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aktroyer's review against another edition
1.0
it had what i considered to be an interesting premise. except the plot outlined on the back of the book wasn't really the central story that actually took place. once i read that the author took it upon herself to tweak the book during its transition from hardcover to paper, it made me feel like maybe i would have been better off not buying the paperback for 6 bucks at target.
rachl27r's review against another edition
3.0
I think I would have enjoyed this more without the advertisements and the interjections from the dead and such. I found it distracting. I found myself wanting to get back to Lydia's story.
literaryfeline's review against another edition
3.0
http://www.literaryfeline.com/2007/03/wicketts-remedy-by-myla-goldberg.html
yangyvonne's review against another edition
4.0
Lydia Kikenny leaves her blue collar life in South Boston when she marries medical student Henry Wickett. Henry quits school to follow a pipe dream of a "false remedy" in a bottle, then dies of flu. His partner, Quentin Driscoll cons Lydia and turns Wickett's Remedy into a huge success, QD Soda. Lydia returns home and eventually finds herself a part of a government sponsored study on flu - as a nurse, which she isn't - using prisoners as guinea pigs (one of whom she marries). In the end, she dies, but Quentin Driscoll ends-up haunted by his wrong- to his own end in the 1990's (some 70 years later).
This book is uniquely set-up with a text made-up of the main story, letters from many characters in the future, ads for QD Soda and snippets from WWI soldiers at the front. On top of this, the margins contain "asides" from characters who have passed on. Lydia is a great, strong figure - somewhat unusual in 1917! Her ability to recover from so much personal tragedy and hardship is amazing (But I do wish she could have received her share of the QD fortune!). At least QD got "his" in the end!
This book is uniquely set-up with a text made-up of the main story, letters from many characters in the future, ads for QD Soda and snippets from WWI soldiers at the front. On top of this, the margins contain "asides" from characters who have passed on. Lydia is a great, strong figure - somewhat unusual in 1917! Her ability to recover from so much personal tragedy and hardship is amazing (But I do wish she could have received her share of the QD fortune!). At least QD got "his" in the end!
britakate's review against another edition
"Lydia's favorite part of any parade was the marching band. Marches on the Victrola had no flash or strut: the drums did not electrify, the trumpets did not exalt, and the tubas did not pull the strings of her legs in time to the music's promise of good news just out of reach. She loved the erect carriage of the marchers in their impeccable uniforms and the proud way they held their instruments, as though each trumpet and flute and drum were incontrovertible evidence of all that had gone right with the world. As strong as her love of marching bands was her conviction that she was as indispensable to a parade's success as the marchers themselves. Without people spilling over the sidewalks and onto the street, without the crush of elbows and peanut breath and frantically waving flags, a parade was merely a contrived walk." (106)
"Sickness and need obviated convention and left, in its place, intimacy. Lydia had perceived this intimacy once before. Because she had been tending Henry, she had assumed it was conjugal but she now discovered it was universal—a shared human undercurrent detectable only when the dictates of name, sex, and social standing were effaced. Revealed, it became an embrace. Lydia had not been three hours at Carney before she knew she was meant to be a nurse." (160)
Between this and Year of Wonders, I guess it's official that I have a thing for books about plagues. I only wish the ending hadn't come so soon, or so abruptly. I could have kept right on reading for at least another 200 pages.
"Sickness and need obviated convention and left, in its place, intimacy. Lydia had perceived this intimacy once before. Because she had been tending Henry, she had assumed it was conjugal but she now discovered it was universal—a shared human undercurrent detectable only when the dictates of name, sex, and social standing were effaced. Revealed, it became an embrace. Lydia had not been three hours at Carney before she knew she was meant to be a nurse." (160)
Between this and Year of Wonders, I guess it's official that I have a thing for books about plagues. I only wish the ending hadn't come so soon, or so abruptly. I could have kept right on reading for at least another 200 pages.
survivalisinsufficient's review against another edition
2.0
This one bored me, and the gimmick of having dead people talking in the margins totally didn't work.
magicschooltokoro's review against another edition
2.0
It started out well, while the young Mr. Wickett and his developments were the story, but after about disk 4-5, when Mrs. Wickett became involved in a medical experiment held on a island across the Boston harbor, I felt it strayed widely from its own admitted premise. I found that unfortunate and a little disappointing. Maybe I'm naive and not as discerning as other readers, but it seemed to me as if the jacket blurb was misleading as to the contents of the story.
lbolesta's review against another edition
4.0
The formatting was kind of janky in the ebook, so this one would be best read in paper.
toreadistovoyage's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very interesting novel. The story revolves around Lydia, a girl from South Boston who marries a medical student - Henry Wickett - and follows her through her marriage, her losses during WWI, and the Spanish Influenza epidemic. Very good look into the time period. There are a few sub-plots/stories that run the course of the novel and add depth to the main story.