The Orphan Gunner

Sara Knox

The Orphan Gunner
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Giramondo Publishing Co
Country
Australia
Published
1 September 2007
Pages
376
ISBN
9781920882280

The Orphan Gunner

Sara Knox

A romance between two young Australian women, set in Bomber\nCommand in Lincolnshire during the Second World War. Evelyn has\nescaped to England to become one of the few female pilots with the\nAir Transport Auxiliary. Journeying from Australia, her friend\nOlive enlists in the WAAF. A growing intimacy develops between\nthem.

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The Orphan Gunner explores the seductions of passing,\nthe licence granted by risk, and the selflessness - and selfishness\n- of sacrifice. The relationship between the two women is portrayed\nwith subtlety and warmth, and an extraordinary sense of historical\ndetail which brings its wartime setting vividly to life.

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Review

This marvellous first novel has definite, unmistakable echoes of Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch: both are World War II romances that explore the way that the wartime ‘man shortage’ transformed women’s roles, with lasting effects. And yes, both novels have a lesbian love affair at their heart. But I beg you: don’t let the sexuality of the main characters define your response to this book. Like Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty or Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City sextet, this is not a ‘gay novel’. It’s a clever, evocative, finely nuanced exploration of gender and identity, sexuality, class, and the morality of war; rich with inventive imagery. Middle-class, seemingly conventional Olive and aristocratic, eccentric Evelyn grew up together in Orange, NSW, with Evelyn’s sensitive brother Duncan. The trio are reunited on an air base in Scotland, and together they navigate the challenges of war – and the roles that society has assigned them, ultimately rebelling in a most unexpected way. Evelyn in particular is a fantastic character, a glamorous tomboy in the mould of Katharine Hepburn. And in the spirit of a 1950s movie, the dialogue and action are often coy on the surface, while bubbling with sly subtext and barely-there barbs.

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