Band of Sisters: A Novel

Book Review

Mar 3

Why Read Band of Sisters

I often feel like I’ve been reduced to a trembling sack of bones. Anxiety anyone? Sometimes, admittedly, I cower, cancel all my plans, and wallow in my own self-pity. Other times, however, I buck up and get on with life despite feeling worried and stressed. Band of Sisters: A Novel by Lauren Willig is motivation for doing the second thing. Band of Sisters puts things in perspective (maybe things aren’t so bad or scary after all) and is a reminder that we are all capable of more than we think.

Band of Sisters, by Lauren Willig, is a fictional account of the experiences of the Smith College Relief Unit. Never heard of the Smith College Relief Unit? Neither had I. Here’s the rundown: In 1917, Harriet Boyd Hawes addressed a Smith College alumnae group. “In my ears the call to college women rings as clear as ever, perhaps clearer than ever before—a call of need for their steadfastness, their moderation, their good sense, their special proficiency, their esprit de corps, to help actively in this tremendous conflict.” The conflict she spoke of was World War I. The women of the Smith College Relief Unit, led by Hawes, soon set sail for France to help not soldiers, but French civilians—people whose wells had been poised by the Germans, whose homes had been bombed and left in ruins.

Band of Sisters Review

Funny at times, heart-wrenching at others, Band of Sisters shows the value of tenacity, courage, and virtue. In her historical note, Willig writes, “I have never had the privilege of dealing with as rich a source of anecdote as the chatty, snarky, fascinating letters written home by members of the Smith College Relief Unit. My only regret was that I couldn’t include even more of their adventures and mishaps in the book.” The book is already nearly five hundred pages, but if it had been 1,000 pages, I would have read them all and loved it.

What’s most fascinating about Band of Sisters is how heroic the women of the Smith College Relief Unit were. The women went to northern France, the area with the greatest need. They were very close to the front. So close, in fact, that they had to evacuate in March 1918 because of a new German offensive. In her memoir, Ladies of Grécourt: Smith College in the Somme, Ruth Gaines, a member of the Smith College Relief Unit, quotes the American Red Cross’s statement about the Unit’s work during the Great Retreat: “They have lost their equipment, to be sure, but they have saved the lives of hundreds of French women and children and old people. Each girl was charged with the evacuation of a village, and each one stuck to her post and rescued her people in spite of shell fire.” Willig set out not only to recount the (mis)adventures of the Smith College Relief Unit, but also to do justice to the story of the women who stuck to their posts inspite of shell fire, and I think she accomplished that.

I also think that adult books need real heroes just like children’s books and adventure stories. It’s so easy to forgot who our heroes should be as evidenced by the way we worship both politicians (the ancient Roman’s did this—it didn’t end well) and celebrities. Consequently, we’ve forgotten what courage looks like.That Band of Sisters exists is a gift. A gift of real heroes to inspire us to create instead of destroy, to fix rather than start from scratch. So, read Band of Sisters and try on some steadfastness, dip your toes in moderation, use your good sense, develop your special proficiency, strap on your esprit de corps, and kill it like the badass lady I know you are.