Book Notes | ‘Good Night, Irene’
It is 1943 in New York City. Irene Woodward is 23 years old and engaged to a man from a prominent society family. Knowing she needs to escape her suffocating mother and her abusive fiancé, Irene secretly signs up to join the American Red Cross Clubmobile Service. She travels to Washington, D.C., to train for what will become a strenuous and often dangerous job of following the British and United States troops.
After training, Irene travels in a convoy of ships across the Atlantic Ocean to join other volunteers driving clubmobiles—2.5-ton trucks and busses repurposed as mobile social clubs— to wherever the armed forces are stationed. These “Donut Dollies” make coffee and doughnuts, play music, and try to provide some relief from the tension of the war for the men, oftentimes the night before fighter planes and bombers take off for Europe.
The women establish strong bonds with each other, especially Irene and Dorothy Dunford, her partner in the Clubmobile Service. They experience love and loss, but come to know how important their jobs are to these soldiers who are risking their lives for the war effort. As they follow the troops into Europe, Irene and Dorothy are often faced with danger; there are scattered groups of German soldiers battling to take back territory.
Luis Alberto Urrea based his historical novel on his mother’s experience as a Donut Dolly during World War II. To research the book, Urrea read journals and interviewed several Clubmobile women. Photographs in the book are from those his mother kept.
Many of UMRA’s Book Club I members felt that the book started off slowly, but gained momentum as the clubmobiles traveled into Europe and dangerous situations arose. The general consensus of the group was that they liked the book, but some felt it wasn’t an accurate picture of women in the war. The information about the “Donut Dollies” was new to most book club members. The majority of the members felt the friendship between Irene and Dorothy was the strong point of the book.
—Stephanie Daily, UMRA Book Club I
Book Club I March 21
Fri, Mar 21, 2025, 2pm
Stephanie Daily will lead the discussion of Good Night, Irene by the Mexican-American poet and novelist Luis Alberto Urrea when the UMRA Book Club meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, March 21.
The club’s selection for its meeting on Friday, April 18, is Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Diane Madlon-Kay will lead the discussion.
Questions? Contact Pat Tollefson at [email protected].
Upcoming Events
The Black Count: Glory and Betrayal by Tom Reiss, published in 2012 and winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in biography, will be the selection for discussion when UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, April 25. Newcomers are welcome.
Morris Campus Retirees will host a Zoom meeting. Morris Campus Retirees are part of the University of Minnesota Retiree Association (UMRA). The group has already held two meetings in its first year of existence.
Peter Moe, retired Minnesota Landscape Arboretum director and UMRA member, will be leading a hiking tour of the Arboretum again this year. The amazing tulip display was at its peak for our hike last year, and we will undoubtedly enjoy seeing many spring-blooming trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and perennials. Plan to stay for lunch together (optional) after the hike at the Rootstock café in the Oswald Visitor Center.
UMRA’s Family History Interest Group will meet via Zoom on Wednesday, May 7, for an open discussion of ideas, insights, questions, and issues related to family history, and to discuss topics for next year’s meetings.
We will revisit the University of Minnesota Archives, with its major holdings largely tucked away in two huge underground caverns along the Mississippi River under the West Bank campus, holds the essential records of our University of Minnesota’s past. University Archivist Erik Moore will interpret the holdings and bring out a sampling of what it holds. We will also get a tour of the caverns (Minnesota Library Access Center), revealing where these precious materials are housed, including the original tapes of KUOM, now Radio K.
Cancer has touched all of us. If you are willing to share your cancer journey or talk about your experience with a person you have supported, please consider attending the May 8 UMRA breakfast gathering at The Original Pancake House in Roseville.
You are cordially invited to this presentation by Andy Whitman, Professor, Attorney, Volunteer Financial Planner. He will discuss investments for your grandchildren.
The UMRA Photo Club is having a photo shoot at the Como Park Conservatory in St. Paul on Tuesday, May 13.
Financial scams are a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, and learning how to spot and avoid scams is more important than ever to your financial health. For UMRA’s May workshop, Jay Haapala, leader of AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, will share with us the latest criminal trends in scamming and how to avoid them.
The UMRA Book Club will discuss The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon when it meets via Zoom on May 16.
.Wood Lake Nature Center is a peaceful 150-acre cattail marsh, woodland, and restored prairie that is a haven for migrating birds and waterfowl. This UMRA hike is a great opportunity for those who would like a shorter, easier hike. The trails are dirt, grass, and woodchip, with some bridges and a bit of paved trails. Only a couple small hills to navigate, the park is mostly flat.
University of Minnesota Regent Penny Wheeler, MD, will be the featured guest for the UMRA luncheon forum on May 20. In place of the usual speech format for our forums, Regent Wheeler will be interviewed by UMRA member and liaison to the Board of Regents John Finnegan, professor and dean emeritus of the U of M School of Public Health.
I, Claudius by English writer Robert Graves, published in 1934, will be up for discussion when UMRA's Fourth Friday Book Club meets via Zoom on May 23.
The UMRA Book Club will discuss The Great River by Boyce Upton when it meets via Zoom on June 20.
Learn about writing memoirs, technology for seniors, campus architecture, and more at the fourth annual Age-Friendly University Day to be held in the McNamara Alumni Center on the Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis on Monday, June 23.
Catch up with friends and former colleagues, meet new UMRA members, enjoy delicious food, and participate in the third annual UMRA Summer Social Quiz at the Como Lakeside Pavilion in St. Paul on Wednesday, June 25.