My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

The novel opens with Mary Sutter, a tall, young woman with silvering hair arriving at the door of Dr. James Blevens' surgery. He is expecting the midwife, but Mary was not summoned by Dr. Bleven. She has come to request Dr. Bleven's help after waiting at the medical college to see Dr. Marsh. He refused and so Mary has come to Dr. Blevens for help. Dr. Blevens asks Mary, who is a midwife, to help the laboring young woman, Bonnie Miles on the surgery table. Mary quickly takes action, managing to turn the baby which leads to a successful birth of a baby boy. 

Mary then entreats Dr. Blevens to allow her to study and work with him but he refuses. Lincoln has called for men, after the Carolinians fired on Fort Sumter and Dr. Blevens plans to answer that call. Mary is desperate to become a medical doctor but the Albany Medical College won't admit her. She wants to learn more about anatomy and physiology and her hope is that by studying with Blevens she can accomplish this. But Dr. Blevens, who drives Bonnie and her baby along with Mary back to the Sutter home, repeatedly refuses. He tells her it just isn't possible and that she would see few surgeries, there would be no lectures and she would have no credentials to practice. 

As Dr. Blevens is about to leave, having been refused an invitation by Mary to stay for dinner, he encounters Mary's mother, Amelia Sutter along with their neighbour, Thomas Fall who is in love with Jenny Sutter, Mary's twin sister. Amelia has Jenny set another place for Dr. Blevens. During dinner they discuss the rally and Lincoln's call for men. James Blevens notes that Thomas is excited for war and believes that the North will win with its advantage of manufacturing and railroads. With the arrival of Mary's brother, Christian, the discussion turns to the importance of defeating Texas and ending slavery. As Thomas speaking of the railroad being built out to the orchards, James realizes that he is at dinner with the family of the late Nathaniel Sutter of the New York Railroad.

The dinner is interrupted by a maid who states that Bonnie is bleeding. Both Mary and James attend Bonnie and it is James who is able to treat the young mother, while Mary watches on, humiliated at her own lack of knowledge. 

Mary comes from a long line of midwifes from her mother Amelia back to her great-great-great-great-grandmother in France, who had delivered a dauphin. The La Croix family was gifted land near Versailles but fled to America during the Revolution. Amelia's mother married James Harriman and then Amelia married her childhood friend, Nathaniel Sutter. Nathaniel eventually became involved in the New York Railroad while Amelia continued the family tradition of midwifery. One night in 1842, after Nathaniel left their children alone so he could attend a railway meeting, Amelia began bringing Mary and Jenny and their brother Christian to her deliveries. It was Mary who was interested in being a midwife.

Nathaniel Sutter died and agonizing death in September 1860. The next day Mary wrote her first letter to Dr. Marsh requesting admittance to Albany Medical College and Thomas Fall and his family moved in next door to the Sutters. Two weeks after Nathaniel's death, Mary and Thomas met at a show at Tweddle Hall. Thomas was taken with Mary's self-possession, her intelligence and she liked his directness. While Thomas was uncertain about the direction of his life, Mary was determined to become a doctor, as her father had "... died badly. I never want anyone to die as badly again."  A week later, and no reply from Dr. Marsh, Mary wrote another letter, and allowed Thomas to drive her to Cottage Farm, to the Aspinwalls at Ireland's Corners to attend a birth. Afterwards, Thomas took Mary to a small lake where they sat and talked: Thomas was intrigued. But a week later, both of Thomas's parents were killed in a carriage accident. While Amelia made the arrangements, it was Jenny, whose calm demeanor that helped Thomas and they fell in love.

James Bleven is puzzled by Mary's determination to become a doctor. His medical journey began at the age of thirteen, with the deaths of his parents from diphtheria over a period of a few days. Puzzled, James was determined to learn why this had happened and at eighteen he was able to apprentice to Dr. Stipp, following him on his visits to homes and attending courses at the medical college. Impulsively and out of pity, James married a young Irish Catholic girl whose infant brother - a patient of Dr. Stipp - had died from tuberculosis but the marriage did not last. He did not want the tie of children and she soon left him. James still visited her once a year. With both Thomas Fall and Christian Sutter enlisted, James begins a letter to Colonel Townsend, intent on obtaining the position of regimental surgeon for the 25th Regiment from Albany but is interrupted by the arrival of Jake Miles. Jake is eager to retrieve his wife Bonnie and so James takes him to the Sutter home where he meets Mary and then is taken to Bonnie. Jake is adamant that Bonnie return home to him, but this is against Mary's advice. While Jake is with Bonnie, James attempts to smooth over things between himself and Mary by offering to speak to Dr. Marsh to convince him to admit Mary to the medical college. But Mary refuses this offer since she cannot see how it would help her.

Thomas and Jenny are married before he leaves for war. This is devastating to Mary who quietly leaves their small wedding celebration and weeps in her bedroom. Meanwhile Bonnie has returned, a week after she'd returned home, her baby dead. Thomas, Christian, and James all leave for war. Six weeks later in June of 1861, Dorothea Dix meets President Lincoln and is appointed the Female Superintendent of Army Nurses. When Mary reads Dorothea's first circular asking for nurses, she decides that in Washington she can better keep track of Christian and Thomas. She also views this as an opportunity to further her medical knowledge.

Arriving in Washington, exhausted, her clothes dusty and stained and without the required references, Mary meets Dorothea. But Miss Dix refuses to take on Mary as she is too young, has no references and has only worked as a midwife. On her way out of the house, Mary encounters John Hay, secretary to President Lincoln. Mary tells John that Miss Dix is turning away women who want to be nurses and he in turn tells Lincoln. However, the president is too overwhelmed at the death of his friend, Colonel Ellsworth who has died during a battle with the Confederates at Fort Monroe.

Meanwhile across the river in Albany, Jake Miles, Christian Sutter, and Thomas Fall are now sharing a tent along with Edmond Wellan, son of a bookseller. Along with thousands of men, they have been sent across the Potomac River and have been felling trees on Virginia soil so they can see the Rebels. They have been sent without food, the sanitation is nonexistent, and they have no proper shelter or blankets. The Union army is rife with cases of typhoid and malaria along with measles, mumps, and diarrhea. James is frustrated and infuriated with the conditions in the camp.

Now completely desperate, Mary manages to obtain a list of hospitals from the Surgeon General's office by pretending that she is acting on behalf of John Hay. She visits the Patent Office which has become a hospital for sick soldiers, the Capitol where sick are located in the basement, the New York Presbyterian Church, the medical college and finally the hospital at the Union Hotel. At all she is turned away except for the Union Hotel, in the village of Georgetown, where Dr. William Stipp reluctantly takes her on as a nurse/apprentice.

In the meantime, Mary's mother Amelia is distraught over her sudden departure and begs Mary repeatedly to return home. In Washington, the fighting begins in July and the Union Hotel is soon overrun with wounded: men with injuries from musketballs, broken bones and many needing amputations which Dr. Stipp, like most of the other doctors in the army, does not know how to do. In July, the Union loses the battle of Bull Run under the command of Major General Irvin McDowell. A discouraged Lincoln replaces him with General George McClellan.

After three months in Washington, Thomas and Christian along with the other seventy-five thousand men who first enlisted are being sent home. With Christian ill and struggling to breathe, Thomas leaves him in the care of Jake Miles and locates Mary at the Union Hotel. She refuses his request to return home and Mary does not reveal that his wife, Jenny is expecting. And so, Thomas reenlists, while Christian dies on the way home to Albany and Amelia. Meanwhile the men returning home from the first battles, return to fallow fields what were not planted in the spring.

Dorothea Dix visits the Union Hotel after having sent several nurses to Dr. Stipp and is furious to see Mary Sutter, the young woman she refused to hire, working there. She attempts to force Mary to leave but is unsuccessful. With a lull in the war after the Battle of Bull Run, Dr. Stipp also attempts to force Mary to return home as a comfort to her grieving mother, but Mary refuses. At this time she becomes an apprentice to Dr. Stipp, who teaches her during his "rounds".

Although Amelia is also a midwife, she feels that she will not have the skill necessary to deliver Jenny when her time comes. But Mary, in her determined quest to become a surgeon and because her intense heartbreak prevents her from facing Jenny, delays until the last possible moment to travel home to help her sister Jenny -with disastrous results. The ensuing tragedy causes Mary to have a crisis of faith in her desire to become a surgeon and she vanishes into the maelstrom of the Civil War, only to resurface at the battlefield months later.

Amid the disorganized carnage of the early Civil War, Mary, William and James struggle to cope not only with their own loss and personal demons but with the blood, gore and exhaustion as they attempt to minister to the overwhelming numbers of injured and dead. Mary and William work amid the chaos to save the lives of soldiers while James believes that if they only knew more, doctors could save the lives of many of the wounded. All three men, Thomas Fall, James Bleven and William Stipp find Mary Sutter an utterly  remarkable, if not incomprehensible woman. None of them quite understand her but are drawn to Mary by her courage and her intelligence.

