The Pull of the Stars: The Richard & Judy Book Club Pick and Sunday Times Bestseller

Crikey, that was an exhausting read! The writing is so compelling and so full of extremely well researched historical details that I could barely put it down. It's narrated by an overworked midwife in an understaffed maternity/fever ward in a Dublin hospital in 1918 and I felt as if I was doing the shifts with her. The characters are really well drawn and very believable (one of them is, in fact, a real historical character) and I couldn't help but care about them and what was going to happen to them. The only sightly disappointing part for me was the ending, (hence only 4 stars) otherwise highly recommended.

St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 29th November 2021.

The pull of the stars. Emma Donoghue.

Quite a few readers enjoyed this book, albeit with some reservations, finding it ‘well written and compelling’; ‘very atmospheric’; and ‘full of silences and the unspoken’. They appreciated the character of Julia, who progressed from being a ‘rule-bound, naive, compliant midwife’ to a ‘questioning and increasingly rebellious’ person who rejects the cruelty of traditional attitudes. Bridie, the new assistant, provided a contrast to Julia, as did Dr Lynn, and the solidarity between these women helped to provide some hope in an otherwise very bleak time and place.

The character of Dr Lynn aroused quite a lot of interest. One reader said she would have liked to know more about her, and another was fascinated to find out (in the Author’s Note at the end) that Lynn was a real person who along with her partner opened a children’s hospital, and spent her life campaigning for better housing and living conditions. In fact the latter commentator thought that the author ‘really wanted to write a biography of Lynn but someone else had got there first!’

Some comments, however, were negative. ‘A crash course in obstetrics’; ‘descriptions unnecessarily graphic in places’; and ‘for the most part it was like a textbook on childbirth’. Julia’s relationship with Bridie was ‘not really necessary and did not add to the story (some one else commented however: ‘at least our protagonist had one night of love and joy); and Bridie’s sudden death was considered unbelievable. One reader thought that most of the themes: PTSD, poverty, multiple births of Catholic women, abuse by nuns and priests, domestic violence, stigma of illegitimate births, lesbian awakening, had been covered already by many other writers. Several found that the descriptions of medical problems and procedures went on for too long, and one commented that the book was weighed down by this descriptive aspect.

Just as those who liked the book had some criticisms, most of those who said they wouldn’t really recommend it found something to admire in it nevertheless: it was well researched, easy to read, and well constructed, they admitted – just a strange choice of subject.

What most people noted with interest was a comparison of Dublin in 1918 with our present circumstances (England in 2021). The book was published in 2019, just before our current pandemic. One reader wondered about pregnant women catching Covid and whether it affected the babies. Several others mentioned, with thankfulness, how lucky we are to have the benefit of all the medical advances over the last century.

This was a hard book to read, set in Dublin at a very difficult time, and full of detailed descriptions of human misery, hatred and injustice. Some saw hope in it; others saw none. Some were overwhelmed by the ghastly medical details (the symphysiotomies, which left the woman disabled after childbirth, were especially horrifying), and others found that these descriptions added authenticity to the book. Readers reacted very differently – one said the ending left way for a sequel, which she would be pleased to read.

This book was read during November 2021 and the continuing restrictions due to the Covid-19 virus, and so the discussion was not 'live' as usual, but took place via a Facebook group, email and telephone conversations.

This story is set in the flu pandemic in Ireland in 1918 - it centres around a naïve and inexperienced midwife managing a ward of pregnant women who also have the flu. The graphic detail of births, deaths and everything in-between taking place in the ward was a bit too graphic for me but the characters were engaging and the historical context was particularly poignant and interesting. It surprised me by ending as a beautiful love story that I hadn't seen coming. A bit of an ordeal but overall, enjoyable.