Review: “My Name is Mary Sutter” by Robin Oliveira

[ My Name is Mary Sutter | Robin Oliveira | Viking | $26.95 ]

I like historical fiction, I like romance, so I was looking forward to reviewing an advance copy of My Name is Mary Sutter, which is both. It did not disappoint. This is the debut novel of Robin Oliveira, an RN hailing from Seattle, Washington.

Set in Albany, New York during the Civil War era, My Name is Mary Sutter is the story of a young midwife, who has aspirations of training to become a surgeon, in a period of history in which such a feat was almost unheard of. Mary’s dogged determination in her quest often leads to heartache, as she is forced to make wrenching choices relating to love, family, and career. Although sometimes her decisions to endure the squalid living and working conditions in order to nurse Civil War soldiers seem inexplicable, you only have to look at history to see that there were indeed many courageous women who braved such conditions—most notably Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, and for a time, Louisa May Alcott.

Drawing on meticulously researched details of medical practices during this time period, as well as the progression of Civil War battles, Oliveira really brings home the human cost of the Civil War. A number of actual historical figures populate the pages, such as Abraham Lincoln, John Hay, secretary to Lincoln, and Dorothea Dix, who worked as the Female Superintendent of Army Nurses, but Oliveira stresses that Mary Sutter herself is a fictional character. 

I am not one for giving spoilers for books, so suffice it to say that the book’s action kept me turning the pages until the very end, to see how Mary Sutter’s dreams of becoming a physician held up in the harsh reality of wartime nursing, and how her personal entanglements worked themselves out. Oliveira does not shy away from explicit details of the medical procedures Mary Sutter performs, including amputations, bringing the reader right into Mary’s world. Although medical conditions portrayed in this novel were crude at best, medical knowledge acquired from treating soldiers helped lead to improved medical conditions after the war. For instance, it is hard to believe now, reading this novel, that doctors of the time did not routinely wash their hands in between examining and treating different patients!

All in all, I found My Name is Mary Sutter to be an engrossing examination of a determined woman’s quest to follow her dreams of becoming a physician, even when those dreams were tempered by reality.

Don’t miss novelist Robin Oliveira, who will be in town for a reading from her debut novel, My Name is Mary Sutter, at Powell’s City of Books on Burnside, Friday, June 4, 2010 at 7:30 pm.

For further info, check out RLP’s interview with Ms. Oliveira.