Discussion

My Name is Mary Sutter is a well-written historical novel set during the United States Civil War. Although the title character, Mary Sutter is fictional, the novel is populated with many historical figures including President Abraham Lincoln, his secretary John Hay, Dorothea Dix, 

Mary Sutter is likely a compilation of the many women who served as nurses during the Civil War. In her Acknowledgement, Oliveria writes that "Nearly twenty women became physicians after their experiences nursing in the Civil War; it is to honor them and their collective experience that Mary Sutter lives." 

In the mid-19th century, nursing was not considered a respectable profession suitable to women of good character. However, this attitude would change with the United States Civil War. Prior to the Civil War, women were limited to caring for ill family members at home or as midwives helping women birth their babies. At the start of the Civil War in April 1861, men were preferred as nurses and when there weren't enough of them, soldiers with minor injuries or those recovering from illness were put to use caring for their fellow soldiers. However, as the number of wounded soldiers began to dramatically increase, the military along with other agencies began to recruit women nurses. Dorothea Dix, Superintendent of Nurses for the Union Army set the standard at the time for a woman to volunteer as a nurse: she had to be over thirty years of age, plain looking, of good character and had to wear black, unhooped skirts and no jewelry.  White women and freed and enslaved African American women worked as nurses in hospitals. A Civil War nurse's duties included bandaging wounds, administering medicine, washing and changing patients, praying with them and writing letters for them. Many of the women found the experience of dealing with the wounded soldiers emotionally and mentally challenging. The work was also physically challenging. Nurses themselves also became ill with typhoid, smallpox and other diseases. At this time, germ theory - the theory that many illnesses are caused by "germs" or bacteria, viruses, and other agents- was only beginning to be understood. As a result hand washing, cleaning of surgical instruments and wearing gloves and masks was not yet in place. 

Oliveria begins her story at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, establishing the backstory of the two major characters, Mary Sutter and James Bleven and how they were drawn to medicine by the deaths of parents: for Mary it was the painful death of her beloved father Nathaniel, and for James it was the death of both his parents from diphtheria. In this backstory is the overriding and determined refusal of society to admit women to any role other than that of wife and mother. Mary's determination to become a surgeon is met with obstinate refusal even by those like James Blevens who might have been more open to such a possibility. Mary is refused admittance to the Albany Medical School and is unable even to obtain a position as an apprentice to a doctor. 

As with the Great War which would come some fifty years later, the American Civil War was deemed to be a short conflict that would be over in a matter of months. Even Lincoln believed the war would be short, initially calling for volunteers for three months. By the end of August a second callup would be for three years. And as with the Great War, the misplaced enthusiasm for war is portrayed as Thomas Fall describes the Albany filling with the volunteer militia from Buffalo. " A crowd had gathered this afternoon at the Capitol, and a band was still playing in the park near the medical school, and the whole city was seething with excitement." Jenny tells Mary, "You should have seen it, Mary, it was glorious.I think even you would have declared it a spectacle worth seeing.... "  Oliveira portrays the initial excitement for war which the Union or North believes will be short and painless. "There was so much vibrant feeling, a wilful ignorance of what was to come. It had been almost a hundred years since Albany had been taken up with a war, and in between there had been years in which to forget the consequences...."  This initial enthusiasism would lead later on to wealthy men paying the Irish and the Italians, the poor of America, to fight. The foreshadowing of the death that is to come is shown through the character of Christian Sutter. While he is sitting outside the laying-in room, Christian begins to feel fear. "For all his eagerness, he was frightened suddenly....He was frightened of being afraid, frightened of dying." It is a foreshadowing of his future, but he will not die from the war, but from illness. Many soldiers would die not just in battle and from their wounds, but also from dysentry, measles, and typhoid.

The glorification of war by people who had forgotten its reality and the belief that victory would be swift led to a lack of preparation by the Union in every way imaginable. Soldiers were ill-trained and poorly equipped, their commanders lacked courage and an understanding of battle strategy and the medical knowledge of the time was so lacking that thousands died. Oliveira captures the sheer brutality of medicine in this era: the amputation of limbs by doctors who did not know anything about amputation, the administration of chloroform, nor about germ theory and infection. The Civil War occurred just prior to most of the major discoveries in modern medicine including basic knowledge about surgical hygiene. Surgeons treated severe compound fractures by amputation, doctors believed suppuration and fever healed wounds. Water to clean wounds was used over and over again and the wounds were stuffed open with lint. Patients where regularly treated with whiskey and/or quinine.

After the Battle of Bull Run Mary and Stipp do not know what to do with the amputated limbs, with the dead for whom they have no coffins, they don't know the names of the wounded and those who die on the surgeon's table, or who to contact to take them home. "The army had thought of nothing. They needed coffins, a dead house, a way to let headquarters know who had died and who had not died. But none of this was in place. How do you forget coffins? How do you forget to supply tourniquets? How do you forget that people might die?"  Readers will find Stipp's directions to Mary on how to treat various ailments and injuries to be both horrific and indicative of just how little was known a mere one hundred and twenty years ago. Stipp writes Blevens telling him, "...this is nothing compared to the injuries I have seen. I seem to be able to save only those who sustain gunshot wounds to their limbs, while the rest die...."  Amidst the first night of horror, Mary believes that this will be the end of the fighting, that "No one will allow this to happen again. No one wants this."  Stipp reminds her that men are not "reasonable".

Mary Sutter, her sister Jenny and brother Christian, her mother Amelia, and Jenny's husband, Thomas Fall are all tragic figures and portray the suffering that the Civil War brought to many.  Mary ends up in the horrors of the Civil War in an attempt to escape the loss of Thomas to her sister Jenny. "Now she would admit it, as she had been unable to ever admit it to herself before; she had come to Washington because of the baby.She had come because she couldn't watch Jenny grow large with Thomas's child. "  Her letters home to her mother Amelia portray the pain she continues to experience at the loss of Thomas whom she still loves. She is in deep conflict between her obligation to her twin sister Jenny and her desire to be a surgeon. Mary delays until it is the death of a young soldier that pushes her home during a blizzard. She is too late to save her beloved sister, but in time to save Jenny and Thomas's baby, a girl named Elizabeth. Mary, blamed by her mother for Jenny's death, leaves Albany, as well as the Union Hotel hospital and Stipps and works in the Capitol, in the War Department as a clerk. Mary returns to the war as a nurse but it is at Fairfax Station, with the thousands wounded that she must make a choice. There she meets up with Dr. Stipp who tells her that they cannot save all of the wounded, that the men with stomach, chest or head wounds will not survive. He orders her to "sort" or what is today called "triage" the men and make sure only those they can save are placed on the trains to Washington. To Mary, this is a horrific task, to choose who must live or die, and she refuses. But Stipp tells her, "You want to be a surgeon? To be a surgeon is to look a man in the eye and tell him the truth. If you can't do that, then get out of here. Go home...Choose who you are...Choose who you'll be." Mary's wish to be a surgeon comes to happen at the Battle of Antietam where she is put to work amputating limbs, including that of Thomas Fall, the man she once loved. Even though she is now a successful surgeon, Mary watches as men die from infection. Only a few years later, she and William Stipp will come to understand through the work of Joseph Lister, that "If they had just washed their hands between patients, then all those deaths could have been prevented."

Amelia who blames Mary for the death of Jenny eventuall comes to regret her actions and words that drove her daughter away. "What mother chastises one twin for the death of another?" She comes to realize that without Mary, Jenny's daughter Elizabeth would not have survived. "Thank you, is what she would say now. For trying. For coming back when you didn't want to. And I am sorry your heart was broken."

Christian never returns home having become ill and dying alone on the train back to Albany. Jenny dies an excrutiating death in childbirth, her pelvis too narrow to birth her too large baby. And Thomas, distraught with grief, abandons his regiment, only to be caught, returned and put on public display and to finally collapse from his grief. He fights in numerous battles: Chickahominy, Malvern Hill, the Seven Days, and Chantilly. And Antietam. He survives the last battle, losing his left leg after being shot in the shin by a musket ball, but unlike so many others, survives the infection from the amputation. 

James Blevens struggles with the abandonment of his young Irish wife and the obvious attraction he feels towards Mary Sutter, the loss of the use of his hands as a doctor. From his work with his microscope, Blevens comes to believe that there is an unknown bacteria making the soldiers in camp ill. Eventually he is commissioned to do research into the problem but he leaves Antietam to find his wife,  having realized that Mary cannot love him.

