Mourning the death of a patient due to influenza complications after childbirth, Dr. Recommending onions and eucalyptus oil! Like sending beetles to stop a steamroller.”Īlthough the plot is focused on the close quarters and frenetic activity of the maternity ward, giving the book a page-turner thriller feel, Donoghue isn’t averse to pondering more existential questions about why pandemics occur in the first place. Lynn has no patience for the government’s response, and tells Julia, “As for the authorities, I believe the pandemic will have run its course before they’ve agreed on any but the most feeble action. Meanwhile, the government touts false cures (“sprinkle sulphur in the shoes”) and proclaims on signs posted right outside the overrun hospital that all is well and the epidemic is in decline. Handwritten “Have Run Out of Carbolic” signs are posted in the druggist’s window, similar to current-day shortages of hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol, and the shackled gates of a school post the notice “CLOSED FOR FORESEEABLE FUTURE BY ORDER OF BOARD OF HEALTH.” On her way to work, nurse Julia passes public announcements that discourage shaking hands and chatting closely together, urge people to stay out of public places, and pronounce that “if one must kiss, do so through a handkerchief.” Many events in the novel were also eerily familiar, lending to the feeling that history is repeating itself. Reading Emma Donoghue’s latest fiction, The Pull of the Stars, during a pandemic occurring more than 100 years later was an encouraging experience, as our medical technology and scientific understanding of how viruses spread are so vastly improved. Over the course of three days, the three women deal with multiple medical crises, fighting to save lives and bring newborn lives into the world. Kathleen Lynn, intelligent and outspoken, and also rumored to be wanted by the authorities for her role in Sinn Fein’s 1916 uprising. Bridie is a ward of the nearby Catholic orphanage a bright young woman who Julia takes an instant liking to and trusts to help with the care of the women in her charge even though Bridie has no medical experience. There aren’t enough doctors and nurses to go around, and Julia is assigned a volunteer, Bridie Sweeney, to help out. In an overcrowded hospital in the heart of Dublin during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, Nurse Julia Power works long hours in the “fever/maternity” ward, where women who have succumbed to the flu and are also pregnant are sent.
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