A Woman of No Importance The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

This lady was WILD! What an incredible retelling of a story rife with impossibility, defied at every turn by an incredibly powerful woman. Someone make this a movie!

The story is fantastic. The writing didn’t do it for me. When it comes to its subject matter, A Woman of No Importance falls into the same category as The Personal Librarian, which I read last year. Each book tells the story of a woman who made history--as in, created history--but who has been obscured (by men, their own humility and privacy, and by the simple passing of time). The Personal Librarian illuminated a life that I felt I should know about, and I can say the same of A Woman of No Importance; I loved learning about Virginia Hall’s life and work. While Benedict’s writing was sometimes a little stiff, Purnell’s simply strikes me as bland or uninteresting. Every sentence seems to be similar in structure and tone, delivering little to no dramatic impact as they outline Virginia’s participation in some of the highest-stakes operations of World War II. Maybe (likely) the culprit for this is Purnell’s journalistic approach to writing a true biography of Hall, whereas Benedict took some liberties to translate what’s known about Belle de Costa Greene’s life into a fiction novel. I can’t fault Purnell for choosing to approach telling Hall’s story this way, but I can say that it isn’t for me. I also had trouble with how this approach left me with a relatively superficial understanding of Hall’s work. I learned she sent some correspondence, made some underground allyships, and sniffed out trouble (and did all to help win the war) but it wasn’t always clear how she was able to do these things. I sometimes wanted more of the nitty-gritty than Purnell could offer, and I can only assume that’s due to a lack of available documentation of that work, not a lack of research on Purnell’s part (because the book does seem incredibly well-researched). This is the type of story I’d love to watch, even if it means some screenwriter somewhere needing to take a few creative liberties or make educated guesses to fill in the gaps in the research. I’d love to see Hall’s story actually brought to life in a way that reflects how absolutely bonkers and impressive her life was.

I love a good spy story, a true one is even better. Virginia Hall did so. Much. For the resistance in France, HOW is she not more known? I know how, but still. Her journey through the mountains could be an epic scene in a movie alone.