Ms Oliveira is able to weave significant figures of this time period into her narrative, making them believable and three-dimensional. Lincoln seems extraordinarily vulnerable, suffering terribly and undergoing a crisis of faith when his son Willie dies of typhoid. He struggles with the issue of slavery that is dividing his beloved country. After only a year of bloodshed, Lincoln considers, "...to warrant the last year and a half of misery. Something good to come of all this, the very least of which, if he were successful, would be an unsundered union. But it was not just this that drove him. There was a certain decency that had to be imposed. A righting of wrongs. Yes, just as he had shut down the Maryland legislature, so he would shut down slavery."  Lincoln realizes that the "Rebel intransigience  regarding slavery must be dealt with firmly through change and emancipation. He is at a loss to understand the Rebel mindset. "Lincoln could not understand a man who could not see his own fallibility. Irony lost in the blind pursuit of cacophonous righteousness. I wish to be free, but you may not be free. What he hated most was that they could not see the inherent cruelty in their economy. Their slaves' skin might be black, but it was not as black as the souls who might enslave them." Eventually Lincoln crafts his Emancipation Proclaimation, reading it to his Cabinent, five days after the Battle of Antietam.

Considering the amount of  historical detail in the novel,  it is evident the author did considerable research involving both primary materials (journals, lectures, diaries newspaper articles) as well as consulting historians and  librarians. Among sources consulted, The Library of Congress for Dorothea Dix's letters, Interlibrary Loan of the King County Library for books, The Special Collections at the University of Washington Medical School Library for information on midwifery, the online librarian at the Library of Congress who directed Oliveira to Clara Barton's War Lecture and as well as a number of books on Civil War Medicine, Civil War hospitals and Civil War surgeons and doctors.

For such a dark novel, My Name is Mary Sutter ends on a somewhat hopeful tone: after skipping over the end of the Civil War, by 1867 Mary is a doctor working in Manhattan City having graduated from Elizabeth Blackwell's School of Medicine and is living with Amelia, Elizabeth and Thomas. William Stipp also a surgeon in Manhattan visits Mary after receiving her letter, hopeful to begin again, the friendship that was also filled with love. The fate of Bonnie and Jake Miles, and James Blevens is left unresolved. (It should be noted that Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in America did not have her own school of medicine.)

My Name is Mary Sutter is historical fiction, attentive to detail, with realistic characterization amidst the tragedy of the American Civil War. Because of the graphic descriptions and some sexual content, this novel is recommended for adult readers.

Book Details:
My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira
New York: Viking Press  2010
364pp.

A Night To Remember by Walter Lord

A Night To Remember by Walter Lord tells the story of the Titanic tragedy.

The novel opens with the sighting of an iceberg dead ahead by Frederick Fleet from the Crow's nest of the new White Star liner, Titanic. Immediately Fleet rang the Crow's nest bell three time and called the bridge to let them know. At the last minute the bow began to turn to port and the ship seemed to clear the iceberg.

Quartermaster George Thomas Rowe saw the  towering iceberg slide by the starboard side on the after bridge. In the First Class dining saloon on D Deck, empty except for four crew members, a "faint grinding jar seemed to come from somewhere deep inside the ship..."  Enough to paus their gossiping about the passengers.

In the galley, the sudden jar caused the new rolls Chief Night Baker Walter Belford was making to roll onto the floor. Passengers also felt the jolt: it woke a young Swiss girl, Marguerite Frolicher as well as Lady Como Duff Gordon; Mrs. John Jacob Astor though something had happened in the kitchen. It also woke the Managing Director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay who in his suite on B. Deck was certain the ship struck something. 

In the First Class Smoking room, an eclectic mixture of passengers had gathered to play cards or read: Arche Butt, President Taft's military aide; Harry Widner of the Philadelphia streetcar industrialist; Spencer V. Silverthorne, a Nugent department store buyer; Hugh Woolner the famous English sculptor's son. They raced out onto the deck to find an iceberg quietly slipping by in the dark.

From the bridge, the watertight doors had been closed, and the grinding sound ended by the time Captain Edward J. Smith arrived.  The closing of the water tight doors meant both Fireman Fred Barrett and Assistant Second Engineer James Hesketh barely escaped the flooding of boiler room No. 6. But boiler room No. 5 was also rapidly flooding. 

While things appeared normal to most of the passengers, some noticed that the motion of the ship had ceased. "The creaking woodwork, the distant rhythm of the engines, the steady rattle of the glass dome over the Deck A foyer -- all the familiar shipboard sounds vanished as the Titanic glided to a stop. Far more than any jolt, silence stirred the passengers."  But information was difficult to come by as stewards didn't really know themselves. And so some of the passengers decided to investigate themselves.

On deck there was no sign of imminent danger, just three of the ship's four funnels roaring out steam. It was extremely cold so those who had ventured out quickly returned inside. Various theories and explanations were circulated about: the ship had lost a propeller or they have struck an iceberg. Those who learned about the iceberg were largely unconcerned, going back to bed or visiting the starboard well deck to play in the ice or collect some.

But ten minutes after the collision with the iceberg, strange things were happening in the bow of the ship: off duty crew and steerage passengers entering their quarters or compartments were seeing water. In the boiler rooms, the crew struggled to get control of the situation with water pouring in, lights going out,setting up pumps and dealing with the boilers. On the bridge, Captain Smith who had 38 years service with the White Star Line attempted to appraise the situation: he sent Fourth Officer Boxhall to inspect the ship and he returned stating not much was wrong. Still Captain Smith decided to have Boxhall have the carpenter sound the ship. However on his way to do this, Boxhall  encounters Carpenter J. Hutchinson rushing to the bridge who reveals that the ship is taking on water fast, as well as mail clerk Iago Smith who tells him that the mail room is flooding. Behind them is Bruce Ismay who asks Captain Smith if the ship is badly damaged. Captain Smith tells him he believes it is. On the ship was the Managing Director of Harland and Wolff Shipyard, Thomas Andrews. He had been taking many notes and was on the maiden voyage to identify any problems the ship might have. Captain Smith and Andrews toured the boat. Meanwhile the steerage passengers know that something serious has happened because what they experienced was not a "jar" but a tremendous noise. Others began to notice a troubling "list" of the ship which was puzzling since the Titanic was stopped in calm waters. 

Captain Smith and Thomas Andrews took stock of what they knew: "Water in the forepeak...No. 1...No. 2 hold...mail room...boiler room No. 6...boiler room No. 5. Water 14 feet above keel level in the first ten minutes....Put together the facts showed a 300-foot gash, with the first five compartments hopelessly flooded."  Andrews explains that no matter what, Titanic cannot remain afloat with five of her compartments flooded, because those flooded compartments would cause the Titanic's bow to sink so low that the waters would spill into the remaining compartments. This was a shock to Captain Smith who believed he was on an unsinkable ship.  

Twenty-five minutes after the encounter with the iceberg, at 12:05 AM Captain Smith gave the order to uncover the boats and to gather the passengers. Captain Smith walked to the wireless shack a second time and told First Operator John George Philips to send a request for assistance. Just ten miles away the Californian had earlier attempted to send a message around 11:00 PM to Titanic warning about ice but had been put off. Now exhausted, Wireless Operator Cyril F. Evans went to bed, shutting off his set at 11:30PM. Third Officer Groves had earlier questioned Captain Lord about a ship still in the water in the distance and was told it was Titanic. Groves was interested  in the wireless but not knowing much about it took off the headphones and left at 12:15AM.

The crew began to waken others in the cooks', waiters' and stewards' quarters. "And so it went. No bells or sirens. No general alarm. But all over the Titanic, in one way or another, the word was passed." Eventually the First Class passengers were awakened as well the Second Class passengers. Initially most were unconcerned but as the minutes ticked by, the ship began to list, and the lower decks filled with water, it became apparent that the ship - the unsinkable Titanic was sinking.

Discussion

Walter Lord's book, A Night To Remember, published in 1955, is a must-read for those interested in the Titanic.   Lord wrote his book after interviewing many survivors, passengers, crew and relatives of survivors. Lord also interviewed crew from the Carpathia and the Californian. He studied the Titanic's blueprints, builder's specifications and cargo manifests and also reviewed much of the testimony given at investigations undertaken in London and Washington. The book offers diagrams of the Titanic, as well as a time line of the sinking. It concludes with a list of the passengers.

Lord takes his readers through the tragedy beginning with the Titanic striking the iceberg, the gradual realization that the ship was truly and rapidly sinking, the mustering of crew and (some) passengers, the haphazard loading of the lifeboats, the sinking, the rescue of survivors by the Carpathia, and the the arrival in New York aboard the Carpathia.

Lord's book, written in 1955, forty-three years after, expressed the belief that the Titanic tragedy changed the world in many ways. It certainly changed the maritime industry: the International Ice Patrol was established (in 1914 and continues to this day),  Atlantic liners stopped ignoring iceberg warnings,  ships had twenty-four hour wireless, and the winter marine lane was moved further south to avoid icebergs. Ships were required to carry lifeboats for ALL passengers and crew. Class distinction could no longer be the criteria for filling a lifeboat and determining who got saved. 

