In 1940 two stories unfold, one on each side
of the Atlantic Ocean. In London, bombs start to fall as the Blitz begins and
cub reporter, Frankie Bard, takes cover between shifts broadcasting news back
to the States. In Franklyn on the tip of Cape Cod, the locals listen to the
voice of the ‘radio gal’ but events in Europe have little effect on
still-neutral USA, and town life goes on as normal.
The doctor’s new wife, Emma Fitch, arrives to
take up residence; postmaster, Iris James, sorts the mail; and Harry Vane runs
his garage business unaware that Iris James has her sights set on him.
Dr Fitch loses a patient and, more moved than
most by Frankie Bard’s broadcasts, he decides to go off to London to help
minister to the dying and wounded. There is a chance encounter with Frankie
that leaves the radio gal with a message to deliver back home. But before then
she lands the work assignment she has been craving, recording the stories of
the countless, stateless, refugees fleeing the Reich and heading west across
Europe for a boat, they hope, to the USA.
It is dangerous and emotionally draining work,
especially as no-one back home (including the residents of Franklyn) seem to
care what is going on. Back there the news is Mrs Fitch’s pregnancy and Iris
James finally snaring Harry Vale. Frankie returns to the US and heads up to
Cape Cod to deliver the messages first-hand – on the war in Europe and about Dr
Fitch. How well will they be received?
The contrast between the daily life in London
and Cape Cod is well documented and using Frankie’s broadcasts to link the two
is effective. But both narratives are fragmentary; back stories are hinted at
but not developed; futures are left dangling. This, presumably, is deliberate
and echoes Frankie’s increasing introspection about the nature of her reportage
– her subjects are real when in her sights but may as well not exist before or
after.
Neither a difficult nor particularly
satisfying read.
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