A review by yangyvonne
Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg

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!