Review of "A Girl Should Be",

 A Girl Should Be  

by Ruth Latta,

reviewed by Lorna Foreman

        A Girl Should Be (Ottawa, Baico, 2021, info@baico.ca   ISBN: 9781172169,  $30 sc)  is the latest novel by Ottawa author, Ruth Latta. Once again I am enthralled by her ability to take a protagonist through the changing and difficult times of our Canadian history.

        We follow Annie Tyler through some of Canada's tumultuous times, giving us a very personal  view of those periods.  Annie, in the 1920s, was a fun-loving young woman who matured while experiencing the devastating Depression of the 1930s, the rise of Nazi Germany and Soviet Communism and ultimately, World War II.

        I wish I could have learned history in the interesting way that the author presents it to us.  It was even more interesting for me because my mother would have been Annie's age at that time, so I have a much better understanding of what women like my mother lived through.  Women  were attempting to bring more equality to the relationship between men and women, and to play a different role in our society. They were starting to work outside of the home at a volatile period of history.

        The Depression brought enormous changes to women's lives, and men's, too. Annie matured through these years, developing into a more serious young woman trying to support herself while attending university and ultimately finding a job teaching in a remote region.  It is a fascinating read.  Ruth Latta is brilliant in drawing you into the story as though, you too, are living in those times.