Review: Weeping Women Springs by Tamara Eaton

Source: Review copy from author
Rating: ★★★★☆

“There must be another way to protect our country that doesn’t involve the death of all of our young boys.”

“The world hasn’t discovered it yet.”

“They haven’t looked very hard. Maybe that’s because all the young men keep offering themselves up for war. Perhaps because they keep sacrificing themselves. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

(from Weeping Women Springs)

Quick summary: Weeping Women Springs is a novel about an isolated town in New Mexico known as Hope Springs, where just a taste of the water from the spring will make you feel hope, maybe even heal you, and you’ll never want to leave. No one knows the reason why the spring water has such a magical effect on people, but the residents go to great lengths to protect their secret. However, Hope Springs’ wartime losses draw attention to the town, and the grieving women are no longer able to draw strength from the water. Tamara Eaton takes readers on a journey from the early days of the United States’ involvement in World War II through the Korean War and beyond as the women of what once was known as Hope Springs remember how things were before the wars and explain how they did their best to honor their men and pick up the pieces left behind in the aftermath.

Why I wanted to read it: I liked the idea of a World War II novel with a bit of magical realism.

What I liked: I enjoyed how Eaton told the story in the voices of the women of the town: Liv, who is strong, determined, and outspoken, puts the needs of the town first, and ultimately becomes a leader in the Council; Maxine, who runs the general store alone after the deaths of her parents and marries her high school sweetheart just before he goes off to war; Ruth, who often butts head with Liv and whose desire to find happiness is at odds with the goals of the Council; and Susie, who loses herself in books to escape her grief. Eaton also includes the journals of Anna, whose three sons all went off to war. Even though the women are revisiting the past and telling their stories to a journalist, Eaton manages to put readers into the center of the town and into the heads of each of the characters, feeling the excitement right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the despair that accompanies their losses.

What I disliked: At times I found parts of the story hard to believe, mainly the actions of the Council in controlling the lives of the townspeople and the extreme actions of the grief-stricken women. However, it did make sense in the context of the story and in the way the characters were developed, and it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the novel.

Final thoughts: Weeping Women Springs is a thoughtful, complex tale of the sacrifices made on the homefront during wartime, with those left behind forced to contend with the fact that their loved ones were never coming home. Eaton shows how war rips apart people in the literal sense and also tears apart the lives of those who never set foot on an actual battlefield. The women are able to go on because of their devotion to their soldiers, the routines they adopt to honor their memory, and the town’s ability to hide from the outside world. And when their way of life must come to an end, Eaton shows how they still manage to move forward.

Disclosure: I received Weeping Women Springs from the author for review.

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