In brief

Gloria loves a joke, but her memory’s not so good. Nearly eighty and living in a nursing home, her passionate nights with the dashing Ron, an American Second World War pilot, are crystal clear. But there are puzzling gaps, black holes that have to be filled when her son starts asking uncomfortable questions, questions that Gloria isn’t sure she can answer.

In detail

War Crimes for the Home explores themes of memory and old age through the voice of Gloria, a reluctant resident of the Sea View nursing home. Her wartime love affair with an American Air Force man has left a legacy of secrets so deeply buried that even Gloria seems no longer privy to them.

With their mother dead and their father missing in Singapore, Gloria and her sister, Marje, were left to their own devices in wartime Bristol. Working in a munitions factory, they learned to grab what they wanted when they could. For Gloria, what she wanted was Ron, the American who swept her off her feet and into bed. But Ron wasn’t the only man to entrance Gloria. A trip to see the Great Zodorro finds Gloria up on stage, hypnotised and convinced that she’s an iron bar, in an encounter that will shape the rest of her life. When Marje’s fiancé is shot down over Munich, she is inconsolable and moves to London in an effort to escape her grief. Posted away from Bristol, Ron begins to visit her there and Gloria’s dreams of a life as a GI bride are shattered.

Fifty years on, irascible and suspicious, Gloria still likes a joke and still hankers for the ‘Zedorro moments’ she shared in bed with Ron, taking consolation with Ed, who finds it hard to keep his hands off the nurses. When Hank, Gloria’s son, finds what she calls her Chicago box, filled with papers and photographs, he begins to question Gloria’s past and the identity of his father. The appearance of a woman in her fifties at her bedside prompts Gloria to suspect that the game is up, but she’s no longer sure exactly what the game is.

For discussion

  • Gloria loves a joke and her jokes are almost invariably dark. What function does humour serve in her life? Did you think her jokes were funny or did they offend you?

  • The novel is narrated by Gloria, almost eighty years old and living in a nursing home. How successful is Liz Jensen at getting inside the skin of an elderly woman? Were you convinced by Gloria’s voice? What sort of person is she and how does Jensen convey her character?

  • The narrative frequently switches from present to the past, often quite abruptly. Why do you think Jensen chose to construct the novel in this way? Did it work for you? What effect does it achieve?

  • What kind of picture does the novel paint of old age? Sex amongst old people is almost a taboo subject in our youth-obsessed society. How did you feel about Gloria’s antics with Ed?

  • The events of the Second World War are very important to Gloria. Do her memories echo any impressions that you may have gained of the war from family, films and literature or, perhaps, from your own experience? Is her account wildly different from what you might expect and if so how does it differ? How different are the main characters (Gloria, Marge and Ron) from how they might have been if there had been no war?

  • On page 58, Ed and Gloria disagree over what should happen to an ageing Nazi war criminal. Gloria says ‘He’s another person now, he ain’t a Nazi no more,’ while Ed agrees with the Jewish commentator that denying his crime makes it worse. Why do you think Gloria take the stance she does? Would you take a particular side in the argument and if so, which side and why?

  • Doris’s voice lingers on for Gloria, long after she has died. What purpose does Doris serve for Gloria?

  • At the hospital for shellshock victims Bill/Zedorro is engaged in an experiment to wipe the memories of those who have seen the horrors and atrocities of the war. What do you think of these experiments? Are there any arguments in favour of what he was trying to do and if so, what are they?

  • When Hank tries to get Gloria to tell him the truth about his father she says ‘It’s gone. My memory’s buggered to bits’ (page 73). How accurate is this?

  • On page 198 Melanie urges Gloria to ‘just tell me the truth, and be done with it’. Gloria replies, ‘What for? When’s the truth ever done anyone any good?’ Does Gloria change her mind? What good does telling the truth eventually achieve? Is telling the truth always a good idea in the kind of circumstance that Gloria finds herself in?

  • What are the war crimes of the title and who has committed them?

  • Liz Jensen has described herself as being occupied with ‘the point where the inner life and the outer life collide’. In what shape does this preoccupation appear in War Crimes for the Home?

    Suggested further reading

    Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (1995)The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2000)
    Wise Children by Angela Carter (1991)
    The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe (1997)
    The Private Parts of Women by Lesley Glaister (1996)
    Dog Days, Glen Miller Nights by Laurie Graham (2000)
    Have the Men Had Enough by Margaret Forster (1989)
    Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler (1997)

    Other books by Liz Jensen

    Egg Dancing (1995)
    Ark Baby (1998)
    The Paper Eater (2000)