David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "emma-donoghue"
The Wonder
Lib Wright is a Crimean War nurse, trained by Florence Nightingale. She is called to a small Irish village to watch a young girl, Anna O'Donnell, who claims she hasn't eaten in four months. Lib, along with a Catholic nun, has two weeks to ferret out whoever is feeding Anna on the sly. She thinks she can do it in a couple of days.
Author Emma Donoghue, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her screenplay for her novel ROOM, sets this novel approximately seven years after the potato famine. Anna's family is extremely religious. They say the rosary every day and Anna keeps repeating what Lib interprets as the “Dorothy” prayer. Eventually we discover she's saying “adore” in reference to God or the Virgin Mary. She says it thirty-three times a day. If you fast and say the prayer every Friday, it's supposed to help get someone out of Purgatory.
Eventually Lib figures out who's been feeding Anna, but by then Anna has begun to refuse even those small morsels. Lib worries that her and the nun's constant surveillance is starving the poor child to death.
Obviously Donoghue wants to show the danger religious zealotry can lead to, but she also saves a few zingers for the government (and perhaps ours). She goes on a walk one day on a road that stops in the middle of nowhere. This road was built by people too poor to buy food during the potato famine, but the government didn't want to just hand out free food. They had to work for it. People are buried along the side of the road. The side of the road is like quicksand, and Lib has trouble walking. Eventually she realizes she's been walking on bodies that haven't been entirely decomposed.
This is a read downer of a book. If you have a weak stomach, don't read it. There are really only two twists. Most of the time Lib is watching Anna die. She tries to get the parish priest, the village doctor and the committee formed to investigate Anna's situation to call off the watch. No one will listen. It's hard to know the motivation of the people involved. Are they looking for a tourist trap, or do they really believe Anna is some kind of saint?
Author Emma Donoghue, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her screenplay for her novel ROOM, sets this novel approximately seven years after the potato famine. Anna's family is extremely religious. They say the rosary every day and Anna keeps repeating what Lib interprets as the “Dorothy” prayer. Eventually we discover she's saying “adore” in reference to God or the Virgin Mary. She says it thirty-three times a day. If you fast and say the prayer every Friday, it's supposed to help get someone out of Purgatory.
Eventually Lib figures out who's been feeding Anna, but by then Anna has begun to refuse even those small morsels. Lib worries that her and the nun's constant surveillance is starving the poor child to death.
Obviously Donoghue wants to show the danger religious zealotry can lead to, but she also saves a few zingers for the government (and perhaps ours). She goes on a walk one day on a road that stops in the middle of nowhere. This road was built by people too poor to buy food during the potato famine, but the government didn't want to just hand out free food. They had to work for it. People are buried along the side of the road. The side of the road is like quicksand, and Lib has trouble walking. Eventually she realizes she's been walking on bodies that haven't been entirely decomposed.
This is a read downer of a book. If you have a weak stomach, don't read it. There are really only two twists. Most of the time Lib is watching Anna die. She tries to get the parish priest, the village doctor and the committee formed to investigate Anna's situation to call off the watch. No one will listen. It's hard to know the motivation of the people involved. Are they looking for a tourist trap, or do they really believe Anna is some kind of saint?
The Pull of the Stars
THE PULL OF THE STARS is especially appropriate considering what we're going through now with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The novel is set in 1918 Ireland during WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic. Julia Power is a nurse working in a hospital ward for pregnant women who have the flu. At the outset she is an underling to a sister who rules with an iron fist. She is not allowed to drive her bike to the hospital and must take the tram part of the way.
In short order the sister is moved to the maternity ward and Julia is on her own. She can't do it herself and begs for another pair of hands, which turns out to be Bridie Sweeney, who claims she's already had the flu, but she has no nursing experience and has really never been in a hospital. She is an orphan who is still living with the nuns. Another important cog is Dr. Lynn, a radical obstetrician who was a member of the Irish uprising. She's wanted.
Julia starts losing patients almost immediately. A woman has died before she got to work. One of her patients has been pregnant twelve times seven of which lived. Julia is critical of women being enslaved to pregnancy in 1918 Ireland. Another woman is rich or at least well off. She wants to leave. Now. It's not long before a seventeen-year-old pregnant girl shows up. She's worried that her husband will be mad because she'll miss work.
Julia is a good nurse and Bridie is an able helper who learns fast, but the women seem to be dying no matter how hard Julia works to help them. Dr. Lynn must deliver one child via forceps, and Julia dreads what can happen.
Most of the book is set in the maternity/flu ward but we know that Julia has a brother, Ted, who is apparently suffering from shell shock; he can't talk anyway, but they manage to communicate. The book might be better if we would get an occasional respite from the grisly goings on in the Julia's workplace, and the Ted situation might be it. Julia and Bridie do establish a relationship on the roof of the hospital after their shift.
Another theme of the book is how badly the poor, especially the orphan poor are treated in 1918 Ireland. The night sister treats Bridie like she's a derelict.
The ending is both sad and uplifting. At first I thought it was too abrupt and a little unrealistic, but once I had time to think about it, it was perfect.
The novel is set in 1918 Ireland during WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic. Julia Power is a nurse working in a hospital ward for pregnant women who have the flu. At the outset she is an underling to a sister who rules with an iron fist. She is not allowed to drive her bike to the hospital and must take the tram part of the way.
In short order the sister is moved to the maternity ward and Julia is on her own. She can't do it herself and begs for another pair of hands, which turns out to be Bridie Sweeney, who claims she's already had the flu, but she has no nursing experience and has really never been in a hospital. She is an orphan who is still living with the nuns. Another important cog is Dr. Lynn, a radical obstetrician who was a member of the Irish uprising. She's wanted.
Julia starts losing patients almost immediately. A woman has died before she got to work. One of her patients has been pregnant twelve times seven of which lived. Julia is critical of women being enslaved to pregnancy in 1918 Ireland. Another woman is rich or at least well off. She wants to leave. Now. It's not long before a seventeen-year-old pregnant girl shows up. She's worried that her husband will be mad because she'll miss work.
Julia is a good nurse and Bridie is an able helper who learns fast, but the women seem to be dying no matter how hard Julia works to help them. Dr. Lynn must deliver one child via forceps, and Julia dreads what can happen.
Most of the book is set in the maternity/flu ward but we know that Julia has a brother, Ted, who is apparently suffering from shell shock; he can't talk anyway, but they manage to communicate. The book might be better if we would get an occasional respite from the grisly goings on in the Julia's workplace, and the Ted situation might be it. Julia and Bridie do establish a relationship on the roof of the hospital after their shift.
Another theme of the book is how badly the poor, especially the orphan poor are treated in 1918 Ireland. The night sister treats Bridie like she's a derelict.
The ending is both sad and uplifting. At first I thought it was too abrupt and a little unrealistic, but once I had time to think about it, it was perfect.
