Reminiscences of Alcott’s brief term of service as a Civil War nurse. You can definitely see the foundations of Alcott’s authorial persona being shaped here. In all honesty, I enjoy the hints of vinegar and affectionate self-mockery in this book more than the sometimes-tiresome moralizing tone of Alcott’s more-famous children’s books. Alcott frames her recollections of nursing via the persona of a “Miss Tribulation Periwinkle”—a pseudonym that signals how willing Alcott is to make fun of the more ridiculous and bureaucratic elements of her stint as a nurse, as well as her own human foibles and follies in negotiating said bureaucracy. Amidst the comedic moments, Alcott tells stories of suffering, of injury, and death. Her depiction of the wounds and eventual death of Virginia blacksmith John is probably the most touching such passage in the book.

Be warned, though: this is a book of its era, and Alcott’s descriptions of African-Americans—although they are probably much kinder than many of her peers’—are incredibly retrograde to a modern reader’s eyes.

Full review at: https://anotherchange.net/2019/01/20/hospital-sketches-by-louisa-may-alcott/