Emma Donoghue's latest novel is set in a Dublin hospital in 1918. It follows the lives of three women over three days, Nurse Julia Power, Bridie Sweeney a boarder in the nun's motherhouse sent to help as a runner, Doctor Kathleen Lynn, and the patients of the Maternity/Fever ward. Dr. Lynn was an actual person who lived from 1874-1955.
The Pull of the Stars is a timely book marking the centenary of the outbreak of the great flu/the Spanish flu. The novel draws striking parallels between that pandemic and COVID-19. I was impressed by the book's exploration of society, the plight of women bound to years of pregnancies without contraception, the consequences of World War 1 and the 1916 Rising, the harshness of industrial schools and mother and baby homes under the rod of the Catholic Church.
The hospital scenes are full of detail and can be quite graphic but they must reflect the realities of childbirth. Donoghue does not hold back. Nurse Power, in conversation with Dr. Lynn as she performs a post mortem, learns that the word influenza derives from the medieval Italian thought that illness was written in the stars, influenza delle stelle - the influence of stars. The last quarter of the book is a romance and with tenderness and abandon to that genre we are swept away briefly.
I enjoyed this offering but I would have loved learning more about the characters. Nevertheless, Donoghue is always a satisfying read, and one of my favourite authors. The Pull of the Stars was recently shortlisted for An Post Irish Book Awards Eason's Novel of the Year. Thanks to Meath County Library Service for sending it to me for review.
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