The Pull of the Stars

 Book 76 of my 2020 Reading Challenge

read from November 28 - December 31

The Pull of the Stars

by Emma Donoghue

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2020

In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders -- Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police , and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work. 

My Opinion

4 stars

I read this after my mom read it and recommended it to me.  The timing of the book coming out while we are in the midst of a pandemic being compared to the 1918 flu (the setting of this book) is crazy.  The author noted that she began writing it in 2018 and had turned in her final draft prior to everything shutting down but the publishers worked fast to get the book printed and out 4 months after they received it.  It was interesting how little has changed in some regards - masks, washing hands, and staying home were the main recommendations and many people fought those recommendations.

I was absorbed in the writing.  Having many events take place over the span of just a few days, especially when the location didn't change much, added to the feelings of immediacy, exhaustion, and claustrophobia the characters were experiencing.  The author really captured how the medical staff, especially the nurses, were taking on roles they wouldn't normally be allowed to and making do with fewer supplies/staff/breaks.  By setting it in the maternity ward the flu was obviously a main character and impacting all of them but it also showed life happens even in a pandemic and "normal" services are still needed.

I'm glad the book ended when it did because it was the maternity ward and her life in it that was the main interest to me and it was on the edge of "jumping the shark" and completely changing the narrative.  Although I would read more about the boarding houses or the plight of unwed mothers, having it tacked on to this story would've been too much.