Book Review: THE PULL OF THE STARS by Emma Donoghue

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Influenza delle stelle - the influence of the stars. Medieval Italians thought the illness proved that the heavens were governing their fates."

I became a fan of Emma Donoghue's after reading "THE WONDER," which will soon be a Florence Pugh/ Ciaran Hinds film. Raved all about it to my book club so I won't do so here, hehe, but it was UNFORGETTABLE.

So when I saw my local bookstore carried her next novel, it was an automatic buy! And I only found out that it was about a pandemic when I cracked it open and dove headlong into Dublin in 1918, where a country was crumbling from a world war, an Easter insurrection, and the deadly Spanish flu ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

"A nurse is like a spoonful of tea leaves. Her strength only shows when she's in hot water."

Emma Donoghue's female characters stand apart because they're no-nonsense, dedicated, and dutiful. If they do happen to find romance, it's unlooked for and it isn't the focus of the story. Her heroines are utterly dedicated to A Great Cause, one they aren't afraid to break social norms for.

Just like in THE WONDER, this book was based on the true story of the incredible Dr. Kathleen Lynn, "The Rebel Doctor," and an amalgamation of real nurses and hospital aides from the period.

"The way this godforsaken island's misgoverned, it's mass murder by degrees. If we continue to stand by, none of us will have clean hands."

I found it very interesting, style-wise, that Donoghue never used quotation marks in the entire book. It had the weird effect of making me more focused than usual, and everything seemed more immediate, as if events were unfolding right that very second TO ME.

Emma Donoghue's genius lies in making a tiny room (in this case: a maternity ward) the center of the universe. The reader feels that every patient, every blood pressure reading, every temperature check is the most important thing in the world!

If you're worried that your heart is becoming cold and callous with the daily heartbreaking news, don't be! Because Emma Donoghue will break that ice and make you cry with this book, not just for what has happened before, but for what continues to happen today.

How hellish it was to combat a pandemic a hundred years ago, with no vaccines, no medicine but gauze masks, whiskey, onions, and avoiding the color red! How far we have come! And how far yet we have to go!

Another feature of Emma Donoghue's writing is that she can both showcase our terrible inhumanity (she has this thing for the hypocrisy found in some members of the Catholic Church) and yet leave her readers believing that humans are capable of being our best selves in the worst fixes, that we can go beyond our personal hells to strive for the common good. All this, with a book I was simply powerless to put down (thank goodness it was a Sunday)!

It should be noted that this is strictly for mature readers only due to the controversial themes!

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