Not So Quiet...

';[A] bittersweet feminist antiwar novel... Brilliantly written, and cleverly mixing humor with bitterness' (Library Journal). Praised by theChicago Sun-Timesfor its ';furious, indignant power' and winner of the Prix Severigne in France as ';the novel most calculated to promote international peace,' this story offers a rare, funny, bitter, and undeniably feminist look at war and its effects on all those who take part. First published in London in 1930,Not So Quiet... follows a group of British women ambulance drivers on the French front lines during World War I, surviving shell fire, cold, and their punishing commandant, ';Mrs. Bitch'even as their parents swell with pride that their girls aren't shirking their duty to king and country. Taking the guise of an autobiography by Smitha pseudonym for Evadne PriceNot So Quiet... is a compelling counterpoint to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the WesternFront. The novel's power comes from Smith's outrage at the senselessness of war, her own daily contact with the suffering and the wounded, and at her country's complacent patriotism and willingness to sacrifice its children.