Not So Quiet . . .: A Novel

By Helen Zenna Smith and Jane Marcus

“[A] bittersweet feminist antiwar novel . . . Brilliantly written, and cleverly mixing humor with bitterness” (Library Journal).
 
Praised by the Chicago Sun-Times for 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 Smith—a pseudonym for Evadne Price—Not So Quiet . . . is a compelling counterpoint to Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jan 1, 1993
• ISBN: 9781558616325

Reviews for Not So Quiet . . .

[beggar1015 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This short book covers everything your mother never told you about World War I. I read somewhere that for a time this book was on the banned list, and no wonder as it dares to say things that polite society never acknowledged during this era. From the horrendous living conditions for the ambulance drivers whose lives are in just as much danger as the soldiers in the trenches, the blood and guts reality of the wounded, the unbearable pressures from home for the girls to "do their bit" with a stiff upper lip (from the people living safe and warm back home), lesbianism (shockers!), premarital sex and abortion. No wonder this lost generation went wild during the Roaring Twenties.

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith; (5+*)I loved this book. And yet I ask myself, how can one love a book which is at times torturous to read?Helen Zenna Smith has written a novel (based upon her war service in the ambulance corp) which vividly portrays the lives of a certain number of woman who signed up to "do their bit". Their lives aren't much better than the lives of the soldiers in the trenches and their corp is stationed just back from those trenches.The drivers get very little sleep. Their bedding is lice ridden. The food is deplorable. Their leader is quite the bitch and they are punished for the smallest of infractions. The cook is lazy and doesn't care if the girls get their rations or their teas. No one cares. At least the drivers are there to care about getting the wounded soldiers to the hospitals no matter how much mud or snow they have to drive through to get them there. Oftentimes at night they must drive the twisting, winding roads (if one can call them that) with no lights as the enemy is shelling the area.War novels are not new to me. I have long read books, both fiction and nonfiction on World War II but I had only read a couple on The Great War until this year with a group read. My eyes have really opened to the horror of this particular war and I can readily understand why it was called "the war to end all wars" but it didn't. The girls in the book understood that all too well. Why the political wheels did not see this boggles my mind.There were some light moments in the lives of the girls. There were romances; some lasting, some not and some broken by the killing machine that was the war. For the most part the girls enjoyed the company of one another and they depended on each other to have the back of the others.This book is filled with character studies of girls and soldiers who have staying power and of some who break and cannot handle it. But back home their families are oh, so proud of them and seem happy enough to give up a son or daughter to the "glory of the cause".Included in this 'novel' is one of the most emotionally packed and powerful passages I think I have ever read. Smith's character is waiting with the other drivers and stretcher bearers in the freezing night for the train that will bring its overly loaded human cargo of the wounded in from the trenches. She sits in her ambulance and has an imaginary conversation consisting of what she would like to share with two women in her life at home."Oh, come with me, Mother and Mrs. Evans-Mawnington. Let me show you the exhibits straight from the battle field. This will be something original to tell your committees, while they knit their endless miles of khaki scarves, . . . something to spout from the platform at your recruiting meetings. Come with me. Stand just there.Here we have the convoy gliding into the station now, slowly, so slowly. In a minute it will disgorge its sorry cargo. My ambulance doors are open, waiting to receive. See, the train has stopped. Through the occasionally drawn blinds you will observe the trays slotted into the sides of the train. Look closely, Mother and Mrs. Evans-Mawnington, and you shall see what you shall see. Those trays each contain something that was once a whole man . . . the heroes who have done their bit for King and country . . . the heroes who marched blithely through the streets of London Town singing "Tipperary," while you cheered and waved your flags hysterically. They are not singing now, you will observe. Shut your ears, Mother and Mrs. Evans-Mawnington, lest their groans and heartrending cries linger as long in your memory as in the memory of the daughter you sent out to help win the war."It goes on for another 6 pages, with Smith's imagined sharing of what she sees daily at the front lines with her mother and Mrs. Evans-Mawnington. She hates that these two women vie for who has given up the most for the 'glorious cause' and who has recruited the most young men to be served up to the enemy. For Smith & most of her comrades hate this war that they know will NOT end all wars as is thought at home.This is not stuff for the faint of heart. But I do highly recommend Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith. This one is right up there with All Quiet On the Western Front, perhaps on an even higher level. It seemed a more intimate read and has remained with me days after finishing the book.

