Early Review: Until We Meet by Camille Di Maio

Until We Meet

by Camille Di Maio

Pub date: March 1, 2022

// 5 stars out of 5 //

A poignant and page-turning story of three women whose lives are forever changed by war…

Brooklyn, 1943

Can one small act change the course of a life? Margaret’s job at the Navy Yard brings her freedoms she never dared imagine, but she wants to do something more personal to help the war effort. Knitting socks for soldiers is a way to occupy her quiet nights and provide comfort to the boys abroad. But when a note she tucks inside one of her socks sparks a relationship with a long-distance pen pal, she finds herself drawn to a man she’s never even met.

Can a woman hold on to her independence if she gives away her heart? Gladys has been waiting her whole life for the kinds of opportunities available to her now that so many men are fighting overseas. She’s not going to waste a single one. And she’s not going to let her two best friends waste them either. Then she meets someone who values her opinions as much as she likes giving them, and suddenly she is questioning everything she once held dear.

Can an unwed mother survive on her own? Dottie is in a dire situation—she’s pregnant, her fiancé is off fighting the war, and if her parents find out about the baby, they’ll send her away and make her give up her child. Knitting helps take her mind off her uncertain future.

With their worlds changing in unimaginable ways, Margaret, Gladys, and Dottie will learn that the unbreakable bond of friendship between them is what matters most of all.

☙ ☙ ☙

“Would we even recognize perfect happiness if it existed without suffering its opposite?”

“Joy and sorrow were like seats on a playground teeter-totter. Back and forth. Back and forth.”

☙ ☙ ☙

This was the most beautiful book. It was so much more than what I’d expected. I thought this might be a quaint story about some ladies who form a knitting club to knit socks for soldiers. It is not that at all. It’s so much more. This went places and told stories I didn’t expect it to. Until We Meet is a lovely, emotional, and deeply moving story of love, friendship, and perseverance. It highlights the importance of human connection and celebrates the spirit of resilience. It’s at times heart-warming, heart-rending, sweet, thought-provoking, charming, terrifying, and uplifting.

The characters are the heart of this book; they are vibrant and charming, true to their time and believably written. Between the cover image and the character names (and never having read anything else from this author before) I thought this could potentially be full of cliches and stereotypes. But Di Maio has carefully crafted characters so rich and beautifully formed, I felt like I knew them. I really liked Margaret, Dottie, and Gladys. The three of them together made a lovely group of friends who understand the importance of taking care of one another. And the male counterparts of the story are just as interesting. I really enjoyed getting to know John, William, and Tom (and Oliver & George).

Everything about this book goes straight to the heart. The story is captivating. It felt like opening a time capsule due to its realistic portrayal of WWII-era America. It’s easy to romanticize this period but the book illustrates just how difficult it was to live through.

I came to realize that despite the story taking place nearly 80 years ago, in a very different time and place to what we know now, nearly everything in this book is relevant to our lives today. One can absolutely read this book for the emotional impact of the story alone and it would be plenty worth doing. But there’s much more to it if you care to see it.

The social & political climate of 1940s working-class Brooklyn and the patriarchal social norms that dictate so many aspects of Margaret, Dottie, and Gladys’s lives are deftly woven into the story. Culture has changed quite a bit in the intervening decades, but I appreciated the way the book made me see how far we’ve come as well as how far we have yet to go. We all experience love and loss and trials in life, and everything the characters go through is so very human and relatable. That alone makes this worth the read.

One of the things I love so much about this book is that the male characters are all open minded, sensitive, and caring. They are supportive of the women they love and see them as equals, treating them as nothing less than partners with their own agency. The three women all have different life goals and values; Gladys is an early social justice activist. Dottie enjoys the domestic life. And Margaret is discovering that what gives her life purpose is to hold down a job and make a difference in the workplace. They are all depicted as being valid and worthy choices. And in turn, the men are never demanding or dismissive of their ambitions and beliefs when they could easily be written as simply the kind who wants a wife who falls in line with what he wants (and we could shrug it off as being appropriate to the time). But there’s no toxic masculinity on display here. Di Maio does an excellent job here of creating swoon-worthy male characters without sacrificing believability, which is a feat to be admired, I think. The feminist undertone in the writing of these characters made the relationships even more enjoyable to read.

I thought the writing was excellent overall. Not just in the way Di Maio fleshed out the characters or made the setting come alive. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives in the chapters, going back and forth between Margaret (and the ladies in Brooklyn) and Tom (and the men in Europe). It was a great way to keep the interest high and the pace brisk. Portions of the book are made up of snippets of the letters Margaret and her military pen pal write one another and it’s a beautiful way to get to know them all. I really enjoyed the correspondence parts. The back and forth of the perspectives when a certain letter is delivered built such exquisite tension. Towards the end, you can really feel the excitement as the climax approaches. And the epilogue was just *chef’s kiss*.

In the end, I found this bittersweet story utterly breathtaking, emotional, and ultimately full of hope. It will make you feel all the feels and remember the important things in life. I would highly recommend this to anyone.

5 stars out of 5

This is for you if you enjoy any of the following: