Holly W. reviewed on + 17 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Not nurse, not a doctor, but a driven healer
Mary Sutter drives a wedge into convention, opening for herself the door of undaunted, faithful service to the ill and injured solders she treats. Mary Sutter is a woman you wont soon forget after you turn the last page of Robin Oliveiras book. A woman with a dream that wouldnt die, her persistence, intelligence and candor drove her undeterred from a relatively safe career as a midwife in Albany to the throws of the battlefield hospitals during the Civil War.
The scholarship of Robin Oliveiras research into mid 19th century medical practice and procedures is admirable. Vignettes of surgical practices, the filth of army hospitals and the desperation of doctors fully aware that they didnt have knowledge necessary to save their patients fill the novel.
I found the love stories in the novel of secondary interest to the characterization of Mary. Snippets of descriptions of her personality from wounded soldiers, President Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, the men who love her and Mary herself weave into a vividly drawn female protagonist. She balanced pain with anger and so was able to survive.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont
http://www.hollyweiss.com
Mary Sutter drives a wedge into convention, opening for herself the door of undaunted, faithful service to the ill and injured solders she treats. Mary Sutter is a woman you wont soon forget after you turn the last page of Robin Oliveiras book. A woman with a dream that wouldnt die, her persistence, intelligence and candor drove her undeterred from a relatively safe career as a midwife in Albany to the throws of the battlefield hospitals during the Civil War.
The scholarship of Robin Oliveiras research into mid 19th century medical practice and procedures is admirable. Vignettes of surgical practices, the filth of army hospitals and the desperation of doctors fully aware that they didnt have knowledge necessary to save their patients fill the novel.
I found the love stories in the novel of secondary interest to the characterization of Mary. Snippets of descriptions of her personality from wounded soldiers, President Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, the men who love her and Mary herself weave into a vividly drawn female protagonist. She balanced pain with anger and so was able to survive.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont
http://www.hollyweiss.com
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