Shattered Dreams

Naomi Brun is a freelance writer and a book reviewer for The Hamilton
Spectator.

According to Campbell, her childhood was dominated by unloving parents
who barely scraped through the Great Depression. She had a few friends
in her teens, and fell deeply in love with a wireless operator in the
RAF. They saw each other as often as they could until he was sent
overseas, at which time they began to write letters. Life was lonely for
Campbell then. She felt particularly vulnerable, and experienced a
youthful indiscretion with a Canadian officer who had a drinking
problem. Ashamed of herself, she broke off her engagement with her true
love, committing herself instead to this foreigner who was not the
centre of her affections.

Campbell came to Canada as a war bride and, predictably, her life went
from bad to worse. Her husband’s drinking only increased, and there
was at least one confirmed affair. Combined with miscarriages and
frequent moves, these circumstances brought Campbell little stability
and even less happiness in her adult life.

Campbell sincerely believes that her life was ruined by the whims of
those around her. The reader, however, should be able to see that
Campbell was at least partly responsible for the shape of her life, and
consistently chose not to assert herself when others made poor decisions
on her behalf.

The book’s title speaks volumes about its content. Although free from
grammatical errors and well-organized, Shattered Dreams is too bitter to
be considered an edifying read. A much better choice in the same genre
would be Cynthia Faryon’s A War Bride’s Story (2004).