I really liked the book and saw the movie later. Very good adaptation.
It shows that the author shared a lot with her mother and people of her mother's generation.
She exposes the cultural problems of the society then, and what occurs when society has been shaken by war, how hard it is, for good or bad reasons, to go back as it was before, and some people do resent the changes.
But others go for it, grabbing new opportunities and decide to use them in a good way....
Very interesting and human.