The Pull of the Stars

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

Fiction

2020 Hachette Audio

Narrated by Emma Lowe

Finished on April 23, 2022

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:
 

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.

In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.

I spent the good part of a month listening to the audio edition of Emma Donoghue's The Pull of the Stars. I might have finished it more quickly, but we were traveling for almost two weeks, and I didn't listen the entire time we were away. When we got home, it rained. A lot. So, no walks, which means no audiobook. And yet, I was able to jump right back into the narrative when I started listening again. This is partly because there aren't a lot of characters to keep track of, and partly because there isn't a lot going on. Yes, there is the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, but the main action takes place in a hospital in a maternity ward with less than a handful of patients and staff. The expectant mothers are infected with the flu, which causes some to go into early labor. Nurse Julia, and her naive helper Bridie, work well together as a team to save each mother and newborn.

As I began listening to the audiobook, I felt this story would make a good play. Most of the action takes place in a single room (Ah! So did Donoghue's earlier novel, Room.), insulated from the world much like the unborn in their mother's wombs. The details of the pandemic, and the reaction to those afflicted, and the government's response and public notices for prevention, hit a little too close to home, and I'm glad I waited until now to start listening to the book. Had I begun when it was first published (coincidentally, just as we were going into lockdown with Omicron), I might not have wanted to continue. 

I've only read one other book by Emma Donoghue (Room) and The Pull of the Stars is quite different from that modern day ripped-from the-headlines captivity horror. The medical details of the births are at times cringeworthy, reminding me of my daughter's difficult delivery almost 39 years ago. It took me about 50% listening time before I started to care about Julia and Bridie, and despite the predictable conclusion, I felt a gentle tug at my heartstrings. Overall, I thought the book was informative and entertaining, but the birthing details became tedious, and it wasn't until the final chapters that I came to care about any of the characters.

 

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Libro.fm for my complimentary access to this audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.