Lord notes that both during the tragedy and its aftermath - in the reporting of it and the official inquiries, class distinction played a significant role. As Lord notes, the White Star Line denied that class distinction played a part in who survived and who did not, and this was backed up by the investigators too. However, during the sinking, the focus was on the First Class passengers - the Ryersons, Astors, Rothschilds, Benjamin Guggenheim, the Widners, Henry Sleeper Harper of the family who owned Harper's Weekly, and the many other Edwardian rich that graced Titanic. Stewards went door to door waking the First Class passengers, helping them into life belts and encouraging them to go to the Boat Deck. However the Third Class passengers were left to fend for themselves, something they expected and accepted. There was no policy on the White Star Line for steerage passengers except where they could  not go. "At some points the ccrew barred the way to the Boat Deck; at others they opened the gates but didn't tell anyone; at a few points there were well-meaning efforts to guide the steerage up."

The losses among steerage were far greater than among First and Second Class passengers. "...The statistics suggest who they were-the Titanic's casualty list included 4 of 143 First Class Women (three by choice)...15 of 95 Second Class Women... and 81 of 179 Third Class Women....only 23 out of 76 steerage children were saved....  

Not to mention the children. Except for Lorraine Allison, all 29 First and Second Class children were saved, but only 23 out of 76 steerage children. "

Although Lord claims that the tragedy resulted in some of the social and racial prejudices being lost, in reality, the decades after 1955, when he wrote his book,  have shown that racism has remained strong in the years following the sinking of the Titanic. This was especially true during the fight for racial equality during the 1960s in the United States. At the time of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, racial prejudices coloured American and British perceptions of the tragedy.  "With this lost world went some of its prejudices - especially a firm and loudly voiced opinion of the superiority of Anglo-Saxon courage. To the survivors all the stowaways in the lifeboats were "Chinese" or "Japanese"; All who jumped from the deck were "Armenians", "Frenchmen," or "Italians." " These prejudices were expressed at the U.S. Inquiry. Steward Crowe claimed that the men who rushed the boats were "...probably Italians, or some foreign nationality other than English or American..." But as Lord points out, "Steward Crowe, of course, never heard the culprits speak and had no way of knowing who they were." This prejudical view was so intense at the Inquiry "...that the Italian Ambassador demanded and got an apology from Fifth Officer Lowe for using "Italian" as a sort of synonym for "coward". "

In addition to racial prejudice, perhaps worse was the indifference that Lord describes by both the media of the day and during the inquiries. Newspapers offered few interviews with steerage passengers; a famous issue of the New York Times offered only two interviews with steerage passengers, while only two of forty-three survivor accounts were from Third Class passengers in the New York Herald's paper. Both the Congressional inquiry and the British Court of Enquiry failed to either investigate further or even note the lack of care and duty towards the steerage passengers. This criminal failure was largely ignored by the ruling classes and mostly expected and accepted by those with less wealth and social standing.

Lord also notes how the Titanic tragedy changed that and many other things about life and business in the early 20th century. "Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence.  Until then men felt they had found the answer to a steady, orderly, civilized life....For 100 years technology had steadily improved.....The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves....Here was the "unsinkable ship" - perhaps man's greatest engineering achievement - going down the first time it sailed."

In the end, as Lord notes was the "element of fate" in this needless tragedy. "If the Titanic had heeded any of the six messages on Sunday...if ice conditions had been normal...if the night had been rough or moonlit...if she had seen the berg 15 seconds sooner --or 15 second later...if she had hit the ice any other way...if her watertight bulkheads had been one deck higher...if she had carried enough  boats...if the Californian had only come. Had any one of these "ifs" turned out right, every life might have been saved. But they all went against her -- a classic Greek tragedy." 

A Night To Remember is well-written without being overly dramatic. A more modern day account would have offered more of what it was like for the Third Class survivors who found themselves barred from escaping the rising waters of the sinking Titanic. Lord does interrupt the telling to discuss the impact of the Titanic tragedy on society, specifically, American and to a lesser extent, British. His discussion of how class and racial prejudice played a part in who was saved and who died might have been better placed at the end of the book, after the arrival of the Carpathia. Nevertheless, Walter Lord's account of the Titanic tragedy is highly recommended as a good stating point for those interested in exploring this famous maritime tragedy.

Book Details:
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
New York:  Henry Holt and Company  1955
266 pp.

The King's Arrow by Michael Cadnum

In The King's Arrow,  Michael Cadnum crafts a story set around a long ago event - the mysterious death of King William II in 1100 AD.

The novel opens with eighteen-year-old Simon Foldre out for a ride on the stallion Bel. The skittish and spirited stallion belongs to the horse breeder Swein who has suggested that Simon ride him before buying. 

Suddenly they see a man sprinting for his life out of the nearby New Forest. Simon recognizes him as Edric, a hunter but really considered a poacher for the illegal snares he set in the king's forest. Edric is being pursued by Prince Henry, King William II's brother, the royal marshal Roland Montfort carrying a javelin, and the royal huntsman Oin Fitzbigot.

As Edric races towards Simon and his manservant Certig, Bel suddenly runs towards him, blocking his path. Simon attempts to shield Edric, but Roland's javelin flies into the poacher's back, killing him. This act of cruelty stuns Simon who silently wonders, "Could you not have given him a lash or two, and sent him home?" 

Prince Henry thanks Simon for helping them to catch the poacher as Oin introduces Simon to the prince. He tells the prince that Simon would "make a good hunting companion to the king's friend Walter Tirel of Picardy." Simon is the only son of Fulcher Foldre, King William I's loyal swordsman who married the beautiful daughter of an English duke. Simon tells Prince Henry that his mother's father was Usher of Aldham, whose English family had lived on the lands for generations. However, Roland insults Simon.

It is 1100 A.D., thirty-five years after William the Conqueror had arrived in England with an army of knights and squires and defeated the English king, Harold I. The English landholders were forcibly removed from their land which was given to the Normans and the English aristocracy were replaced by the French-speaking Normans. The resulting bitterness led to rebellion by the towns in the north which was brutally put down by William the Conqueror. Farmsteads and villages were destroyed by William and his son continued his mastery over the country by giving his family and friends positions of power and allowing his men to take what they wished. The Norman conquerors did not learn English but the English learned to speak the language of their conquerors. Neither the English nor their Norman conquerors trust one another. There have been gradual social and political changes in the ensuing thirty-five years since the Norman conquest. Norman aristocrats and English noble families have intermarried, and some English noblemen have been given minor stewardships. 

Prince Henry mentions that since Walter Tirel was wanting to hunt with an English varlet who knows the woods, Simon might take on this task. Simon knows that to serve in this way, to help with the quiver and arrows and know is a wonderful opportunity. But he is also aware that there is tension between Roland and Walter whose forbearers had some sort of contention. Roland further insults Simon by telling the prince that they cannot allow the Count of Poix to be with an "English dog". Prince Henry agrees but allows his command to stand. However, in a show of Norman authority he simply takes the stallion Bel and the expensive tack telling Simon that this will ensure the king's permission that he can hunt with the royal party tomorrow. And so after being pricked by Roland's sword, Simon rode home on the sweet-natured Blackfire with Certig walking beside them. For Simon, this first day of August, the Feast of Peter in Chains was a day of misfortune.

Simon and Certig head back to Aldham Manor, the lime-washed house where he and his widowed mother live. Behind their house which was built many years ago by Simon's grandfather, lies Foldre Castle, built by his father, complete with a drawbridge. On their way home, they meet one of Simon's tenants, Plegmund who has an enormous load of oats on his oxen cart. Gilda Shipman, who along with her brother trade wheels of New Forest cheese across the channel for Low Countries linen, questions Simon as to her brother's mood. He tells her of Edric's murder by Roland Montfort and feels shame that he did not protect Edric. 

At home, Simon's mother, Widow Christina as she is called tells him that William drinks, that the eldest brother Robert is in Jerusalem on a crusade and that the younger brother Henry wants to be king. That very evening they are visited by Walter Tirel, Count of Poix, Bertram a guard who appeared to be a knight with his supple leather armour, and a young hearld named Nicolas. When Walter demands a horse like that "gifted" to William, Simon explains that the horse was neither a gift nor a purchase, not even his to give away. Walter quickly realizes that Simon and his mother are not "horse-rich" as the Marshal Roland claimed. Simon explains to Walter that Marshal Roland misled him to shame both Walter and Simon, neither of whom he likes. Walter attempts to give Simon gold to pay for the loss of a rooster and the horse and saddle that were taken, but Simon doesn't take it. Instead he tells Walter that Swein the horsebreeder will be pleased to accept the money and provide Walter with a horse. Walter tells Simon he will enjoy hunting with him.

