Notes from Nov 2011 Group

This month we discussed My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliviera.

The Civil War offers a 20-year-old midwife who dreams of becoming a doctor the medical experience she craves, plus hard work and heartbreak, in this rich debut that takes readers from a small upstate New York doctor's office to a Union hospital overflowing with the wounded and dying. Though she's too young for the nursing corps, Mary Sutter goes to Washington, anyway, and, after a chance meeting with a presidential secretary, is led to the Union Hotel Hospital, where she assists chief surgeon William Stipp and becomes so integral to Stipp's work she ignores her mother's pleas to return home to deliver her sister's baby. From a variety of perspectives—Mary, Stipp, their families, and social, political, and military leaders—the novel offers readers a picture of a time of medical hardship, crisis, and opportunity. Oliveira depicts the amputation of a leg, the delivery of a baby, and soldierly life; these are among the fine details that set this novel above the gauzier variety of Civil War fiction. The focus on often horrific medicine and the women who practiced it against all odds makes for compelling reading.

This book was liked by everyone in our group. We admired the main character, Mary Sutter’s determination and perseverance to become a doctor during the Civil War when society did not allow women to achieve this goal. The author spent a lot of time researching for this novel. The story brought up good discussions on Lincoln, politics of that time, horrors of being a soldier, how little people knew about hygiene /medicine, family relationships, problems with communication, travel, etc. We enjoyed this book. It was very interesting and thought provoking