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A review by emjay2021
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
5.0
Fascinating, incredibly moving historical fiction. I had no idea Dr. Kathleen Lynn was based on a real woman doctor at the time. I found Nurse Julia Power to be a warm, quick-witted, appealing narrator and I loved her interactions with the newbie nurse helper Bridie Sweeney.
Emma Donoghue is a beautiful writer, and the audio version of this really does the prose justice. One funny thing about the audio book: I kept thinking the doctor was saying “N’est-ce pas?” an awful lot, and it made me wonder why she would lapse into French so often. Well, it turned out she was actually saying “Nurse Power” in an Anglo-Irish accent. It took me a LONG time to realize it.
This book is set in a quarantine maternity ward during the 1918 flu pandemic, so there is a lot of pregnancy, baby loss, and death. Heads up if these are things you don’t want to read about at this time. I was OK with it, but there was a time when I would not have been. There is also a lot about the abuses perpetuated on women and children by the Catholic Church.
Emma Donoghue is a beautiful writer, and the audio version of this really does the prose justice. One funny thing about the audio book: I kept thinking the doctor was saying “N’est-ce pas?” an awful lot, and it made me wonder why she would lapse into French so often. Well, it turned out she was actually saying “Nurse Power” in an Anglo-Irish accent. It took me a LONG time to realize it.
This book is set in a quarantine maternity ward during the 1918 flu pandemic, so there is a lot of pregnancy, baby loss, and death. Heads up if these are things you don’t want to read about at this time. I was OK with it, but there was a time when I would not have been. There is also a lot about the abuses perpetuated on women and children by the Catholic Church.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic