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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I listened to this book and the haunting story seemed fitting for the time and place were living.
After having thoroughly enjoyed the PBS/Ridley Scott miniseries Mercy Street earlier this spring, I was excited about My Name is Mary Sutter after reading the book summary and a few of the more positive reviews of this book. I was hoping for something very similar in tone to Mercy Street, delving deeper into a character like that story’s Nurse Mary, while also not telling the exact same story.
In fact, the story has a similar set up for what I thought would be the romantic through-line of the story in that Mary Sutter meets a somewhat gruff young(ish) doctor in the first chapter (the rule of thumb for any romance plot to get that part of the plot rolling, even if it’s not technically a romance novel, which this one is not) who seems to be the perfect foil for her---there’s even an obvious, growing attraction for her when we’re in his viewpoint, even though he’s married. (It’s quickly revealed that the marriage was a mistake and they’ve been separated almost from the beginning.)
Mary, a trained midwife, wants to become a doctor. So she takes it upon herself to visit Dr. James Blevens to ask him to take her on as an apprentice, since the medical school in her hometown of in Albany, NY, won’t admit her. She’s read as many books as she can get her hands on, so her knowledge is extensive, though she lacks practical experience, which is what she wants from Dr. Blevens. This seems like the perfect setup for the story to come---he says no, the war starts, and he goes off for his “three-month” stint as an army surgeon (remember, no one expected the war to last long, so Lincoln put a call out for volunteers for three months at first). The war, of course, becomes Mary’s opportunity to learn what she needs in order to become a doctor.
We see “Mary Sutter” and “James Blevens” working side-by-side during a difficult delivery (a little more detailed than I was personally comfortable with, as were most of the medical scenes, but seemed very realistic, so kudos to Oliveira for doing her research) and then later, when Dr. Blevens helps transport this woman and her baby to Mary’s house to convalesce. Naturally, he’s invited to dinner by Mary’s mother, Amelia; and they’re joined at dinner by Mary’s twin sister, Jenny, and Jenny’s beau, “Thomas Fall.”
Let me stop here and address a few issues that came up early on and then continued throughout this novel for me:
1. Lack of Structure. As mentioned in my blog post on Chapter 1 of Scene and Structure, “The problem I’m having with Oliveira’s book is another one of mixed POV and seeming lack of structure. . . . And her narrative jumps around in time, dropping flashbacks into the middle of a scene of dialogue, or jumping back in time to tell someone’s entire backstory after leaving the previous chapter hanging at the end. And because this is not genre fiction (or, at least, it’s not structured as typical genre fiction), I’m having a harder and harder time trusting that the author is actually going somewhere with this story.” (This was around 20% into the novel---it didn’t improve.)
2. Head Hopping. Again, as mentioned in the above-linked blog post, I wrote: “Although I think Oliveira was trying to employ an omniscient POV, it’s actually more of a head-hopping style.” The viewpoint changes randomly from character to character with seemingly no logic or reason, which makes the lack of structure even worse, since as a reader, one cannot settle into a viewpoint and just go along for the ride . . . except for in those flashbacks, especially the ones that go on for far too long.
3. (Full) Name Calling. Oliveira has a weird habit of referring to characters by their full names: Mary Sutter. Amelia Sutter. James Blevens. Thomas Fall. Even within their own viewpoint! And it’s not as if they’re just being introduced at the beginning of a chapter or scene by their full name---it happens multiple times on a page. Then there’s the fact that Mary Sutter not only thinks of her mother by her first name, Amelia, she refers to her by her first name in dialogue.
4. The Sister Cliché. Mary Sutter is tall and gangly and not considered pretty. She’s brusque and has few social graces. Her twin sister, however, is petite and pretty and the apple of everyone’s eye. Mary is useful while Jenny is decorative. Mary is practical while Jenny is romantic. Mary is sensible while Jenny is . . . well, you get where I’m going with that one. Not only does this cliché bother me, since there seemed to be no effort to go beyond these stereotypes, but it also bothered me because there was no reason for them to be twins, nor was there the need to set up the sisterly jealousy by having Thomas Fall first seem to be attracted to Mary and then fall for Jenny as soon as he met her.
5. There’s Something About Mary. However, even though Mary is described as too tall, gangly, mannish, unattractive, overbearing, acerbic, etc., every man who comes near her is automatically and inexplicably attracted to her.
As the book continues, even more viewpoints are introduced once Mary arrives in Washington, DC---Dorothea Dix, John Hays (aide to President Lincoln), President Lincoln, and more. Oh, and there’s another army doctor character introduced about halfway through who ends up playing a big role in the story, as well.
There’s a major lack of character development, as well as the development of relationships between characters. Mary Sutter wants to be a doctor because . . . she wants to be a doctor. That’s it. She wants to be a doctor. She does everything she can to learn how to be a doctor. The problem is, there’s no real motivation to it. She doesn’t seem to derive any pleasure out of what she does or what she learns throughout the book. She just wants to be a doctor. The best relationship development happens in about the first third of the book between Mary Sutter and James Blevens---and it’s mostly one-sided, on James’s side. And this isn’t just romantic relationships---there are occasional mentions of other nurses in the field hospitals, yet Mary has little to no interactions with any of them, and with few of the doctors other than Blevens and Stipp, as well. This lack of emotional connections keeps her a two-dimensional character who is at best boring and at worst unlikeable.
Then, there are the scenes like this (beginning on p. 277):
In 1864, George McClellan, in his run as Democratic candidate opposite Abraham Lincoln, would complain that the failure of the Peninsular Campaign was due to many factors out of his control, including Lincoln’s great meddling in his plans, his failure to provide crucial reinforcements, the teeming hordes of Confederate troops, the inclement weather, the failure of the navy to properly defend the York River, the idiot mapmakers who mistook a river’s location that forced him to march miles out of his way, his recurring bouts of malarial fever due to the criminal lack of quinine, the abysmal roads which were nothing but a morass of mud, the swampy, nearly oceanic terrain, and finally, the wily Robert E. Lee, who decimated the Union troops in the last hopeless battle of Seven Days as they retreated down the Peninsula after the Union’s failure to seize Richmond.
This is followed by at least another 200 to 300 words continuing this recitation of the research that Oliveira did. And this isn’t the only place this happens---it starts to happen with regularity throughout the last half of the book.
If I wanted to read nonfiction about the American Civil War, I would pull one of the many (many) nonfiction books on my shelves about the American Civil War (most from my days when I minored in it at LSU).
Then, there’s the ending. So disappointing! Once I realized that was how the book would end, I pretty much gave up on even trying to enjoy it.
In fact, the story has a similar set up for what I thought would be the romantic through-line of the story in that Mary Sutter meets a somewhat gruff young(ish) doctor in the first chapter (the rule of thumb for any romance plot to get that part of the plot rolling, even if it’s not technically a romance novel, which this one is not) who seems to be the perfect foil for her---there’s even an obvious, growing attraction for her when we’re in his viewpoint, even though he’s married. (It’s quickly revealed that the marriage was a mistake and they’ve been separated almost from the beginning.)
Mary, a trained midwife, wants to become a doctor. So she takes it upon herself to visit Dr. James Blevens to ask him to take her on as an apprentice, since the medical school in her hometown of in Albany, NY, won’t admit her. She’s read as many books as she can get her hands on, so her knowledge is extensive, though she lacks practical experience, which is what she wants from Dr. Blevens. This seems like the perfect setup for the story to come---he says no, the war starts, and he goes off for his “three-month” stint as an army surgeon (remember, no one expected the war to last long, so Lincoln put a call out for volunteers for three months at first). The war, of course, becomes Mary’s opportunity to learn what she needs in order to become a doctor.
We see “Mary Sutter” and “James Blevens” working side-by-side during a difficult delivery (a little more detailed than I was personally comfortable with, as were most of the medical scenes, but seemed very realistic, so kudos to Oliveira for doing her research) and then later, when Dr. Blevens helps transport this woman and her baby to Mary’s house to convalesce. Naturally, he’s invited to dinner by Mary’s mother, Amelia; and they’re joined at dinner by Mary’s twin sister, Jenny, and Jenny’s beau, “Thomas Fall.”
Let me stop here and address a few issues that came up early on and then continued throughout this novel for me:
1. Lack of Structure. As mentioned in my blog post on Chapter 1 of Scene and Structure, “The problem I’m having with Oliveira’s book is another one of mixed POV and seeming lack of structure. . . . And her narrative jumps around in time, dropping flashbacks into the middle of a scene of dialogue, or jumping back in time to tell someone’s entire backstory after leaving the previous chapter hanging at the end. And because this is not genre fiction (or, at least, it’s not structured as typical genre fiction), I’m having a harder and harder time trusting that the author is actually going somewhere with this story.” (This was around 20% into the novel---it didn’t improve.)
2. Head Hopping. Again, as mentioned in the above-linked blog post, I wrote: “Although I think Oliveira was trying to employ an omniscient POV, it’s actually more of a head-hopping style.” The viewpoint changes randomly from character to character with seemingly no logic or reason, which makes the lack of structure even worse, since as a reader, one cannot settle into a viewpoint and just go along for the ride . . . except for in those flashbacks, especially the ones that go on for far too long.
