Table Two

Table Two / Marjorie Wilenski
London: Dean Street Press, 2019, c1942.
224 p.

This is another wartime novel but this one is set in WWII. It also explores working women during the war; we're meeting the women of Table Two, all translators working for the (fictional) Ministry of Foreign Intelligence. There are a full set of them, all types, from matronly to spinster, both women who have worked their whole lives and some rich volunteers doing 'their bit' for the war effort. 

The two that are most focused on are Elsie Pearne, a bitter middle-aged woman who has had to leave her important job on the continent due to the war, and is now constantly comparing her coworkers idiocy to her superior intelligence. She's blunt and unfriendly, and although her actual work is excellent, nobody else at Table Two really likes her. We learn a lot about her background and why she might be this way; the author seems to have compassion for her and although she is awful she is also the most real of all the characters. She reminds me of Katherine Brooke in Anne of the Island, although she is never brought back to social normalcy by the magic of Anne Shirley. 

But that brings me to the second main character, Anne Shepley-Rice. She comes from a formerly affluent family, and never expected to work. But here she is, sunny and delighted to make use of her skills with Portuguese. Elsie sees her as a possible friend, someone who isn't already turned against her, but as always she is far too intense and snobbish, and ends up damaging the fledgling friendship. 

Anne has a rich grandmother, some investments and a rich boyfriend to fall back on, so she isn't quite as intensely involved in the day to day of the office as some of the others. There is class tension between the 'workers' and volunteers, and dislike for Elsie generally, but this all gets ramped up into high gear when Table Two finds out that the post of Assistant Deputy Supervisor is up for grabs. 

This was a fascinating read. The office bickering is instantly recognizable to anyone, even during a war it went on. The story is almost all women, as well -- some of the men who toil away in management are barely seen and are flat characters in comparison. The ensemble cast has representatives of all sorts of people, and I would have liked to see more of that element and learn more about them, but the book couldn't go on forever. It opens a few days before the first bombing of London, and as it was written during the war, there is uncertainty as to the outcome. She describes the daily experience of living with bombings, spending lots of worktime in shelters, and carrying on despite it all. And since she was living through it all while writing this, there is an immediacy that is unbeatable. 

This one is definitely worth a read, even if it a bit uneven as a novel. Despite any of the dramatic flaws, this book captures women's lives in the midst of war, one that no-one knew the ending of. That's compelling.