Emma Donohue goes to a dark place. Her most famous work, 2010s Room, Mostly women who have been kidnapped, raped, and forced by captors to raise children in a one-room hut. Her 2014 novel Frog music It happened in San Francisco in the 1870s during the smallpox epidemic. Such a stressful precondition creates a page-turning book. All decisions the protagonist makes in this situation are life or death.
Donohue’s latest novel is urgent and eerie foresight. Star pull Located in the maternity ward of Dublin Hospital 1918 flu pandemic.. The author submitted her manuscript to Little Brown in March, when the epidemic of COVID-19 began to shut down cities in Europe and the United States. The publisher hurriedly printed the book.
The hero of Star pull A nurse named Julia operates a temporary ward for infected pregnant women. Hospitals can barely save doctors-they are all fighting in World War I, or are ill with the flu itself-so Julia, with the help of one volunteer, an abusive and lonely breedy And have to guide these women through a tragic birth.
As she did Room, Donohue skillfully evokes a breathtaking space. This time, Julia is a glorious closet that helps women give birth. Most of the action takes place in a single room with a few women in and out of bed. One heroic doctor occasionally materializes. Real life suffragette And activist Dr. Catherine Lin, 1916 Easter Rising To the British, and to those who will eventually win a seat in the Irish Parliament.
The timeliness of Donohue’s premise is more than a gimmick. Her analysis of how a pandemic overwhelms women echoes today’s crisis: Women Make up the majority The percentage of essential and health workers fighting COVID-19 in the United States, and working mothers Lion share of childcare work While school is closed. As many wonder what the recession resulting from a pandemic means to women’s equality, Donohue’s book details a dreadful history that we should not repeat.
In her portrayal of Ireland in 1918, women are nothing more than baby conveyors and unpaid care providers. Society recognizes the ability of these women to create life as a duty to the church and nation, not a choice. “She doesn’t love him,” the nurse reiterates.
In the rare cases where male doctors appear, apart from Dr. Lin’s careful attention, their priority is often to sacrifice women’s health and ensure the patient’s ability to have more children. .. A woman entering a ward has the disgusting perspective of a doctor looking into the patient’s pubis at birth. (Donoghue clearly enjoyed her study of medicine in the early 20th century. This novel is not squeaky.)
Donohue highlights the similarities between women suffering in hospitals and their husbands and brothers suffering in trenches. We reject the idea of women’s voting rights in an orderly manner. “But don’t pay the blood tax. Unlike your mates. Do you really need to have a say in British affairs unless you are ready to die for the King?” Julia fights back. .. “Looking over you… This is where all nations breathe their first breath. Women have been paying blood taxes since the beginning of time.”
The character itself Star pull Although thinner than some of Donohue’s past books, non-stop action in the obstetrics ward is very compelling and seldom a problem. She omits quotes from the dialogue so that the spoken language floats during her thoughts. As a result, the whole story feels like a flu-induced dream.
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