Meanwhile Marshal Roland is on the hunt for conspirators hoping to take the throne. He and Prince Henry discuss the situation in London, each verbally parrying and testing the other.  Roland does not want the king to go hunting as he believes that there is a plot against the king's life. The next morning Simon rides out with Certig, carrying the well wishes of his mother, Christina. They see Gilda and her brother preparing their ship, Saint Bride to be taken out. They arrive at the royal lodge, an imposing building of stone arches, to find the king not yet up. Simon, dressed in a forest-green hunting cloak and riding his placid mare, Silk notes that there are many men. While they wait, they meet Walter Tirel's guard, the knight Bertram de Lis who tells them that the king is still asleep and that Prince Henry has ridden north on an urgent errand. He also tells Simon and Certig about how Walter Tirel murdered Count of Bologne for insulting Walter's brother, Nivard. From Walter they learn that the king may not go on with the hunt, that Prince Henry has been sent to London to investigate the reports of violence there.

After Roland repeatedly insults Walter Tirel, the latter suggests that King William follow through with the hung in New Forest, with his marshal, Roland Montfort as his valet. The hunting party enters New Forest and includes King William and his marshal, Roland Montfort, Walter Tirel and his varlet Simon along with is his guard Bertam, the huntsman Oin fitzBigot, Vexin of Tours. They wait for the appearance of the deer, who will mistake their grazing horses for a herd of deer. At the appearance of a magnificent stag, Walter lets fly a birch arrow. However it flies wide in an arc and Simon traces its path "to the green-shrouded figure groping towards the holly bush"  

Simon rushes towards the figure whom he believes is Roland Montfort, only to discover it is King William. Simon knows that not only is Walter Tirel now in grave danger but so is he. The king is first discovered by Marshal Roland but after he sounds the alarm, Simon fells him with a punch. Next on the scene is Vexin of Tours who flees in terror. Simon and Walter return to Certig, Nicolas and Bertram and they ride fast out of New Forest. Realization dawns on Simon that he might be blamed for the king's accidental death and he flees in terror from Walter. But Walter of Tirel manages to catch up to him and tells Simon that he will protect him. As they flee to the coast in the hopes of escaping with the help of Gilda and her brother Oswulf, Simon wonders just how much longer he has to live.

Discussion

The King's Arrow is a well-written historical fiction novel for young readers that is set thirty-five years after the Norman Conquest of England. After the death of the English king, Edward the Confessor in 1066 A.D., William Duke of Normandy invaded the country. Edward who was childless, had named William as his successor.

King William Rufus was William II, King of England from 1087AD to 1100 A.D.  He was the third son of  King William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders. who ruled over Normandy. He was referred to as William Rufus likely because he had red hair. He had three brothers, Robert II Duke of Normandy, Richard, and Henry (who became King of England upon William's death). William never married and left no heirs. He was in conflict with the Catholic church but he had strong loyality from his soldiers as he was a brilliant military leader. He defeated Malcolm III, king of Scotland who invaded the lands ruled by William several times and was able to extend his rule over parts of Scotland. 

William died while on a hunting expedition with his brother, Henry in New Forest on August 2, 1100 A.D. after being shot in the lung by an arrow. His death and the circumstances surrounding it have been questioned throughout history. Hunting was a nortoriously dangerous sport and it is possible William's death was accidental. Others consider that it was an assassination by Henry who wanted to rule England. Henry became King Henry I after William's death. The man considered responsible was Walter Tirel, an Anglo-Norman nobelman. Tirel was part of a hunting party that included King William, William's younger brother Henry, Robert de Beaumont, Robert's brother Henry de Beaumont, Robert Fitzhamon, William of Breteuil, Tirel's brother-in-law Gilbert of Clare, and Gilbert's brother Robert of Clare. After William's death, Walter Tirel fled the country to his estates in Normandy. It will never be known what really happened on that day in the New Forest.

Author Michael Cadnum uses these events as the backdrop for his novel, The King's Arrow. The novel is divided into five parts: One: The Javelin's Song,  Two: Kingdom of Fire, Three: Blood Royal,  Four: The King's Arrow,  and Five: Chase End. The story is told from the perspective of the fictional character, eighteen-year-old Simon Foldre, who is of English and Norman descent. Simon is caught up in the political intrigue surrounding King William II, his brother Prince Henry, and William's Marshal, Roland Montfort. The death of William II is presented as an hunting accident, but which was possibly intended that day by another hand. In the novel, after the pursuit by Roland Montfort and his murder by Climenze, Nicolas tells Walter and Simon that he believes "the lord prince... plotted his brother's death" which shocks Walter Tirel. However Nicolas tells Walter, "...'I believe you accidentally killed a king who was going to die today by another hand."  The novel ends on a happy note with Walter safely in Normandy, and Simon enjoying a peaceful life and prospect of marriage to Walter's beautiful sister, Alena.

The author offers a realistic portrayal of Norman England, a conquered country, its people struggling under the rule of the French Normans who look down on them as "dogs". A good portion of the novel is devoted to portraying life under Norman rule in tenth century England. For example, the New Forest was "...natural wild land" that had been claimed by William the Conqueror who had taken the land from the "traditional inhabitants" - that is the English, and used for "royal sport". When Simon tells Prince Henry that his maternal grandfather, Usher of Aldham's ancestors have been on the land since "Noah's flood", Roland refers to them as "leeches" and refers to Simon as "one of our two-legged English dogs..."  To Simon, the marsha's sergeant, Gertain and his men are "imperious" and greedy, often taking whatever they want from the English. This is demonstrated by Prince Henry who simply steals the stallion Bel from Simon, not offering anything for it and casually remarking that Simon can walk home.King William later tells Simon  "Think of the horse as a tax.' Simon smiled grimly. Life was a hazard course of fees, taxes, duties, to be paid by service, silver, or livestock."  

The development of the setting for the novel is crucial for the events that follow. Once the hunt happens, and King William is killed, the pacing of the novel moves swiftly along, with the flight out of New Forest and Simon and Walter's attempt to escape England aboard the Saint Bride. The story offers a somewhat happy conclusion with Walter safely away from England, Simon settling into life in Normandy, his mother safe, and Prince Henry now crowned King of England.

The King's Arrow offers a realistic portrayal of life in early Norman England. It is suitable for older teens as there is some crass dialogue, implied sexual content and several violent murders. 

Book Details:
The King's Arrow by Michael Cadnum
New York: Viking          2008
208pp.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi is a dystopia set in the American Gulf Coast region. Nailer is part of a light crew that includes Pima, Sloth, Moon Girl and Pearly, all of whom are children or young teens whose sole purpose is to strip copper from abandoned oil tankers. Nailer lives with his abusive, murderous father, Richard Lopez in a bamboo shack at the edge of the encroaching jungle on Bright Sands Beach.

The American Gulf Coast region has been abandoned due to rising seas and repeated storm damage from “city killers”, severe tropical storms that have destroyed and drowned cities such as New Orleans. Bright Sands Beach is an area where derelict oil tankers are scavenged for scrap by light and heavy crews. The light crews are run by bosses who push the crews to make quota. Those who don’t are replaced and their fate is worse than death.

When Nailer almost loses his life in an accident he is called “Lucky Boy”. His luck seems to hold after he survives a “city killer” storm that strikes Bright Sands Beach. Surviving the “city killer”, Nailer and Pima discover a wrecked clipper and a barely alive “swank”, whom they name Lucky Girl.

At first, Pima wants to kill Nita for her gold and the scavenge they will own if she dies. But Nailer can’t bring himself to do this. He struggles with letting Nita die and claiming her wreck as salvage and letting her live and possibly receiving a reward for her rescue. The former choice will mean certain wealth and freedom from the salvage crew.

When they learn that Nita Chaudhury is the daughter of Patel, owner of Patel Gobal, a company that buys scavenge from a local company, they decide that she is worth saving. However, Nailer and Pima soon learn that Nita’s shipwreck was not accidental. They learn that she was fleeing from her father’s enemies who are intent upon using her to gain control of his company.

Soon after, Nailer’s luck fails when his father and some of his goons discover the wreck and capture Nita and Nailer. The situation is further complicated by the appearance at Bright Sands Beach by Pyce, Nita’s father’s arch-enemy who had been pursuing her over the ocean. What follows is a race to save Nita from the clutches of Pyce and to secure a chance at a new life away from Bright Sands Beach. Ship breaker races to a final, satisfying and thrilling conclusion.

Discussion

Ship Breaker is a thoroughly enjoyable novel and is highly recommended to readers who love dytopian science fiction. Some of Bacigalupi’s dystopian elements include drowned cities (The Teeth which represent New Orleans), half men – genetically designed human-canine hybrids who are brutal but loyal to the death, and Harvesters – people who deal in body parts for money.

The characters in the novel were both unique and well developed. Nailer is hardened but not past redemption like his brutal drug-crazed father. Although his motives are initially those of self-interest, he does put aside his prejudice towards “swanks” - as the wealthy are referred to, to save Nita. He wants to feel that he is better than Sloth who abandoned him to die in the bilge of the oil tanker. His character grows throughout the story from the boy who is always trying to appease his abusive father to one who eventually has the courage to confront him.

