As Little As Nothing

by Pamela Mulloy

Overall: As Little As Nothing is a quiet, contemplative book that focuses on the interior lives of its characters.  Set in a rural English village in the tense months leading up to World War II, it focuses on the lives of four people: Miriam, a woman recovering from a recent miscarriage; Edmund, her husband, who keeps the village shop; Frank, the son of a wealthy landowner; and Audrey, Frank’s eccentric aunt.  The four meet when Frank and Miriam both witness the crash of a small airplane, and Frank begins to give Miriam flying lessons.  While I rarely mention content warnings in the body of my reviews, I want to highlight that this book deals with abortion, because this is not mentioned in the publisher’s synopsis.

Likes: The characters were complex and realistic; the book dives deep into their emotional inner worlds.  I liked gradually getting everyone’s backstory, especially Audrey’s, which she tells in bits and pieces to Miriam during the development of their friendship.  As Little As Nothing also provides an unflinching look at abortion and birth control in the 1930s, which is not a topic much addressed in historical fiction.  Mulloy clearly did a tremendous amount of research; the novel teems with period details.  The book also provides a window into how many different responses people had to the advent of war, depending on individual circumstances, which is a wonderful corrective to the monolithic depictions of the World War II populace we often encounter.

Dislikes: I had to adjust to the writing style, which I felt was more in keeping with the style of novels of the 1920s and 1930s but was a bit unexpected in a contemporary book.  While I enjoyed the slower pace, it was not what I expected after reading the synopsis.  If you’re looking for a lot of action or a twisty plot, this isn’t the book for you.  The narrative jumps around quite a bit between the four narrators; these jumps get smoother as the book progresses.  I wished Frank’s story had more prominence in the narrative, as I felt like I knew Audrey, Miriam, and Edmund better.

FYI: Abortion, unexpected pregnancy, miscarriage, and living as a gay person in a homophobic culture are major themes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, ECW Press, for my advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.