Review: Women of the Post

I’ve realized in the last few (several?) years that my particular love of historical fiction set during and around each World War means the overwhelming majority of what I’ve read is written and told from a White perspective. I acknowledge that I may not be working hard enough to seek out titles written by BIPOC authors but I also think part of it is the stories just aren’t being published. (I’m more than happy to be told I’m an idiot who has to do more research, by the way.) So, when I came across Women of the Post, Joshunda Sanders’ debut novel, I was immediately intrigued. It was a solid novel that kept my interest and shone a spotlight on a part of history many people may not know much about.

Here’s the book’s description:

1944, New York City. Judy Washington is tired of working from dawn til dusk in the Bronx Slave Market, cleaning white women’s houses and barely making a dime. Her husband is fighting overseas, so it's up to Judy and her mother to make enough money for rent and food. When the chance arises for Judy to join the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and the ability to bring home a steady paycheck, she jumps at the opportunity.
Immediately upon arrival, Judy undergoes grueling military drills and inspections led by Second Officer Charity Adams, one of the only Black officers in the WAC. Judy becomes fast friends with the other women in her unit—Stacy, Bernadette and Mary Alyce—who only discovered she was Black after joining the army. Under Charity Adams’s direction, they are transferred to Birmingham, England, as part of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion—the only unit of Black women to serve overseas in WWII. Here, they must sort a backlog of over one million pieces of mail.
The women work tirelessly, knowing that they're reuniting soldiers to their loved ones through the letters they write. However, their work becomes personal when Mary Alyce discovers a backlogged letter addressed to Judy that will upend her personal life. Told through the alternating perspectives of Judy, Charity and Mary Alyce, Women of the Post is an unforgettable story of perseverance, female friendship, romance and self-discovery.

This was not, surprisingly enough, the first novel I’ve read about the women of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion. Kaia Anderson’s Sisters in Arms from 2021 (review here) dealt with the same group of women. I much preferred Sanders’ novel but I still found it ever so slightly lacking. I think the issue is I found it too slow. There had to be a lot of set up, just because of the story Sanders chose to tell. I am very happy Sanders took the time to really lay out what it was like for Black women in the US during the war and she gave a lot of detail without the dreaded info dump. I found the story dragged when the women were all in training but I don’t know what Sanders could have done about that. Maybe it’s just me and I was far too impatient for them to get over to England and do actual work instead of being stuck in barracks, not being allowed to because they’re Black. (White women at this time were being sent to Europe to "do their bit" but Black women were being barred from doing the same.)

The story is told from the perspective of three women: Judy, Mary Alyce, and Charity. Judy and Mary Alyce are fictional characters but Charity Adams was a real person. I know authors take liberties with history for the sake of the narrative - and almost all of them will explain why and how they made those changes in a note at the end of the story. I understand how fiction works. What I don’t understand is why Sanders chose to give Charity a female love interest in the book when there’s no evidence that she was queer. She absolutely could have been, of course, and (do I really need to say this?) obviously the presence of a queer character isn’t the issue. The issue is changing a core part of a real person’s being for the sake of the story. Charity was a wicked amazing woman though and I’m glad to have learned more about her and will research more about the real woman behind the novel in the future. Mary Alyce, as I said, was fictional but Sanders noted that she’s kind of based on a real person she had read about. As the book's description notes, Mary Alyce had no idea she was Black until she arrived at training because her mother had hidden her father's race from her and she was light enough to pass. There actually was a woman that happened to, as Sanders mentions in her note. I couldn't even imagine having your world shaken up like that when you're already on edge, heading to training to help with the war efforts. 

Somewhat related, even though I found the training portion of the book to drag, I was loved reading as the women all became friends and bonded with their fellow WACs. They knew they didn’t all have to like each other but they worked hard at making sure there was some respect so they could operate well as a unit. It would have been such a different and eye-opening experience for these women and I was glad they had each other to lean on as they dealt with falling bombs and racism while working in England.

Another reader on Goodreads mentioned that this book would make a better film or TV show and I think I’d have to agree. The information and history is so important but a novel might not be the best format to tell the story of these women. THEN another reader mentioned that Tyler Perry is working on a movie about the women of the Six Triple Eight which is extremely exciting and I’ll for sure be watching.

I liked Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders and am glad to have read it. The history she shared was fascinating and I learned a lot. I’ll keep an eye out for her next novel!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, HTP Books, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*