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 Review by
Louella Moreland
Young people of the 21st century may have little personal contact with
relatives who lived during World War II or the Great Depression, and may be
unfamiliar with how life was then. Yes, today's economy is not good, but
rationing of gasoline and food due to the war added to the severity of the
problem in the 1930s. Also absent from the lives of our young people are
many diseases that plagued the world's populations at a time before many
medicines, especially penicillin and other antibiotics, became tools in the
medical profession's arsenals.
One of those diseases was tuberculosis -- TB for short -- that attacked
the body's respiratory system, claiming the lives of numerous people. Most
at risk were the young and old. Often young adults with lifestyles of hard
work and inadequate diets or rest were claimed by the disease in the prime
of their lives. The poor were especially hard-hit.
To write a novel of this time period that would resonate with young
adults could not have been easy. Martha Brooks, in her novel "Queen of
Hearts," has accomplished the task with compassion and insight.
Most of the story takes place between the Christmases of 1941 and 1942 in
a sanatorium called Pembina Hills. The story is Marie-Claire's, just shy of
16 years old when she and her younger brother and sister are diagnosed with
the disease and sent to the sanatorium to "chase the cure." They are from a
poor farm family who struggled to make a living in the harsh winters of
Canada. An uncle had unknowingly brought the TB germs to their home, dying
at the sanitarium before the children took sick.
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Brooks captivates readers with her depictions of the day-to-day,
week-to-week struggle against the disease. Progress was painfully
slow, sometimes taking years; treatment was often severe; and
sometimes death came no matter what was tried. Brooks, through
Marie-Claire, makes readers understand the monotony of having to
rest and sleep for hours a day. We experience the numbing cold of
the winter wind as she is bundled up and taken to sleep on porches
where the air was pure and good for the lungs. Marie-Claire brings
alive the feelings of boredom and depression as time brings good
news to some and heartbreak to others, all the while never losing
the hope that one day a cure will come.
Marie-Claire is a feisty character who loves her family, even
through the bitterness of realizing her father can never care for a
daughter as much as a son. As she struggles to get well, she
discovers a great deal about the person she will become. Due to the
suffering of a fellow patient, she comes to understand what true
friendship is. As a reader, we want desperately to see her make a
better life for herself because even with her flaws, her heart is
good.
Most of all, we will come away from Marie-Claire's story with an
understanding of the time period in a personal, human way that a
history textbook cannot give us. Why? I like to think it is because
Marie-Claire is a character we would like to meet. Through her story
we also "chase the cure" to a healthier being inside our own hearts.
[Text from file received from
Louella Moreland,
Lincoln Public Library District]
(Ms. Lou's blog:
lincolnpubliclibraryupdates.blogspot.com) |
