Damals In Der Neuen Welt: Roman (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.I don’t understand what happened here. The first chapter of When the World Was Young was interesting, well written and had me looking forward to the story. But somehow, somewhere along the line, what held my attention vanished and I was left with cold, unfeeling facts about ants.Wally pretty much grows up like an orphan after the end of WWII — her mother commits suicide and her father basically abandons her to go clean up after war. Wally spends her time with Ham (Hamilton), her grandmother’s maid’s son. Together they build ant worlds, get into shenanigans and learn some harsh realities about being friends with someone of a different race than you. Then they both are separated in early adulthood and make some poor choices when they get back together. All in all, this is a story with a lot of repeatable patterns. Like mother, like daughter — except for where it counts (not being dead).Mainly I couldn’t enjoy this story because it was a bit unfeeling. Someone professes love, but there’s no proof in it. Someone’s father pretty much abandons them and there’s no depth to it. Gaffney had some nice sentences, but I couldn’t feel the character’s anguish on the page. There is a lot of this happened and then this happened — like someone was writing a story about their family without much skill in it. :/There was so much here that just felt off and unrealistic, such as the mother’s decision to kill herself. This is revealed to us so early on, but not to poor Wally. But because of this, there isn’t much tension. We know, and Wally doesn’t really find out until the very end of the story the particular details. This sucked out all of the possible momentum for me. And, she doesn’t have any time to learn from the information she gathers.There are a lot of positive reviews out there for When the World Was Young so don’t just take my word for it if you are into family dramas and historical fiction. But if you need stories rife with emotion, I wouldn’t recommend this one. I read this book because I thought it would be an interesting time period that is not usually covered in most historical fiction. The story was good and the main character was charming. I gave it two stars for two reasons. I really wish the characters would have been more developed. The story would have been much deeper if we really got to know and understand Stella, Wally's dad, and Bill. Their characters were only surface painted, I think. The other reason I gave it two stars was because some of the story did not seem plausible for the time period. A family of female doctors in the thirties and forties? I also thought the end, although very good, was a bit rushed and a little too comical for the rest of the story.
What do You think about Damals In Der Neuen Welt: Roman (2006)?
Liked the setting (Brooklyn, end of WW2) and found the characters engaging, but wanted more.
—David
Stopped reading on page 96 so that should tell you how much I liked the story!
—ZANE
Too predictable and sappy for my taste. Chick lit.
—Garfield
