Widowland

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An alternative history with a strong feminist twist, perfect for fans of Robert Harris’ Fatherland, Christina Dalcher’s Vox and the dystopian novels of Margaret Atwood. But alas, something felt a bit flat. I feel like this book only scratched the surface of what it could have been. I wanted more danger, more rebellion and to be honest it could have been harsher. Let’s face it the Nazi regime weren’t known for anything but brutality. I feel like it moved at lightening speed from telling us how the Alliance works to all of a sudden a rebellion…. Then the end. I want more rebellion and build up! And the love interest that happened after a chance meeting a few hours before. No. It added nothing to the story for me. Friends was enough.

And how different is our world in 2022, in the expectations that it places on women, judging them by their appearance rather than the quality of their character? How overlooked and ignored are the elderly, especially in the aftermath of a pandemic in which so many were infected in their own rooms in our care homes? Widowland tells of an alternate history. The story begins in 1953, thirteen years after England surrendered to the Nazis and formed a Grand Alliance with Germany. Many oppressive ideologies have bee As a life-long devotee of alternative history, I've seen so damn many "Germans win WWII" ideas that I refelxively shy away from reading yet another one. This one, being the second in a series I didn't read the first one of, would usually get zero attention from me for both those reasons. The way this subverted my defenses was to offer me a golden moment: My abiding contempt for the Windsors leads me to be amused and more than a little pleased that things turn out badly for them in this story. Rose is tasked to go into Widowland, a desolate place where widows who are deemed worthless to society live. She is sent to gather information on a potential rebellion. As she delves into the lives of the widows she meets, Rose uncovers truths about her work colleagues and her German lover.I think for me, it ultimately comes down to the fact that I loved the first book so deeply. I probably would have enjoyed Queen Wallis to the same effect, had I not read the first book. As a sequel though, it didn’t grip me in the same way. (Note: Definitely read Widowland before Queen Wallis! It’s not a standalone.) C. J. Carey’s Widowland fascinated me with its imagined alternative history, and the sequel Queen Wallis continues the story. Rose is a great character. Her quest is very unique and dare I say I was drawn to her personality and the fundamental concepts, decisions, and inner voice that were presented within this story. Rose is the heart of the story. We travel with her, and follow her deepening realisation of the restrictions that she lives under. Her awakening comes from many directions — primarily, her interactions with an older generation (her father and the residents of a house in Widowland outside Oxford), who remember the world before 1940, and the dreams of freedom and self-determination which she has for Hannah, her precious niece. Rose Ransom, a member of the privileged Geli class, remembers life from before the war but knows better than to let it show. She works for the Ministry of Culture, rewriting the classics of English literature to ensure there are no subversive thoughts that will give women any ideas.

The ending also leaves several key questions unanswered and some main plot points unfinished. This achieves a heightened sense of tension and also leaves the plot open-ended for the reader to draw their own conclusion from the events at the end of the book. In ‘Queen High’ these qualities continue creating an intelligent and thought provoking novel that is also very exciting. I found it engaging and certainly a worthy sequel to ‘Widowland’. The central question of the novel is, 'what if a place existed where older women, already marginalised by society, were banished?' The author draws on her own experiences of widowhood as well as her research into the treatment of older woman in Germany during World War II. The real Rosenberg was genuinely attracted by the Brahmin caste system which he felt was the best way of managing women. With Widowland, Carey constructs an incredibly intricate alternate universe where this man's hateful vision is taken to its ultimate conclusion. There are six 'Female Classes'; below the young and blonde Gelis are the Klaras who produce four or more children. Then the Lenis who are the professional women, the Paulas who are the nurses, the Magdas who are the shop and factory employees and the Gretls who do the grunt work. Beneath all of them lurk the Friedas, the lowest of the low. We know what Carey is referring to in those places where the people in the book are forbidden to look, or that they choose to turn away from. This is the same dilemma that the people of occupied Europe faced in the early 1940s. We are so used to feeling comfortable and a little smug at the thought that it “didn’t happen here”, as if Britain were a chosen nation. Widowland shows us a reality, one that we would probably have responded to no differently from our neighbours in France or Holland. In Widowland, the dilemmas of living under occupation — when to acquiesce and when to stand — become not just European, but English. This was a remarkable dystopian novel that had me hooked since the very beginning. I was captivated by the alternative history of the novel, which shows what could have happened after WWII if Germany had won and ruled over other countries in Europe, specially over England, Rose’s home.So I'm really not the target audience for this book - I expected something more 'literary', and this is more of a Jolly Good Romp. Rose Ransom, English born, is employed by the Ministry of Culture to perform the important job of Alliance “correction” to literature classics. It is through Rose’s eyes readers will experience this nightmare version of 1953 England. Rose is not robotic in her job or her life, but she does adhere to the confines of what is required and/or mandated of her in the world the Alliance has brought to her homeland. She observes the rules of what certain people can and can’t do. Fortunately, she was classified as a Geli, and she is privy to a better life than so many other of her sisterhood in Britain. She sits in the best seats at the movie theater, she receives more rations, she’s allowed access to cafes and restaurants, and has an apartment in a building with its amenities still intact. There is an underground movement of gatherings where people read poetry. As part of her covert work Rose is sent to infiltrate meetings and gather information. While reluctant she really has no choice but to become a Poet Hunter. London, 1955. The Leader has been dead for two years. His assassination, on British soil, provoked violent retribution and intensified repression of British citizens, particularly women. Now, more than ever, the Protectorate is a place of surveillance and isolation―a land of spies.