I reread A Place for Margaret recently, after finding my worn out copy while visiting my dad (I found the cover for Margaret in the Middle, but not the content), specifically so that I could write a “fresh” book review on this blog.Ī Place for Margaret is nominally about Toronto, but mostly about rural Ontario in the 1920s. My mom bought the first two books as a set – I think the third book hadn’t come out yet in paperback. And in her unforgettable portrait of the home front, Hunter has brought to life the daily trials and tribulations of a generation of women who had to stand by while their men went to war.Although the Margaret books were a trilogy, I only ever owned the first two books, A Place for Margaret and Margaret in the Middle ( Margaret on Her Way is the third book).
In Natalie, Hunter has created a spunky, outspoken and utterly charming character, which readers young and old will revel in. At times funny and at other times deeply moving, Bernice Thurman Hunter's last novel is drawn from her own memories of being a teenager in Toronto during World War II. And as news of other boys reaches home - some of it good but so much of it bad - Natalie begins to wonder what kind of world will be there for them all when the war finally ends. But it is during this time, when she is taking the most pride in her war work, that Natalie and her family get the news they've been dreading: her cousin, a gunner in the Dambusters Squadron, is listed as missing, presumed dead. Buying War Saving Stamps with her meager earnings is not enough for Natalie, however, and soon she finds work at De Havilland Aircraft, making bombers. Now she quits school and takes a job at a department store.
Her first move was to change her name from Beryl, which didn't sound sophisticated at all. There are still dances at the Armories to meet handsome boys in uniform, but is that all a girl can do for the war effort? Natalie has a plan. And like her other girlfriends, Natalie is getting tired of waiting for the war to be over. Too often she takes the trip to Union Station to wave goodbye to another friend, wondering if he'll ever come home again. But it's 1944, and almost all the boys she knows have signed up and are being shipped overseas to fight the war in Europe. Like any teenager, Natalie wants to have fun.
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