Madeline
The Pull of the Stars was both way too familiar and in a very different world. On one hand, the story follows a deadly flu similar to the one we are experiencing in 2020. On the other hand the additional detailed medical descriptions of births and women’s anatomy was completely foreign to me. There was also a war and political aspect, and coming from Ireland, and although A Pull of the Stars takes place 50 years prior it felt a a little familiar to Say Nothing.
The Premise of The Pull of the Stars
The Pull of the Stars is about a nurse in the maternity ward in Ireland during the flu of 1918/ 1919. She is focused specifically on the pregnant women who have contracted the flu. Although she is the only nurse in the ward, she is given a helper who has never worked in a hospital a day in her life. Although the book only covers a few days, the two go through births and deaths and in the end, only one of them comes out alive, but she comes out with a baby of her own.
COVID of 2020 and the Flu of 1918/ 1919
Reading about this book after reading it, I learned that although it was completed prior to COVID, it was rushed to be published due to the ties it had to the current situation. Through The Pull of the Stars, there were so many things that reminded me of how things are these days. The advice given to stop the spread. The fear the public has of the sickness and the way the hospital is finding every closet to use to add additional beds.
The Foreign Medical Aspects
What I found alarming about this book is how detailed the author with birthing. There are details on different types of forceps and what each are used for and what the repercussions are. There are details of cutting a baby out of it’s mother if the mother is already deceased. Much of these types of details, my mind glazed over. It felt similar to the details given in The Martian, where they are relevant but not necessary.
Final Thoughts
The medical part of The Pull of the Stars was not at all interesting to me; however, I see why this book is so big right now. The ties from 1919 to a hundred years later in 2020 are so similar. There was fear then and there is fear now.
