Good Night, Irene

December 1, 2022

In 1943, Irene Woodward pushes aside her abusive fianc� in New York to enlist with the Red Cross, befriending Midwesterner Dorothy Dunford as they head toward Europe on a journey that takes them from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Urrea, a National Book Critics Circle fiction finalist for The House of Broken Angels and Pulitzer Prize finalist for the nonfiction The Devil's Highway, was inspired to celebrated women's contributions to World War II by his mother's own Red Cross service.

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Starred review from March 6, 2023
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. Agent: Julie Barer, Book Group.

April 1, 2023
With cinematic verisimilitude and deep emotional understanding, Urrea (The House of Broken Angels, 2018) opens readers' eyes to the female Red Cross volunteers who served overseas during WWII, delivering donuts, coffee, and homestyle friendliness to U.S. troops. The author's mother, herself a minor character, was one of these women, who were nicknamed Donut Dollies. Fleeing a violent relationship, gregarious Irene Woodward gets partnered with tall Indiana farmer Dorothy Dunford, cementing a tight bond of sisterhood. Their personalities and the writing itself crackle with energy as Dorothy drives their truck across England and the continent, following orders to go where they're needed most. The servicemen greatly appreciate their work on the front lines, and the novel's sense of realism grabs hold as the women become trapped in a French town crawling with Nazis. War engulfs everyone in its path, as does the mental strain of constant danger, though Irene's romance with a fighter pilot boosts her inner strength. WWII fiction fans, who have an abundance of options, should embrace Urrea's vivid, hard-hitting novel about the valiant achievements of these unsung wartime heroines.

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Starred review from May 1, 2023
Two women witness the horrors of World War II via a snack truck. Pulitzer Prize and NBCC Award finalist Urrea's remarkable, elegantly written novel focuses on the Red Cross' little-known Clubmobile Corps, which during World War II was charged with bringing coffee, doughnuts, and good company to weary GIs. The women had no medical training and were often condescended to as "Donut Dollies," but because they were stationed in the heart of battle, they played no small part in improving morale and required a steely resolve of their own. Irene Woodward, who's escaped New York and an abusive fiance, and Dorothy Dunford, who's left her family and failing farm in Indiana, are paired together in a massive truck that, across the novel, heads from England to France and Germany in 1944 and 1945. En route, they witness some of the worst the post-D-Day European theater has to offer, from bombs to snipers to death camps; during lulls, the two fend off their share of harassment as well. (It's all a recipe for PTSD and overwhelming for many; the Clubmobile was designed to be operated by three women, but so many drop out there's a running gag about an unnamed "Third Girl in the Truck.") Irene, artsy and romantic, has an opposites-attract rapport with the no-nonsense Dorothy, which Urrea plays for both humor and pathos, but he stresses how unified they are in absorbing the constant surprises and tragedies of warfare; a sunny retreat to Cannes is followed by a trek to Buchenwald. This material is personal for Urrea, whose mother served in the Clubmobile Corps, and a few sentimental notes slip into the story. But there's plenty of grit, detail, and twists that make for both a fine page-turner and an evocation of war's often cruel randomness. Top-shelf historical fiction delivered with wit and compassion.

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