From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

Sonia Purnell

Finish date: January 6, 2020

Discussion: 2020 Challenge - Regular

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Aug 16, 2020 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it really liked it

Shelves: history-non-fiction, memoir-bio-autobio, non-fiction, feminist, disability, resistance-reads, 2020-reading-challenges

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell is an important book, about an important woman. Virginia Hall undoubtedly affected the course of WWII and the state of French resistance more than once, and both she and this book deserve a better review than I can give this book at the moment.

I started reading this book last fall, but my audio book hold from the library expired before I could finish it, and I had to wait for it to become available again. When it finally did become available again, the A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell is an important book, about an important woman. Virginia Hall undoubtedly affected the course of WWII and the state of French resistance more than once, and both she and this book deserve a better review than I can give this book at the moment.

I started reading this book last fall, but my audio book hold from the library expired before I could finish it, and I had to wait for it to become available again. When it finally did become available again, the pandemic shutdown of 2020 had already begun. and my brain was fried by anxiety. So I listened to the remaining 50-70% of this book in small bits while doing mindless housework. I don't think the disjointed reading did my appreciation for the book any favors, nor did my frame of mind during the shutdown/ pandemic.

Also not doing the book a service was the fact that within the last year, I had read Madame Fourcade's Secret War. While Marie-Madeleine Fourcade and Virginia Hall are very different women, whose huge service to the French Resistance were achieved in very different ways, their stories had many parallels, and sometimes that created some confusion for me when reading, soI'd have to stop and think it through to separate the facts back into two separate stories. Also, I found that I could relate more to the more cerebral Mme Fourcade than to Virginia, the rough and tumble ball of bold brave energy and cunning. Not that Virginia wasn't also brilliant. But she was a woman who chased adrenaline and daring physical pursuits both before and after the loss of one of her legs in a hunting mishap. Tough as nails, and incredibly brave. But a very different temperament from me.

However, Virginia's story is incredible. The things she achieved in her lifetime, especially her time in Europe during WWII, are truly amazing, and the fact that she lived to tell the tale is even more so. She was fearless in the face of danger, stoic under suffering, resourceful in the face of challenges, and incredibly effective at espionage and sabotage against fascism, even when undermined so very often by the men around her. She deserves every superlative and every accolade used to describe her and more.

The writing can be a little clunky. It didn't always hold my attention. But the research seemed thorough and the facts spoke for themselves. Full of details about the world around Virginia at any given time during her life, full of personal details of Virginia's own life, as well as the context of world and regional events and the interactions of those in her immediate and regional orbits. I learned so much about the work of the French Resistance during WWII from A Woman of No Importance and Madame Fourcade's Secret War.

It was especially chilling reading this book, and the horrific tactics of the German and French fascists in power in Vichy France during a year when a fascist administration tries to consolidate power in my own country. it reminded me of what the stakes are, and of the sacrifices others have made in the past so that those who came after them could live better, freer lives free of fear and deprivation and violence. Given the sacrifices of so many brave heroes and patriots like Virginia, we beat back the shadow of fascism in their day, and we must honor their sacrifices by continuing that fight in whatever way possible today.

So while the pandemic tanked both my reading and my (timely) reviewing of this book, don't let that keep you from giving it a try. Virginia's story is important and inspiring, both as a woman and as a physically disabled person, at a time when the world said that people like her couldn't do the things she dared to do. She dared anyway, and fought against prejudice as well as against fascism. She helped change the world. So give her story a try, and keep her memory and her sacrifices alive.
The audio version is well read, and includes lots of pronuciations I might otherwise have struggled with, but the book has visual materials like maps and photos, so choose formats (or juggle both) accordingly. Either way, I recommend this work of primarily WWII resistance/ espionage non fiction. ...more

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