Bacagalupi gradually builds his dystopian world in Ship Breaker. It is a believable, violent ruined world with characters like the Harvesters and the half-men. The novel is thrilling and engages the reader's attention right to its exciting conclusion. Look for further world-building in the next installment of this series.

Book Details:

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Little, Brown and Company            2010
323pp

The Worst Thing She Ever Did by Alice Kuipers

The Worst Thing She Ever Did was......???? Well, you have to read the book to find out! Alice Kuipers has crafted a poignant story about a young survivor trying to cope in the aftermath of the July 7, 2005 London suicide bombings. Sophie Marie Baxter's life has changed since her sister Emily died in those bombings. If only she hadn't done what she did, Emily might still be alive. It was the worst thing she ever did. Sophie "knows" she is to blame.
But in order to go on living, Sophie decides that she is not going to talk about what happened and "NOT THINK ABOUT ANY OF THIS EVER AGAIN." In an attempt to help her cope, Sophie's therapist has her keep a journal and it is this journal that makes up The Worst Thing She Ever Did.

As we read through the entries, it becomes apparent that Sophie is struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She is experiencing flashbacks and sees death and destruction everywhere. She has panic attacks and cannot ride the subway. Sophie feels alienated from her mom and her friends. Strangely, Sophie is angry at her mother's inability to deal with the tragedy, even though she herself is not able to either. School is crashing and to top it all of she feels numb and disconnected. Her life is unraveling and she doesn't know how to stop it all.

However, through all of this there are good things gradually beginning to happen in her life. She makes a new friend in the Canadian girl, Rosa-Leigh who gets Sophie involved in writing poetry. And it is the poetry that figures prominently in helping Sophie begin to express what she is feeling.

When she finds the time, Sophie escapes to the roof of their flat and remembers what life was like before, when Emily was alive. It is through these flashbacks that we learn about Sophie's relationship with her older sister, Emily and eventually what really happened on that fateful day in July.
Brilliantly conceived and well written, The Worst Thing She Ever Did is a great short, intense read for teens looking for something a little different.

Book Details:
The Worst Thing She Ever Did by Alice Kuipers
HarperTrophy Canada 2010
210pp

My Home is Beyond the Mountains by Celia Barker Lottridge

Home Is Beyond The Mountains by Celia Barker Lottridge is a short historical novel for teens that deals with the Assyrian genocide of 1918. Since I’m doubtful most young people know much about this event, let alone who the Assyrians are, a little background information is in order.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Assyrian peoples lived in the south of Turkey and the northern part of Iran (then known as Persia) with a large population around Lake Urmieh, where this story is set. In 1914, the Ottoman empire declared war on the Allies and fought on the side of Germany. The British who were fighting Germany, gained the support of the Assyrian troops in exchange for the promise of a homeland. They wanted to keep the large oilfields which were part of Persia out of Turkish control. Initially, the Assyrians were successful in capturing these areas and this led the British to control much of Northern Persia.

At the same time the Russian army was intent on protecting itself from invasion by Turkey in the south. However, when Russian troops left the region, the Ottoman Empire saw a chance to obtain land with its mineral wealth and they invaded Persia, ignoring its neutral status in the war. Repeated invasions resulted in massacres of the Christian Assyrians by the Moslem Turks. One of the largest invasions occurred in the summer or 1918 and this resulted in many Christian Assyrians fleeing the area with the intent to reach the safety of the British army in further south in Persia. Many of these refugees were massacred or died of disease and hunger with about half reaching the safety of the British army.

The British eventually moved most of the Assyrian refugees to a large camp at Baquba, Iraq. The refugees stayed at Baquba for a time while a peace treaty was worked out with Turkey and then in 1921, the process of resettling them to their villages began. For many of the orphans, there were no villages, homes nor families to return to. Their families had been massacred and their once productive peaceful villages completely destroyed. This is the story of that time, told for young people, so that they might learn.

Author Celia Barker Lottride has more than a passing interest in the events related in her book. Her mother, Louise Shedd Barker, was the younger sister of Susan Shedd, director of the orphanage for Assyrian children at Hamadan, in 1922. Celia relied on historical accounts, the letters of her aunt Susan Shedd, and the oral history her mother Louise provided.

The story of the Assyrian flight to Hamadan in 1918 is told in the voice of Samira, a nine year old who leaves her fictional village of Ayna one summer day along with her mother, father, older brother Benyamin and her younger sister Maryam. Although they are somewhat organized, bringing food and rugs for their journey, as they suspected, tremendous difficulties and tragedy await them. Samira’s younger sister dies from fever. In the confusion of an attack by Turkish forces, Samira and her mother become separated from her father and brother Benyamin. Eventually, only Samira and her brother Benyamin make it to Hamadan. It is through Samira’s narrative that we try to understand the overwhelming loss she has suffered and the magnitude of coping with her situation. Samira befriends another young refugee, Anna and together they help one another over the next 5 years as they move to an orphanage in Baquba, Iraq and then as they take one step after another to reclaim their lives and journey home to their villages near Urmieh. Susan Shedd is portrayed as a remarkable heroine and an unusual woman. It is the indomitable Ms Shedd who organizes the children into “families” and who inspires them to work and plan for the journey home. Ms Shedd wins the respect of the refugees with her just and kind treatment of everyone and her no nonsense approach to those who tried to take advantage her situation or her being a woman.

For those who don’t know their history well enough (and this event isn’t in too many history books), Lottridge has provided a simple map and a concise explanation of the historical facts for young readers.

I enjoyed this book mainly because it focused on a historical event that isn’t often the subject of a novel. Although it’s not an overly exciting and dramatic read, it was interesting and I ended up doing a little research of my own afterwards. The characters were believable and each had their own way of dealing with their personal tragedy.

For more on the Assyrian and Armenian massacres please read The Flickering Light of Asia.

http://www.aramaicpeshitta.com/Online_Version/books/fla.pdf

WorldShaker by Richard Harland

Worldshaker is my first taste of the recently new and popular genre, steampunk. Steampunk is defined as a sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy that incorporates advanced Victorian technology. The stories usually take place in an era when steam power is used and so are often set in the 19th century. Most steampunk fiction like Leviathan by Scott Westerfied,  follow alternate history storylines.
Worldshaker is a juggernaut, a mobile city on rollers. An iron colossus, mechanical mountain, Worldshaker is divided into the Upper Decks inhabited by the elite classes who run the juggernaut society, and the Below, inhabited by the Filthies. It is the Filthies who run the coal-fired engines that power Worldshaker.
It is in this setting that we meet 16 year old Colbert Porpentine, whose grandfather, Sir Mormus Porpentine is the Supreme Commander of Worldshaker. The Porpentine family is one of several ruling families of Worldshaker.
Col's world begins to unravel with the sudden appearance of Riff, a young Filthy who hides in his cabin. Riff was "hooked" from Below to serve as a Menial but she managed to escape. Riff's appearance causes Col to reconsider everything he knows and understands about his world.

"How much did he truly know about Filthies?....In polite society people only ever hinted at the existence of Filthies."

From Riff, Col learns that Filthies are not what he has been told. They can speak and think.

"He had always pictured Filthies as slow and brutish, but not this one." "Fearful images from old nightmares floated before him. Heavy lumbering shapes, hairy unclothed bodies, hideous cannibal faces with leering mouths. Doing thinks, filthiness - he couldn't even imagine the things they might do."

Despite his contact with a Filthy, Col seems destined for greatness when he is chosen as successor to his grandfather, Sir Mormus. That is,until the unthinkable happens to him and he ends up Below, in the world of the Filthies for a brief period. When he is helped back to the Upper Decks in exchange for helping Riff investigate Worldshaker in planning a Filthies revolution, Col finds his world his place in it forever altered. Now seen as "contaminated", Col begins to question Upper Deck life. He asks a friend to research the Filthies.
Although Col's world has decidedly Victorian morals, he learns that beneath this veneer lies an unjust and cruel class system where Filthies are tortured and starved so that the Upper Deck people can live in wealth and comfort.
Eventually the shunning Col and his family experience leads them to take drastic action - one that changes Col's life forever and forces him into an alliance with the Filthies. In the end the revolution succeeds and the story races to a satisfying ending.

Worldshaker is an alternate history story in which Britain was invaded by Napoleon in 1802. Eventually, the French were defeated in the Fifty Years War but mass industrialization brought on by the war led to severe industrial competition between all European states. The labour force needed for the industrialization was eventually enslaved and these people became the Filthies.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and found the steampunk genre to be unique and exciting. The alternate history was fascinating. As Col uncovers the lies his society and his place in it are built upon, he must decide whether he can live with those lies or  whether he must choose a different course. A question remains for me: What happened to Col's wife, Sephaltina?

