Good Night, Irene
A Novel
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4.7 • 16 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
This New York Times bestselling novel tells an exhilarating World War II epic that chronicles an extraordinary young woman’s heroic frontline service in the Red Cross.
“Urrea’s touch is sure, his exuberance carries you through . . . He is a generous writer, not just in his approach to his craft but in the broader sense of what he feels necessary to capture about life itself.” —Financial Times
In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.
After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a courageous American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.
Taking as inspiration his mother’s own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea’s “gifts as a storyteller are prodigious” (NPR).
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
While there is no shortage of novels about World War II, Good Night, Irene offers a fresh take. Inspired by his own mother’s experiences, Luis Alberto Urrea centres on the mostly unknown story of the Donut Dollies, a group of Red Cross workers tasked with driving around the European front lines, delivering coffee, donuts, and a morale boost to American troops. The novel’s protagonists, Irene and Dorothy, are very different—well-off, dreamy, petite city girl versus tall, capable, tell-it-like-it-is Midwestern farm orphan—but they develop a tight, loving bond driving around in their tricked-out Clubmobile. Urrea tells Irene and Dorothy’s story with a specificity that heightens all the emotions and suspense. This is a rewarding, page-turning read that explores the devastation of war through women’s eyes—and a beautiful celebration of life-changing friendships.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Urrea (The House of Broken Angels) transports readers to the Western Front of WWII in his stunning latest. Irene Woodward, a tough New Yorker, covers up the bruises received from her abusive fiancé with concealer and sweaters, throws her engagement ring down the drain, and joins America's war effort as a member of the Red Cross Clubmobile. Tasked with high expectations—keep driving and keep smiling—Irene is sent to England alongside Dorothy Dunford, who, much like Irene, is looking for an escape from her life. The two become fast friends while serving coffee and doughnuts and trying to comfort the soldiers, a nebulous task defined in the chaste terms of the day (they should act like a "big sister, girl next door, mom or sweetheart"). As the U.S. efforts advance, Irene fears she has lost Dorothy, who's become like a sister, after they are separated in an accident; eventually, she goes home to New York to rebuild a life marred with survivor's guilt and shell shock. In a move that could feel contrived but only further elevates the work, Urrea bookends the wrenching narrative with a surprising discovery 50 years later. It's a moving and graceful tribute to friendship and to heroic women who have shouldered the burdens of war.
