook available, read by Janina Edwards
