I Gave My Heart to Know This-Ellen Baker

I Gave My Heart to Know This
Ellen Baker
Random House, Aug 2 2011, $26.00
ISBN: 9781400066360

During WW II as the need for manufacturing support to the war effort grows, the male labor pool shrinks. As such women took over the jobs that historically were male only. By January 1944, Grace Anderson and mother and daughter Violet and Lena Maki work as welders in a Wisconsin shipyard.

The ladies also know that part of their job on the home front is writing upbeat letters to the boys at the front. Grace agrees to Lena’s request by sending encouraging letters to her twin brother Derrick. However, she has an understanding with her high school sweetheart Alex the marine and is attracted to railroad worker Joe, sent home with rheumatic fever.

In Wisconsin, Lena's granddaughter Julia lives on her family farm while grieving a death. She reads letters and looks at photos from WW II while wanting desperately to end the estrangement with her sibling Danny as she probes the tragedy decades ago that destroyed her family.

This is a super historical thriller that focuses on women who took over male jobs while the men fought. These females proved a woman can do a man’s job in the workplace and they became mentors for the reform movements of the 1960s. The ensemble cast is solid especially the WWII crew as Ellen Baker provides a deep look at the great leap that led to “you’ve come a long way baby” with her not so quiet on the Lake Superior front.

Harriet Klausner