Book Details:

Worldshaker by Richard Harland
Simon & Schuster 2010
388pp

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy

Yellow Star is a fictionalized account of one of only 12 children who survived in the Lodz ghetto during the Second World War. In 1939, the Germans invaded Poland. As they did in other Polish cities, all Jewish persons in Lodz were forced into a small area of the city. This area became known as the Lodz ghetto. The ghetto was formed in the spring of 1940 and was sealed off from the outside world on May 1, 1940. After this, the Nazis began the systematic deportation of it's residents to various concentration camps.

One Jewish family forced to relocate to the Lodz ghetto was the Perlmutters. Syvia Perlmutter was 4 years old when the war began. She lived in Lodz with her mother, father and her older sister, Dora. Her father became a leader in the ghetto and through various means was able to save his family from deportation to the gas chambers and in a miracle was able to save Syvia and 11 other children.

Syvia's story is told from her perspective, in free verse. It is a touching and remarkable telling of a very tragic story starting from the beginning of the war, continuing through the gradual deterioration of society in Poland, to the devastating end with the discovery of the survivors of the Lodz ghetto by the Russians.

The book also contains significant notes on the historical setting of the Second World War, and also on how this story came to be told.

Book Details:
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
Marshall Cavendish Corporation 2006
227 pp.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Girl in Translation is a story about a young Chinese girl and her mother who come to the United States in the hope of making a better life for themselves. Eleven year old Kimberly Chang and her mother are brought to American by Kimberly's Aunt Paula and Uncle Bob. Although promised to be taken care of, they are taken advantage of and abused by Paula who is jealous and angry at her younger sister, Kimberly's mother. They are given an apartment in a vermin-filled, abandoned building without heat. Kimberly and her mother are forced to work in Aunt Paula's Chinatown garment factory in order to pay off their debt to her for the cost of their airfare and Ma's medical treatment.

Although Kimberly's Ma is resigned to her fate of grinding poverty and hardship, Kimberly recognizes that she has it within herself to better her life. She knows she was a top student in China and that this will be the key to a new life in America. But Kimberly soon finds herself leading a double life: one that hides the terrible hardship of their lives while trying to appear as normal as possible at school. She is a brilliant student during the school day but hides the fact that after school she works long hours in a sweatshop and lives in terrible poverty without proper clothing or food. Kimberly also has difficulty in adapting to a culture she doesn't understand. In order to hide her life from her peers, she allows no one to get close to her. The only exception is Annette who befriends her and throughout middle and high school respects Kimberly's need for distance. In the end, as the girls mature, Annette proves to be a true friend to Kimberly.

Like all young girls her age though, Kimberly must deal with the pressures of growing up. From the first time she works in the garment factory, Kimberly likes Matt Wu, a young sweatshop worker who is her age. But Matt is different from Kimberly. He is not as ambitious and he is content with what he has in life. Their friendship gradually develops into complicated love at a time when they are starting to drift apart. Matt becomes involved with another Chinese immigrant whose views on life are more similar to his. Kimberly struggles to cope with her feelings of a first love tainted by jealousy. When something very unplanned happens between Kimberly and Matt, something that threatens to destroy her chances to achieve her dreams, she must make a difficult choice. This choice will affect both her and Matt forever.

This novel is wonderful. Kimberly is a realistic character and her plight is so desperate that it is impossible not to develop a deep sympathy for her. As a reader, we see her grow from a frightened, disoriented 11 year old to a responsible, strong teen who is capable of making good decisions. Along the way she struggles with her developing love for Matt and his attraction to another girl, Vivian who is more suited to him. Kimberly must also navigate the social minefield of high school as well as her aunt's growing jealousy of Kimberly's academic achievements.

The jacket cover for Girl in Translation states "In time, Kim learns to tanslate not just her language but herself back and forth between the two worlds she straddles." And that she does in a most remarkable way.

I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read Jean Kwok's next offering. She is a fresh new YA author who holds great promise.

Book Details:
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
Riverhead Books (Penguin) 2010
293 pp.

living on impulse by cara haycak

This was one book whose cover appealed to me instantly (maybe it was the rhinestone encrusted shoe on the front). The other attraction was the theme of a troubled teen who resorts to shoplifting to be the likable person she dreams of.
Mia Morrow is an impulsive person. She sees an item in a store and she takes it - on impulse. She's done it before. It's easy and thrilling. And in fact, that is exactly what Mia does in early April in the department store on the Commons. But this time things go down differently. When she is caught shoplifting, the head of store security and her mother agree that Mia must pay the cost of the shoes - a whopping $300. But getting caught shoplifting is just the tip of Mia's troubles. She has to resist the urge to join a local gang. She doesn't know her father and this causes her considerable distress. Mia spends time wondering if this person or another might be him. She loses her two friends at school, fails an exam and must deal with trouble at home between her beloved Grandpa Andy and her single mom, Constance.Mia wants to do better but she just doesn't know how.
When Mia discovers a job opening at the nearby college she sees this as her ticket to paying off her debt to the department store and perhaps to a new direction in her life. Will she continue acting on impulse or start thinking about what she might do?
Although Mia initially lies in the job interview she does come clean about herself and lands the job. Gradually we see Mia reform herself and develop into a more likable, responsible person. Instead, it is now her mother who crashes and burns, returning to drinking and losing her job. When her mother disappears for several days Mia must turn to someone unexpected for help. This person, a past boyfriend of her mother comes through for her and her mother and helps them both deal with the past.
Overall, the story was mostly believable but I felt that Haycak simply tried to do too much in this novel. I think simply focusing on Mia's problems would have been enough. Adding the mother's troubles to the story simply seemed to take it over the top for me. 
This would have also allowed the author to explore some of Mia's issues more in depth, especially those relating to her absent father.
When Mia calls the police to report her mother missing she is told to drop a picture off at the local police station. I would expect that a 15 year old minor who reports a parent missing and is living alone would very likely receive a visit from police and most definitely end up in foster care. I really don't see why this situation was even needed in the novel. It seemed like it was thrown in for dramatic purposes but was simply too unrealistic.

We see Mia develop as a character through the novel. By the end of the novel Mia is much more likable character. Although she still does things that are wrong, she is beginning to think her way through and see how her actions affect others. She also begins to set goals for herself.

The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen

Mason is a high school sophomore who hopes to study biology at Stanford someday. His biology teacher, Mr. Hogan, encourages Mason to apply to TroDyn's summer science program. TroDyn is a huge research company located in Mason's hometown of Melby Falls and they pay the bills for just about everything in the town. Mason knows his mother doesn't want him to become involved with TroDyn but he just can't figure out exactly why. That is until he learns about her connection to TroDyn. When Mason attempts to confront  his mother at the TroDyn funded nursing home where she works,  he makes a remarkable but disturbing discovery about the patients she cares for. And it is his developing love for one of those patients that leads Mason to risk everything to try to help this beautiful girl. Even if this means confronting a terrifying person known as The Gardener at TroDyn. The Gardener explores issues that deal with bioethics and human experimentation. Most of the science mentioned in The Gardener is flawed. The overpopulation vs food production scenario has essentially been disproven. Paul Erlich's The Population Bomb has been proven to be a monumental flop since most of the Western world is now facing a demographic implosion and many developing countries such as China face the prospect of gender imbalance and not enough workers to support a drastically aging population.The Gardener considers the degree to which scientists might go to save mankind should such a scenario play out.
 
Despite this, The Gardener is a suspenseful science fiction that blends a little of mystery and romance too. Mason is a heroic character who is willing to risk everything to save Laila. We are left struggling to understand just what is wrong with her and Mason's loyalty to her only deepens the reader's affection for him. The novel weaves it's way to a satisfying conclusion.


Book Details:
The Gardener by S. A. Bodeen
Feiwel and Friends  2010
240pp

Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards

Three Rivers Rising is a historical novel written in free verse set against the backdrop of the Johnstown Flood of 1889.

The novel opens in the summer of 1888. Sixteen-year-old Celestia's father Bertram visits South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club on Lake Conemaugh for the possibility of business deals. Her mother Mildred comes for the socials and the gossip. Celestia's sister, nineteen-year-old Estrella is engaged to her beau, Charles who is in Pittsburg learning the family business. But Estrella is enjoying herself, meeting some of the more appealing boys of the clubhouse, like Frederick.

Celestia meets sixteen-year-old Peter who is the hired help. Peter's father works digging up coal for the Cambria Iron Works and he is not keen for Peter to work at the South Fork Club. He tells his son that the rich people's money will not save their dam from breaking but Peter knows everyone laughs off that possibility because the dam always holds. The South Fork Reservoir, called Lake Conemaugh by the wealthy owners, was formed by the placing of a seventy-foot earthen dam across a creek. The lake. which is stocked with fish, is surrounded on one side by "fancy-trim houses" and a large clubhouse. Peter offers to work on the line down in the coal mine after his father tells him that being around the wealthy will give him "ideas". But his father tells Peter it's better he works above ground in the sun and fresh air but he warns his son not "to develop a taste for things" he cannot have.