3. (Full) Name Calling. Oliveira has a weird habit of referring to characters by their full names: Mary Sutter. Amelia Sutter. James Blevens. Thomas Fall. Even within their own viewpoint! And it’s not as if they’re just being introduced at the beginning of a chapter or scene by their full name---it happens multiple times on a page. Then there’s the fact that Mary Sutter not only thinks of her mother by her first name, Amelia, she refers to her by her first name in dialogue.
4. The Sister Cliché. Mary Sutter is tall and gangly and not considered pretty. She’s brusque and has few social graces. Her twin sister, however, is petite and pretty and the apple of everyone’s eye. Mary is useful while Jenny is decorative. Mary is practical while Jenny is romantic. Mary is sensible while Jenny is . . . well, you get where I’m going with that one. Not only does this cliché bother me, since there seemed to be no effort to go beyond these stereotypes, but it also bothered me because there was no reason for them to be twins, nor was there the need to set up the sisterly jealousy by having Thomas Fall first seem to be attracted to Mary and then fall for Jenny as soon as he met her.
5. There’s Something About Mary. However, even though Mary is described as too tall, gangly, mannish, unattractive, overbearing, acerbic, etc., every man who comes near her is automatically and inexplicably attracted to her.
As the book continues, even more viewpoints are introduced once Mary arrives in Washington, DC---Dorothea Dix, John Hays (aide to President Lincoln), President Lincoln, and more. Oh, and there’s another army doctor character introduced about halfway through who ends up playing a big role in the story, as well.
There’s a major lack of character development, as well as the development of relationships between characters. Mary Sutter wants to be a doctor because . . . she wants to be a doctor. That’s it. She wants to be a doctor. She does everything she can to learn how to be a doctor. The problem is, there’s no real motivation to it. She doesn’t seem to derive any pleasure out of what she does or what she learns throughout the book. She just wants to be a doctor. The best relationship development happens in about the first third of the book between Mary Sutter and James Blevens---and it’s mostly one-sided, on James’s side. And this isn’t just romantic relationships---there are occasional mentions of other nurses in the field hospitals, yet Mary has little to no interactions with any of them, and with few of the doctors other than Blevens and Stipp, as well. This lack of emotional connections keeps her a two-dimensional character who is at best boring and at worst unlikeable.
Then, there are the scenes like this (beginning on p. 277):
In 1864, George McClellan, in his run as Democratic candidate opposite Abraham Lincoln, would complain that the failure of the Peninsular Campaign was due to many factors out of his control, including Lincoln’s great meddling in his plans, his failure to provide crucial reinforcements, the teeming hordes of Confederate troops, the inclement weather, the failure of the navy to properly defend the York River, the idiot mapmakers who mistook a river’s location that forced him to march miles out of his way, his recurring bouts of malarial fever due to the criminal lack of quinine, the abysmal roads which were nothing but a morass of mud, the swampy, nearly oceanic terrain, and finally, the wily Robert E. Lee, who decimated the Union troops in the last hopeless battle of Seven Days as they retreated down the Peninsula after the Union’s failure to seize Richmond.
This is followed by at least another 200 to 300 words continuing this recitation of the research that Oliveira did. And this isn’t the only place this happens---it starts to happen with regularity throughout the last half of the book.
If I wanted to read nonfiction about the American Civil War, I would pull one of the many (many) nonfiction books on my shelves about the American Civil War (most from my days when I minored in it at LSU).
Then, there’s the ending. So disappointing!
Spoiler
As mentioned before, the setup of this book was that somehow, even though he’s married in the beginning, Mary Sutter and James Blevens would end up together. Not only are their characters perfect for each other, but James is definitely attracted to her before he leaves for the war, and falling in love with her after they’re separated---he can’t stop thinking about her. But then the character of Dr. William Stipp comes along---a man more than twice Mary’s age (she’s in her early twenties, he’s in his fifties when we meet him) and for some strange reason, he ends up being the love interest.
Initially, I was very excited to read this book. It had been sitting on my shelf for some time and the American Civil War, especially the medical practices and theories at that time, has always been an interest of mine. And there are so few books, both fiction and nonfiction, that tackle this topic. The up-close details of births and amputations and treating dysentery are gory but serve a purpose. The reader learns the risk of known medical treatment and the invention of field triage during a war that would go on to claim more than 700,000 lives, and comes to understand how much of modern medicine we can attribute to the men and women of this time.
Mary Sutter is a character who knows what she wants and is completely unapologetic for it which is something I appreciated so much in this novel. A lot of female characters in stories set in the 19th century are too conforming to society’s rules, so her no-excuses attitude is quite refreshing. Dr. William Stipp, an older former army surgeon, redefines what a leading man should be. He bears the scars and regrets of his past yet still cradles hope for a better life and brighter days. Real-life historical characters like President Lincoln and Dorothea Dix make appearances and do enrich the setting of the novel.
