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y separately published work icon Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1983... 1983 Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Set in Perth of the 1940s, Smile the War is Over follows the fortunes of a small group of young women and the impact on their lives of the huge influx of American servicemen, incidentally conveying the social texture of life in the wartime city;...(William H. Wilde et.al. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1994): 694).

Notes

  • Dedication: For Pat, My Mother
  • Epigraph: Each man lives for himself and has such play of free will as enables him to attain the end he may have in view. He has, and feels that he has, the power of doing or of not doing this thing or that; but as soon as it is done it is no longer in his hands: it has become a part of history, in which it finds its due place out of reach of chance and change. L. Tolstoy, War and Peace (Heron Books, London) Vol. II, p.207.
  • Author's Historical Note:...From March 3, 1942 to October 3, 1945 the US Asiatic submarine fleet which was first known as Task Force 71, then later 51, operated from the Perth port of Fremantle. At any one time during these years there were up to 10,000 Americans in Perth where with the majority of men away on active service, the largest percentage of the small town population consisted of women and children. The newcomers were received with devotion by the women. These women hoped that it was not only from the Japanese but also from the restrictions of their small town society that the Americans had arrived to save them.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Macmillan , 1983 .
      image of person or book cover 4347827438673948515.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 212p.

Works about this Work

Daphne Walking Past Robert Drewe , 2010 single work prose
— Appears in: Sand 2010; (p. 25-27) Swimming to the Moon 2014; (p. 171-174)
Reality Bites : The Impact of the Second World War on the Australian Home Front in Maria Gardner's Blood Stained Wattle and Robin Sheiner's Smile, the War Is Over Donna Coates , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 23 no. 1 2009; (p. 49-55)
'Threats to national safety have captured the imagination of few novelists: to date, only Maria Gardner's Blood Stained Wattle (1992) and Robin Sheiner's Smile, the War is Over (1983) have appeared. While both of these writers draw heavily upon military and political history to tell their stories, Gardner derives much of her material from a diary her father, Colin Gray Gardner, kept of his experiences during and after the bombing of Darwin, and Sheiner, who was a child during the war in Perth, supplements her memories of the period with letters from and formal interviews with those who were alive at the time.'
[Review] Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel Sue Murray , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 240)

— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel Robin Sheiner , 1983 single work novel
Birth of a Novelist David Kerr (interviewer), 1984 single work interview
— Appears in: The Bulletin (Literary Supplement) , 26 June vol. 105 no. 5422 1984; (p. 72-74)
Silly at Times - But Never Dull Gwen Harwood , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14 May 1983; (p. 35)

— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel Robin Sheiner , 1983 single work novel
New Australian Novels Katharine England , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 October 1983; (p. 29)

— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel Robin Sheiner , 1983 single work novel
Stilted Prose and Too Many Happy Snaps John M. Wright , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 3 May vol. 103 no. 5363 1983; (p. 70-72)

— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel Robin Sheiner , 1983 single work novel
[Review] Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel Sue Murray , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 240)

— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel Robin Sheiner , 1983 single work novel
Silly at Times - But Never Dull Gwen Harwood , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14 May 1983; (p. 35)

— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel Robin Sheiner , 1983 single work novel
Reality Bites : The Impact of the Second World War on the Australian Home Front in Maria Gardner's Blood Stained Wattle and Robin Sheiner's Smile, the War Is Over Donna Coates , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 23 no. 1 2009; (p. 49-55)
'Threats to national safety have captured the imagination of few novelists: to date, only Maria Gardner's Blood Stained Wattle (1992) and Robin Sheiner's Smile, the War is Over (1983) have appeared. While both of these writers draw heavily upon military and political history to tell their stories, Gardner derives much of her material from a diary her father, Colin Gray Gardner, kept of his experiences during and after the bombing of Darwin, and Sheiner, who was a child during the war in Perth, supplements her memories of the period with letters from and formal interviews with those who were alive at the time.'
Daphne Walking Past Robert Drewe , 2010 single work prose
— Appears in: Sand 2010; (p. 25-27) Swimming to the Moon 2014; (p. 171-174)
Birth of a Novelist David Kerr (interviewer), 1984 single work interview
— Appears in: The Bulletin (Literary Supplement) , 26 June vol. 105 no. 5422 1984; (p. 72-74)
Last amended 23 Nov 2018 12:07:25
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