Avenger Field is unusual as a short novel because it is written in the form of a teleplay, so it is really like reading a play with more descriptive passages of action and visual than plays normally have when published in written form. It is a dramatic interpretation of the story of American women pilots during World War II who served in a variety of non-combat roles important to the war effort. As a dramatic work of historical fiction, it combines a number of real personalities with fictional characters who interact with them. It places the characters in familiar and well known situations of the early 1940s; engaging them with people whose lives they touched against the backdrop of the most consummating war the world has ever experienced.
Kimberley Kates and her co-authors follow some of the first women fliers whose prewar experiences drew them to the beginnings of the move to employ women pilots in roles such as plane ferrying and target towing. Kates, with a background in motion pictures, folds strong visuals into the personal and public stories of these women. The work details the historic rivalry between the two best known female pilots of early WWII, Nancy Love and Jackie Cochran, who intensely lobbied First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and U. S. Army Air Forces chief General Henry Arnold to put women pilots in the military. Ultimately, the two organizations - Love’s WAFS and Cochran’s WASP - were combined into one. The women never gained full military status during the war even though they served a number of vital aerial functions. Only decades later were they fully recognized for their important contributions to victory.
For my own published works I have both researched and interviewed WASPs and those who served alongside them. I have found that their patriotism and desire to serve were intense personal characteristics. But they were also women; they wore makeup, obsessed over their appearances and had dreams of marrying and starting families like most women of that era. As in the case of the “Rosie the Riveters” war industry workers, their desires to serve their country pushed the limits of what was considered normal career paths for women of the time. As a group they challenged traditional gender roles and paved the way for generations of women who now pilot military and civilian aircraft, as they also seize opportunities in the expanding space exploration field.
The story reads well; it is full of descriptive flying scenes and romantic drama as well as the true history because it is a work of historical fiction.
Periodic newsreel insertions keep readers focused on the timeline as the story jumps from place to place to follow the lives of the ensemble cast. In their effort to show who these women pilots were the authors developed an ensemble cast of characters that is just about the right size; women from different areas and backgrounds, all with the intense desire to take to the skies. Some characters are well along in their journeys while others are barely introduced. It is clear that this Avenger Field is the first in a series of engaging novelettes, a tribute to a popular form of reading of times past, but one that may be totally appropriate in the modern era of busy lives and short attention spans.
- Jay Wertz