[picardyrose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Novel about six English girls who went to the Front as VADs, first published in 1930.

[brenzi_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After reading Helen Zenna Smith’s powerful answer to Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, I am sitting in stunned silence. This author, who is fairly obscure and unread, wrote with such passion about the conditions under which the Volunteer Aide Detachment (VAD) ambulance drivers worked, that it’s hard to believe she didn’t work in that capacity herself. Instead, she relied on the diaries of Winifred Young, who did serve in France.Helen Smith, the novel’s protagonist, comes from an upper-class English family and is expected to do her part in the war. At her mother’s urging, she volunteers to be an ambulance driver and is assigned to live with five other like-minded women. The bulk of the book features the experiences of these young women. Their average age is twenty-one. As the story unfolds, the horror of these experiences is brought to light in glaring detail. Their parents, who paid for their passage, their uniforms and a steady stream of supplies including carbolic body belts to keep the lice at bay, seem to be quite willing to sacrifice their daughters to this very dangerous job. As the story opens, it’s plain that the lice are no small obstacle. They are all covered with the little red bites and succumb to the endless scratching as they lay in their “flea bags” (sleeping bags) and try to sleep. I say try because they get very little chance to experience the luxury of the dreamless, uninterrupted sleep that we all hope for. They usually spend their nights responding to the blare of the Commandant’s whistle, notifying them that they need to race to their ambulances and drive to the front to pick up the maimed bodies of the latest victims of this bloody war. It’s a grueling life, highlighted by a vindictive leader, near-starvation rations, harrowing races through snow and darkness in ambulances they have to maintain themselves and a shocking realization of what these women tolerated to do their jobs.There is one part of the story where, in her mind, Helen is inviting her mother and a co-worker who both recruit young women for the VAD and yet have no idea what is happening in France, to come along with her in her ambulance. It is the most emotionally draining passage I’ve ever read. Here’s a small part of it:”See the stretcher bearers lifting the trays one by one, slotting them deftly into my ambulance. Out of the way quickly, Mother and Mrs. Evans-Mawnington---lift your silken skirts aside…a man is spewing blood, the moving has upset him, finished him…He will die on the way to the hospital if he doesn’t die before the ambulance is loaded. I know…All this is old history to me. Sorry this has happened. It isn’t pretty to see a hero spewing up his life’s blood in public, is it? Much more romantic to see him in the picture papers being awarded the V.C., even if he is minus a limb or two. A most unfortunate occurrence!” (Page 91)The book was eye-opening in its bluntness, heart-breaking in its passionate espousal for the anti-war movement and brave in exposing the upper class society for their relentless recruiting of unsuspecting and naïve young people. Very highly recommended.

[lauralkeet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I see in the years to come old men in their easy chairs fiercely reviling us for lacking the sweetness and softness of our mothers and their mothers before them; chiding us for language that is not the language of gentlewomen; accusing us of barnyard morals when we use love as a drug for forgetfulness because we have acquired the habit of taking what we can from life while we are alive to take ... clearly do I see all these things. But what I do not see is pity or understanding for the war-shocked woman who sacrificed her youth on the altar of the war that was not of her making, the war made by age and fought by youth while age looked on and applauded and encored.Pretty strong stuff, eh? And that's just one of many powerful passages from Not So Quiet ..., a feminist take on World War I. Similar to the classic All Quiet on the Western Front, Not So Quiet follows a young person at the front and portrays the intense, shattering impact of the war experience. Helen is part of a corps of ambulance drivers, responsible for delivering injured soldiers to one of several hospital wards, and sometimes for transporting soldiers to their final resting place. They work long hours, with poor food and very little sleep. While they are not engaged in combat, they certainly see and experience it, and they are just as vulnerable to air strikes as the men in the trenches.Those "back home" cannot comprehend the experience. Helen's mother is ridiculously proud of her two daughters for their war service, and is constantly trying to one-up her social rival through war committee work. Her letters are filled with vapid praise for Helen "doing her bit," and when Helen returns home on leave her mother cannot comprehend why Helen doesn't want to wear her uniform, or talk about war service with friends.This is a short book, but so intense and unrelenting I had to read it in short segments. And yet, it is superbly written. If you weren't a pacifist before reading it, you're likely to become one.

[jtsolakos · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A remarkable book that describes the horrors of war: it contains so much that is real and cruel and pointless. In the backdrop are those back at home flag-waving and promoting the war effort. Anyone reading this book will see the futility of war.