Johnstown sits where the Stony River and the Little Conemaugh River meet. Above the town the South Fork Creek joins the river, after it fills the reservoir. As a result, Johnstown often floods in the spring due to the rains. The people worry about the dam holding but since it has always held they joke often about it. Celestia encounters Peter who has his fishing pole, as she sits on the banks of the creek reading. They begin meeting day after day, Celestia reading while Peter fishes. One day Celestia gives Peter her book but he reveals that he is able to read as his mother, Anna was a schoolteacher who had travelled much. Their friendship blossoms quickly into a forbidden attraction. Peter continues to meet Celestia in the woods near the clubhouse. Because they are from very different social classes, they have to pretend they do not know one other when their paths cross on the boardwalk. Peter would be quickly dismissed if he was suspected of fraternizing with the wealthy clubhouse patrons and especially with a young girl. 

Celestia is undeterred by Peter's reluctance. Her sister, Estrella suspects something because of Celestia's flushed cheeks and happiness. Celestia reveals to her sister that she is interested in a boy who works at the clubhouse while Estrella seems to have her own love interest. When Peter shows up outside her bedroom window, Estrella tells her where Celestia can find a window to slip outside. This leaves Celestia to wonder just what Estrella has been up to.

However, Celestia's meetings with Peter are discovered by Louise Godwin who sees them swimming in the lake. This upsets Celestia's mother who tells her that being with a "some boy" who is not like them could ruin their position in society. When her father returns from Pittsburg he insists that Celestia stay away from "the hired boy"  and informs her that she will accompany her aunt Mimsy in Europe until she enters finishing school in Switzerland. Celestia tells her father she will not obey him but as she's packing she wonders about her choice. What will she lose by leaving and what will she lose by staying? However, Celestia seems to have made her choice as she gives Peter little keepsakes to remember her by. She is haunted by her choice.

But worse is to come. After packing, and seeing her mother and Aunt Mimsy in turmoil, Celestia learns from Estrella that she has been "ruined" by a man, who now will not marry her. Their father can do nothing to protect her or their family because this man is more powerful. Celestia overhears her parents speaking about what has happened and learns that Estrella is expecting and that the man involved is Grayson. When she learns from Peter that the servants at the clubhouse already know of Estrella's situation, Celestia pretends to have the fever in an effort to prevent the truth from spreading to the other wealthy patrons. This forces the wealthy to flee the clubhouse to avoid what they believe is "the fever".

After spending a year in Switzerland at the Institut Villa Mont Choisi, during which Celestia manages to correspond with Peter, she learns that she is to be married to Andrew Forrester upon returning to the United States. However, Celestia is determined to make her own life and be with Peter. She does not want to marry Andrew whom she doesn't love. Upon arriving at Johnstown, Celestia immediately leaves to find Peter in Johnstown. The spring of 1889 is wet, with the rivers wild with all the recent rain. She finds Peter and his terminally ill father in their rundown home. Her decision to leave the South Fork clubhouse is a fateful one that will set in motion a change of heart amidst the tragedy of Johnstown.

Discussion

Three Rivers Rising is a historical fiction novel about the historic Johnstown flood of 1889 which took the lives of  over two thousand people. 

Johnstown which was founded in 1800 was notable for its steel and iron mill, the Cambria Iron Works and its coal mines which supplied the steel industry, as well as for its railway. The town was situated where the Little Conemaugh and Stoneycreek rivers met. By the 1880's the town had a population of over thirty thousand people. The town was prone to flooding for several reasons: the two rivers were part of an extensive drainage basin of the Allegheny plateau and the rivers had been narrowed by the use of slag (as waste product from the production of steel) to create more land for the town.

Above the town, an earthen dam, the South Fork Dam, had been constructed in the 1830s to the 1850s to supply water to a canal system to transport goods and materials. However with the arrival of the Pennsylvania Railway the canal system fell into disuse. The Railway sold the dam and the reservoir to a private group with the reservoir being converted into a resort lake for use by the wealthy.  The earthen dam was lowered by three feet and the culverts in the dam used to manage the reservoir water were removed. This meant there was no way to lower the water level in the reservoir, now called Lake Conemaugh during periods of heavy rain. A club house for the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was built and many wealthy industrialists including Andrew Carnegie frequented the resort.

Several days of heavy rainfall filled Lake Conemaugh to the point that it was almost cresting the top of the lowered earthen dam. Elias Unger, President of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club and who was in a farmhouse adjacent to the dam, saw that situation at the dam was dangerous. Unger and his men were unsuccessful in dealing with the rising water and word was sent by telegraph warning Johnstown of the situation. Meanwhile in Johnstown, the torrential rain had flooded the town with water rising to almost ten feet in the streets.

The South Fork Dam breached sometime around 2:50PM, a wall of water racing first to the town of South Fork where most were able to scramble up the hills to safety. As the floodwaters raced the fourteen miles downstream towards Johnstown, it picked up debris including parts of houses, trees and animals. The flood gained strength after slamming into and destroying the Conemaugh Viaduct, stripping the soil down to the bedrock at the town of Mineral Point. The floodwaters reached Johnstown fifty-seven minutes after the dam breach, sweeping over two thousand two hundred people to their deaths.

The novel begins with the narratives of two young people from very different social classes: Peter whose father works in the local coal mine and who works at the clubhouse, and wealthy Celestia Whitcomb who, along with her parents and older sister, is a guest at the clubhouse. Gradually the narrative expands to include seventeen-year-old Maura, wife of Joseph who conducts the one of the many trains that run on the Pennsylvania Railway line through the Johnstown area. Maura is mother to three young children and is expecting another baby. There is also Kate, a widow whose husband Early drowned shortly after their marriage. Kate went by the name of Kitty, but as she struggles to deal with her loss, becomes a nurse who happens to be near Johnstown when the disaster happens. Bertram Whitcomb, Celestia's father is also included in the last half of the novel, and it is his narrative that offers descriptions of the massive destruction by the floodwaters.

The novel employs the forbidden love trope of a wealthy girl/boy falling for the poor boy/girl from the wrong social class.  Celeste's father is a wealthy businessman while Peter's father is a coal miner. In late 19th century society, such a match would be forbidden. The social repercussions would be so great that it's unlikely either would follow through on their feelings. Once Celestia's relationship with Peter is discovered her mother tells her,
"Your actions could not only tear us

from our place in society

but rip this family apart,

person from person."

The novel highlights the stigma and double standard placed on women in society especially during the Victorian era. Celestia's older sister Estrella has become involved with a man, named Grayson a wealthy industrialist with a reputation for "ruining" women. She is now pregnant and unmarried - that is, "ruined". To save their family and her father's business, Estrella must be shunned by her family and quietly and quickly sent away. Aunt Mimsy tells Celestia,
"And if she is properly disowned...?'

Damage to the family is... tolerable.'

Mimsy grimaces. 'But Estrella will be lost to us forever.

The limb will be sacrificed

to save the tree, you see.'

It is Estrella who must bear the consequences while the man is allowed to continue his predatory ways. Estrella is forced to leave her family under the pretence of some excuse - a vacation or illness, never to return, her name never mentioned, her existence blotted out. 

When Celestia makes the choice to leave her family and be with Peter, her father disowns her as well, even though she has done nothing dishonorable except to love someone from another social class. Upon discovering that Celestia has left, Whitcomb removes her picture from the double frame that once also held Estrella's portrait, rips it up and prepares to leave the clubhouse. But the breaching of the dam and the resulting tragedy changes Celestia's father. During his frantic search for her, as he helped parents try to find the bodies of their childrren, Whitcomb's perspective on his daughter's situation changes. After discovering Celestia ill with typhoid and being cared for by Peter,he tells him,

" 'What would any of those parents give

to have their child back?

Would they trade obedience?

Money?

Power?

The good opinion of friends?...

So much senseless loss...

how could anyone

choose

to lose someone he loves?' "

The novel ends happily with Celestia recovering at the family home in Pittsburg, Peter at her side, and the recovery of Estrella who their Aunt Mimsy has managed to secure a good marriage, along with her new husband and her baby. Celestia's parents are much changed, her mother working to help the survivors and no longer consumed by their status in society, and her father open to having his daughters at home.

While Three Rivers Rising does capture the essence of the Johnstown flood, according to the author it is not a book about the flood disaster. It is a story set against the backdrop of the catastrophe, incorporating a few characters and events that really did happen. The novel's main source of tension is whether or not Peter and Celestia will survive the flood and what happens afterwards if they do.

The endnotes of the novel contain a chronology on the South Fork Dam and provide readers with selection of fiction and nonfiction books on the Johnstown Flood.

Book Details:

Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards
New York: Alfred A. Knopf      2010
293 pp.