AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
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
Works about this Work
-
Daphne Walking Past
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
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
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 240)
— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel 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
1983
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14 May 1983; (p. 35)
— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel 1983 single work novel
-
New Australian Novels
1983
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 October 1983; (p. 29)
— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel 1983 single work novel -
Stilted Prose and Too Many Happy Snaps
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 1983 single work novel -
[Review] Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 240)
— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel 1983 single work novel -
Silly at Times - But Never Dull
1983
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14 May 1983; (p. 35)
— Review of Smile, the War Is Over : A Novel 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
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
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
Subjects:
- Perth, Western Australia,
Settings:
- 1940s
Export this record
