"Battling the Flu Pandemic 1918," GPA Photo Archive CC BY-NC 2.0
The timing of Emma Donoghue's new book, The Pull of the Stars, is eerie. It's about a nurse working in a Dublin maternity ward during the 1918 flu pandemic. It is so good, right from the beginning. Donoghue brings you right into the character's head from the first page, and she evokes a completely realized world of mask wearers and public health scoffers. In one memorable scene, Nurse Julia Powers walks along the street and notices a sign warning people not to spread the flu by spitting - and the sign itself is plastered with spit.
Monthly Bulletin, Philadelphia Dept. of Public Health (1919).
HathiTrust
The novel takes place over the course of two days during which Powers battles to save women and their babies in her small ward, while also battling her own distractions in the form of her shell-shocked brother and animosities within the hospital. At her side is Bridie, a completely inexperienced volunteer whose willingness to help is more useful than the inattentive care of most of the doctors in the hospital.
No characters or situations are left undeveloped, and, against the backdrop of WWI, this contained world holds all the drama of a battlefield. As Powers says when overhearing discussions about the possibility of peace, "It occurred to me that in the case of this flu there could be no signing a pact with it; what we waged in hospitals was a war of attrition, a battle over each and every body." Her efforts to save her patients, backed up by her deep knowledge of nursing, is portrayed as a fight that she is determined not to lose if there's anything in her power to stop it.
Powers also uses the language of the battlefield to describe women's experience of childbirth. She argues strongly against the moralizing of her fellow ward sister who sees unmarried motherhood as a sin that must be punished. Likewise, she refuses to write off the chances of poor women who arrive malnourished and carrying evidence of domestic abuse. When an orderly argues that women haven't earned the right to vote because they don't pay the "blood tax" of fighting wars, Powers tells him to "Look around you, Mr. Groyne. This is where every nation draws its first breath. Women have been paying the blood tax since time began." Herself unmarried and childless, Powers sees sacrifice and strength in the act of childbearing.
Fair warning - there are a lot of graphic scenes of difficult births, but overall this is a gorgeous novel.
I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The novel takes place over the course of two days during which Powers battles to save women and their babies in her small ward, while also battling her own distractions in the form of her shell-shocked brother and animosities within the hospital. At her side is Bridie, a completely inexperienced volunteer whose willingness to help is more useful than the inattentive care of most of the doctors in the hospital.
No characters or situations are left undeveloped, and, against the backdrop of WWI, this contained world holds all the drama of a battlefield. As Powers says when overhearing discussions about the possibility of peace, "It occurred to me that in the case of this flu there could be no signing a pact with it; what we waged in hospitals was a war of attrition, a battle over each and every body." Her efforts to save her patients, backed up by her deep knowledge of nursing, is portrayed as a fight that she is determined not to lose if there's anything in her power to stop it.
Powers also uses the language of the battlefield to describe women's experience of childbirth. She argues strongly against the moralizing of her fellow ward sister who sees unmarried motherhood as a sin that must be punished. Likewise, she refuses to write off the chances of poor women who arrive malnourished and carrying evidence of domestic abuse. When an orderly argues that women haven't earned the right to vote because they don't pay the "blood tax" of fighting wars, Powers tells him to "Look around you, Mr. Groyne. This is where every nation draws its first breath. Women have been paying the blood tax since time began." Herself unmarried and childless, Powers sees sacrifice and strength in the act of childbearing.
Fair warning - there are a lot of graphic scenes of difficult births, but overall this is a gorgeous novel.
I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
