The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club
51 pages • 1-hour read
Martha Hall KellyThe Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club
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Background
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and racism.
Authorial Context: Martha Hall Kelly’s Family and World War II
The Author’s Note that follows the last chapter demonstrates how many of the characters in the book relate to Kelly’s family, who, like the Smiths, lived in the less wealthy, more rural northern part of Martha’s Vineyard, colloquially called Up-Island. Her mother, Joanne Finnegan Hall, inspired the fictional character Cadence. Like Cadence, Joanne loved to read and salvaged books from the dump. Two of her mother’s friends provide the basis for Bess. Joanne’s mother, Kelly’s grandmother, Emma Louise, has much in common with Gram—both are resourceful Christians who bake. Kelly’s uncle, John Finnergan, fought in World War II as a member of the United States Army Air Corps. He was shot down over Italy and, like Tom, rescued by nuns. Joanne married a Coast Guard officer, which suggests Major Gilbert. Kelly doesn’t list a direct inspiration for Briar, which suggests that Briar is the most fictional of the characters.
Kelly remembers hearing stories about U-boat sightings from older relatives. People on the island could supposedly hear the submarines recharging their batteries by running their diesel engines on the surface to generate electricity. Kelly also remembers her mother and her mother’s friends admiring the soldiers who came to the islands for the war games. Kelly mixes public history, her personal history, and imagination to create her historical fiction.
Historical Context: World War II, the United States, and Martha’s Vineyard
World War II began on September 1, 1939, when Germany, led by the totalitarian Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland, leading England and France to declare war on the Nazis in accordance with their treaty obligations. While the United States helped supply England and France, they didn’t officially join the war until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US naval base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, on December 7, 1941. Cadence explains, “Ever since Pearl Harbor the previous December, the whole nation had been on edge” (141). With the United States now sending soldiers like Tom to fight, the war came down to the Allies (mainly, the United States, France, England, and the Soviet Union) versus the Axis (Nazi Germany, Japan, and Italy).
In the book, the authorities worry about the possible existence of a “fifth column” comprised of American Axis sympathizers working to undermine the US from within. The paranoia leads the government to persecute innocent people. Kelly references the discrimination through Bert the Barber (an Italian American whom the authorities detain because of his ethnicity) and the Sone family, whom the government sends to a concentration camp alongside other Japanese Americans. While Bert returns, the Sones don’t. The government put around 120,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps for the duration of the war, robbing them of property and businesses and leaving many without homes or jobs to return to after the war ended.
Briar guesses that the soldiers training in Martha’s Vineyard will soon be fighting in “North Africa or along France’s vast coastline” (511), and she’s right. As Martha’s Vineyard resembles the coastal French region of Normandy, the authorities chose the island for its war games. The invasion off the coast of Normandy is known as D-Day (June 6, 1944), and it generally represents the liberation of France and a strong counter to Nazi Germany’s dominance.
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