Mektoub: A Young Woman’s War Journal

Mektoub: A Young Woman’s War Journal
Nicole Solignac O’Connor
Neurofame
ISBN: 0-9725518-1-6
Non-Fiction, Memoir, History
Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady

Mektoub: A Young Woman’s War Journal is the author’s account of her experiences during World War II. This story is unique and significant for a variety of reasons. The first and foremost is that this autobiography illustrates the female contribution to the war effort. During the war, the author was first a student and then served as an interpreter with the French Expeditionary Corps. A war story with a female perspective is unique enough but an account of daily life as a woman in the military at that time is unheard of. Moreover, the author’s experiences led her from her home in Tunisia to Algiers where she had intended to become a student to her military assignments in France and Italy. This aspect of the book allows the reader a privileged view into the war efforts in these arenas which aren’t often written about.
I was both honoured and entertained by this story. At every point in the account, I felt like I was right beside Nicole feeling her confusion, her pride, her pain, her apprehension, and her happiness. Though the book read extremely smoothly like any good fictional story, I also gained great insight into aspects of the war that I hadn’t really considered and how women fit into these portions of history.