I know I missed the boat on this, because I only ever read an abridged/adapted version of Little Women, but Louisa May Alcott is funny. I got this from Project Gutenberg due to my recent renewed interest in Civil War medicine, and was utterly delighted by it.

I could NOT get into this at all. I think it may have been the way it was written, but I had zero interest from start to finish. While it was interesting to get a glimpse into how Civil War hospitals were run, as well as how the women who worked in them were treated, I found the entire book dreary and incredibly dull.

Oh I loved this little book. I read it after reading Amanda’s memoir (and I am still working on a review, promise! It’s turned in to more of a reflective journal and we all know how fun those were to write in nursing school. But I want and need to write it so I will!) Nurse Periwinkle, although separated from us by 150 years, experienced many things that are all to familiar to modern nurses, such as prematurely being thrust in to being in charge of a ward, having someone die right away, wanting the exciting patients, the realizing what that entails and then not waiting the sick patients anymore. And how many of us can relate to being told that you’re “there to work, not wonder or weep; so i corked up my feelings and returned to the path of duty.” Wait until later to find a supply closet to cry in. Her visceral response and disgust about finding a Rebel in her ward is something we saw a lot this pandemic. However, at the end of the day, your patient is a person in a bed who needs nursing care and you have a duty to care for him in the best way that you can, whether he’s a jerk, criminal, noncompliant, or any combination thereof. I get the moral distress and frustration but we have a code of ethics and a professional responsibility to do better (and I know that nursing as a profession didn’t exist back them, but today’s nurses should know that).

Her description of the “fearsome beverage” that is hospital coffee shows that even that hasn’t changed, describing it ad “mud soup, scalding hot, guiltless of cream, rich in an all-pervading flavor of molasses, scorch, and tin pot.” If that’s not a spot-on description of hospital coffee to this day, I don’t know what is.

A Night Shift nurse myself, I feel a solidarity with Nurse Periwinkle dealing with being understaffed on the Night Shift and having to deal with three simultaneous crises. Also, the Doctor making the nurse break bad news and deal with the consequences is all too familiar. Like today, the windows don’t open (except for the one with the “compound fractures” that’s drafty), there are smells (how often do we anoint the room with peppermint oil) and after visiting the cleaner, better equipped hospital (or hear that the travel nurse is making 11k/week) you seriously re-evaluate your life choices.

Unlike Amanda’s book, “Everybody Just Breathe: a Covid nurse’s memoir of stamina and swear words” there are no swear words in this book. However, I think that if swear words were a viable option, she would have sprinkled them in liberally. Just read this and tell me she wouldn’t have unleashed a barrage of fucks if she could: “If a look could annihilate, Francis Saucebox would have ceased to exist; but it couldn’t; therefore, he yet lives, aggravate some unhappy woman’s soul, and wax fat in some equally congenial situation.”

Finally, holy smokes does this paragraph resonate: “Constant complaints were being made of incompetent attendants, and some dozen women did double duty, then were blamed for breaking down. If any hospital director fancies this a good economical arrangement, allow one used-up nurse to tell him it isn’t, and beg him to spare the sisterhood, who sometimes in their sympathy, forget that they are mortal, and run the risk of being made immortal, sooner than is agreeable to their mortal friends.” Somebody send Nurse Periwinkle to the Joint Commission headquarters with Nurse Blake, then send her up to the C-suite of every hospital! But instead we’ll get federal legislation proposed to limit how much we can earn, judges in Wisconsin issuing emergency injunctions saying that you’re not allowed to quit your job, and then get thrown in jail for systemic failures for good measure. However, like Nurse Periwinkle, the “stern and salutary” lessons of being an ICU nurse have indeed deepened my faith in God and myself, and I guess I’ll keep it up as long as my back holds out.

A quick interesting read, although somewhat disappointing. The briefness of her appointment limits the context and impact of her work, and her literary sensibilities often make the reading a bit tricky, with gaudy, purple prose, tangents, and humorous injections. Some of the stories are moving, but there are frequent overly long ones (eg her long passages about just traveling to get there) that are a bit of a drag. Her Abolitionist perspectives (though horribly dated now obviously) were interesting and seeing how even a staunch abolitionist had such harmful, deeply engrained social views and stereotypes was fascinating. Ultimately, a more comprehensive writing from someone with more experience and time/involvement would probably be more engaging and meaningful, as would one with less levity and overt sentimentality. Also, the edition I read was full of typos and errors which made the reading a bit trickier than it already was. Still, it’s rather short so not an onerous read, and it’s a worthwhile historical document.

Interesting series of stories from a good writer in a fascinating time period.

You really get a sense of Alcott’s voice here, and of her time. She’s got a little Florence Nightengale going, and a little of the class clown. She describes Washington DC in the Civil War era, and she’s a compassionate and aware observer.

I can't believe it has taken me so long to read this little book. I tried once many years ago and remember being turned off by the cadence, or perhaps, the old-fashioned language of the first chapter. I just couldn't quite get into the rhythm. Alcott's lexicon comes across a touch antiquated in the first chapter, due in large part to her use of humor. Come to think of it, nothing ages more quickly than humor. To anyone reading, I would recommend you just stick with it through those first ten pages and you will find yourself comfortably immersed in the Alcott voice you've (presumably) come to know and love as a result of reading Little Women.

I recommend this work to anyone with an interest in American Literature or History or, of course, Little Women fans. Proof that a thin volume can be just as moving as an epic, I was brought to tears on more than one occasion. Watching Nurse Tribulation Periwinkle (Alcott's fictional counterpart) tend to wounded soldiers and their diminished spirits left me with a profound sympathy for veterans of war.

Oh it’s so awful for so many reasons. Namely, it has not aged well.

I read this concurrently with [b:Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist|11506880|Becoming Dickens The Invention of a Novelist|Robert Douglas-Fairhurst|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347227600s/11506880.jpg|16442654] -- unintentionally, but appropriately -- as not only was Dickens one of Alcott's favorite writers, but this fictionalized memoir of Alcott’s could be said to have led to her “becoming Louisa May Alcott”.

Similar to the start of the Dickens phenomenon with [b:The Pickwick Papers|229432|The Pickwick Papers|Charles Dickens|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1360795072s/229432.jpg|3315230] being published under the name of “Boz”, Alcott gained her first bout of fame with this work, writing under the pseudonym of "Tribulation Periwinkle" (one sees the Dickens influence immediately). Her short time as a Civil War nurse in a Union hospital is expressed in humorous, sensitive, ironic and impassioned prose. Like her literary hero, she captures the telling details.

Nurse Trib P., reflecting on her life-changing experiences ministering to the wounded and dying under adverse conditions, discovers a philosophy of life, and her own writing style. In much the same way the sketches of [b:The Pickwick Papers|229432|The Pickwick Papers|Charles Dickens|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1360795072s/229432.jpg|3315230] led to Dickens’ development of [b:Oliver Twist|18254|Oliver Twist|Charles Dickens|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327868529s/18254.jpg|3057979], Alcott's hospital sketches paved her way toward [b:Little Women|1934|Little Women (Little Women, #1)|Louisa May Alcott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388269517s/1934.jpg|3244642].

All of which has me wondering, again, if I would’ve become the Dickens fan I am without my childhood reading of Alcott.

"I'd rather laugh than cry, when I must sing out anyhow, so just say that bit from Dickens again, please, and I'll stand it like a man." He did; for "Mrs. Cluppins," "Chadband," and "Sam Weller," always helped him through; thereby causing me to lay another offering of love and admiration on the shrine of the god of my idolatry, though he does wear too much jewelry and talk slang.