However, the more I read, the more the multiple perspectives and omniscient narration detracted from the main story. There are so many different perspectives in this novel: Mary Sutter, her mother, her twin sister and her husband, her brother, Dr. William Stipp, Dr. James Blevens, Abraham Lincoln, John Hay, Dorothea Dix, General Geroge McClellan, and more. Because of this high number, the plot does not move along at a consistent pace and the secondary and tertiary characters detract from Mary’s story.
And lastly, one of the main summary points on the back cover hinted at a love triangle between Mary and two doctors. This never really came to fruition. There is some flirtation with Dr. James Blevens, but they are separated by the war almost immediately and do not come back into orbit until near the end of the book. The relationship she does eventually pursue with Dr. William Stipp is restrained to what society considered proper in the mid-19th century, even in their private thoughts. The lack of actual romance besides blushes and the touch of a hand is disappointing to say the least.
For me, this book is a 3-star read. While I consider the constantly shifting perspectives and undelivered plot lines detrimental to the overall story, I would still recommend Oliveira’s book to those readers who love Civil War era fiction, are interested in medical history, and appreciate a strong female lead.
Mary Sutter is a character who knows what she wants and is completely unapologetic for it which is something I appreciated so much in this novel. A lot of female characters in stories set in the 19th century are too conforming to society’s rules, so her no-excuses attitude is quite refreshing. Dr. William Stipp, an older former army surgeon, redefines what a leading man should be. He bears the scars and regrets of his past yet still cradles hope for a better life and brighter days. Real-life historical characters like President Lincoln and Dorothea Dix make appearances and do enrich the setting of the novel.
However, the more I read, the more the multiple perspectives and omniscient narration detracted from the main story. There are so many different perspectives in this novel: Mary Sutter, her mother, her twin sister and her husband, her brother, Dr. William Stipp, Dr. James Blevens, Abraham Lincoln, John Hay, Dorothea Dix, General Geroge McClellan, and more. Because of this high number, the plot does not move along at a consistent pace and the secondary and tertiary characters detract from Mary’s story.
And lastly, one of the main summary points on the back cover hinted at a love triangle between Mary and two doctors. This never really came to fruition. There is some flirtation with Dr. James Blevens, but they are separated by the war almost immediately and do not come back into orbit until near the end of the book. The relationship she does eventually pursue with Dr. William Stipp is restrained to what society considered proper in the mid-19th century, even in their private thoughts. The lack of actual romance besides blushes and the touch of a hand is disappointing to say the least.
For me, this book is a 3-star read. While I consider the constantly shifting perspectives and undelivered plot lines detrimental to the overall story, I would still recommend Oliveira’s book to those readers who love Civil War era fiction, are interested in medical history, and appreciate a strong female lead.
A prodigous amount of research went into this book, and it shows. Very well down. A bit slow at times, formal, but that fit into the historical setting.
I have mixed feelings about this audiobook. I think overall the story seemed too long. The writing was descriptive and made the reader feel like they were in the Civil War. The story was compelling and the characters were interesting. I think the reason for my ambivalence is that it was trying to be too many things all at once. In one sense, it's a romance novel. In another sense, it's purely historical fiction with accounts from Lincoln and Civil War generals. In another sense, it's a family drama.
I think the author tried to check too many boxes and as a result, the story gets lost along the way. It's told from too many perspectives. I found myself wanting to skip over parts because, yeah we get it, the Civil War was horrific and bloody and terrible. Hygiene and medicine were primitive. I don't necessarily want to read about this for chapter after chapter. I also didn't feel much for any of the characters. They seemed wooden and stiff. Mary herself was an unsympathetic character at times. All in all, kudos to the author for the research, but it's not a book I liked or would pick up again.
I think the author tried to check too many boxes and as a result, the story gets lost along the way. It's told from too many perspectives. I found myself wanting to skip over parts because, yeah we get it, the Civil War was horrific and bloody and terrible. Hygiene and medicine were primitive. I don't necessarily want to read about this for chapter after chapter. I also didn't feel much for any of the characters. They seemed wooden and stiff. Mary herself was an unsympathetic character at times. All in all, kudos to the author for the research, but it's not a book I liked or would pick up again.
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this book several years ago and forgot to mark it down but picked it up again at the library recently. Overall I loved the writing and the plot- nursing during the civil war, a woman's place, etc. However some parts were too medically gruesome for my taste and I didn't connect with as many characters as I would Ike to. However it is a very well written and researched book so it's worth the read!
Fantastic book looking at the beginning of the Civil War and the chaos of the union army. This book also did an amazing job of reflecting the advances in medicine that occur because of war. Mary Sutter was a great character and I enjoyed following her story. One of the best books I've read this year.