bookchickdi: Patricia Harman

Showing posts with label Patricia Harman. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Once a Midwife by Patricia Harman

Once a Midwife by Patricia Harman
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks ISBN 9780062825575
Trade paperback, $16.99, 486 pages

Author Patricia Harman lives in West Virginia and is a nurse-midwife, so it's not surprising that her four novels are set in Hope River, West Virginia, and feature a midwife as the main character.

Her newest novel, Once a Midwife, is set in Hope River just as the United States is getting into WWII. Patience Hester is a midwife, wife to local veterinarian Dan, and mom to four young children. The Great Depression is over, and people are doing better financially.

Patience's friend and midwife assistant Bitsy, a black woman, comes back into town after being gone for almost ten years. She has a young white boy, Willie, with her. Bitsy was Willie's nanny, and when his mom died, Bitsy took him in.

The story is told through Patience's journals, and we see life on her family's rural farm, and the closeness of the small community of Hope River. We also get to see Patience at work, delivering babies in the Baby Cabin built by Dan, just outside her home.

We also learn a bit about Patience's earlier life- an orphan, a suffragette, a union organizer and a widow- which is covered in more depth in Harman's The Midwife of Hope River. (After reading Once a Midwife, I will be reading that one as well.)

Patience and Dan are deeply in love, but the looming crisis of WWII causes a major rift between them. Dan fought in WWI, and he was horrified by the things he saw and had to do. He swore he would never go to war again.

Patience believes that the atrocities that the Nazis and Japanese are inflicting on people cannot go unaddressed. Many people in Hope River are very supportive of the US involvement in WWII, and they don't understand Dan's refusal to even register for the draft.

Dan takes a moral stand and refuses to budge, not even when he is imprisoned for refusing to register. His family also suffers the consequences for Dan's decision. The children are taunted and get into fights, and Patience is run ragged trying to keep up with the farm and her midwife responsibilities.

Once a Midwife gives the reader an insight into life in a small town at this point in history. We see how people deal with racism, the consequences of taking an unpopular stand, and how small towns come together to support each other in good times and bad.

One interesting topic covered is the use of German and Japanese POW labor in the United States during the war. It's not something that is well-known. The POWs were shipped to the United States, and many of them worked on farms because there was such a shortage of labor with so many men at war. I found that section fascinating.

Once a Midwife is a terrific book for those who like historical fiction, and Harman ties some things happening today in our country with things going on back then that will make you think.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Patricia Harman's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Tour Stops

Tuesday, November 20th: A Chick Who Reads

Monday, November 26th: Into the Hall of Books

Tuesday, November 27th: bookchickdi

Wednesday, November 28th: M. Denise Costello

Thursday, November 29th: Kritters Ramblings

Friday, November 30th: Instagram: @simplykelina

Monday, December 3rd: Literary Quicksand

Tuesday, December 4th: Tina Says…

Wednesday, December 5th: Staircase Wit

Thursday, December 6th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Friday, December 7th: What Is That Book About

TBD: The Book Diva’s Reads

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The Runaway Midwife by Patricia Harman

The Runaway Midwife by Patricia Harman
Publsihed by William Morrow ISBN 9780062467300
Trade paperback, $15.99, 416 pages

Sometimes a book just draws you into its universe so deeply, you feel like you are part of the story. I felt that way about Patricia Harman's The Runaway Midwife.

Midwife Clara Perry is dealing with her husband's recurring infidelity, her painful estrangement from her daughter, and the shocking suicide of her best friend when a tragic end to a childbirth she was attending occurs.

Fearing the consequences of that tragedy, Clara decides to runaway to a remote island town in Canada. She changes her name, rents a small house, and hopes to just hide out.

Soon Clara finds that cannot live totally off the grid. She meets her neighbor Molly, a mom who befriends Clara and offers her a ride to the closest grocery store. Pete is the local cop who takes it upon himself to check up on everyone in the area, making sure they are OK. Jed runs the local clinic and recruits Clara to help him out, which she agrees to do.

There is a group of people who live on a commune, and there is friction between the townies and them. Clara tries to keep a foot in both camps, as she likes Molly and Rainbow, who lives on the commune.

There is conflict between the people who want to see a casino built, because that means jobs and more tax money for schools and roads, and those (like the commune residents) who love the pristine nature of the beautiful land surrounding them and don't want to ruin that.

Harman does a wonderful job creating this small community. As a reader, I felt like I was right there, living among the community members instead of reading about it in a book. I grew up in a very cold, snowy region of the country, and related to the climate of this tiny island outpost off Lake Erie.

The Runaway Midwife harkened me back to my days reading Little House on the Prairie books, with the townspeople banding together to help one another. I loved the characters, they felt like real people you would meet, and Clara's evolving story kept me interested. There are secrets (will Clara's identity be discovered?), sex, true friendship and community, and although The Runaway Midwife isn't necessarily a book I would have thought I would like, I truly loved it and highly recommend it. Now I will look for Patricia Harman's first book, The Midwife of Hope River.