COMPELLING COINCIDENCE
Spanish flu of 1918 spurred Donoghue’s latest novel
Emma Donoghue has no crystal ball to predict the future, but The Pull of the Stars suggests otherwise.
The award-winning London, Ont., author’s 13th novel is about three days in the life of a Dublin nurse in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic that killed millions around the globe.
It would be tempting to suggest The Pull of the Stars is a blatant, mercenary attempt to cash in on the misery of today’s pandemic. But Donoghue began the project long before COVID-19 reared its lethal head.
“My novels take years to grow,” said Donoghue, 50, who was inspired during the centenary of the Spanish flu in 2018 to write the novel. I started researching this in October 2018, after reading all the articles and looking at the old photos from 1918. And I just finished my last draft when this pandemic arrived. I’m glad it’s come out now because it’s a tribute to the health-care workers and their extraordinary
stamina, courage and generosity.”
Donoghue is best known for her 2010 novel, Room, about a young woman kidnapped, raped and held captive for years, giving birth to her attacker’s son, Jack, who helps them escape. Room was adapted into a film by director Lenny Abrahamson, earning four Oscar nominations, including best film, director, adapted screenplay for Donoghue and best actress for Brie Larson, who won.
Donoghue also adapted it for the stage, with songs co-written by director Cora Bissett and singer-songwriter Kathryn Joseph, receiving mixed reviews in England before it was brought to Canada, where London’s Grand Theatre funded a partial rewrite and redesign.
Room was to première March 13 at the Grand before heading to David Mirvish’s CAA Theatre in Toronto for an April run. Though well received with standing ovations at three previews, the show was closed hours before opening night, shut down by coronavirus
restrictions.
The Pull of the Stars, arriving in bookstores July 21, is set in an overcrowded Dublin hospital in a small storage room that has been converted into a mini-maternity ward with three cots for expectant mothers suffering from the flu. The story unfolds over three days with the lead character, nurse Julia Power, struggling to keep her patients and their unborn children alive with the help of untrained volunteer Bridie Sweeney, who becomes indispensable.
Donoghue said Power’s character “is based on all the records and research I did from that time,” including photos from the period.
“They’d write letters to each other and they were full of dark humour,” Donoghue said. “I think medical staffs have always relied on dark humour and their sense of duty and vocation to survive while the world is going crazy around them.”
The research was enlightening for Donoghue and helped prepare her for what has unfolded during the current pandemic, such as the clash between U.S. President Donald Trump and the scientific community, with Trump ignoring their advice on wearing masks and downplaying the severity of COVID -19, not to mention his controversial suggestions on medications and treatments.
“It prepared me for the fact that politics is always going to clash with science,” Donoghue said.
“How, to keep up morale, the politicians would be lying to the people (‘Eat an Onion a Day’ to keep the flu away, a poster screamed) and also their tendency to blame the victims, ignoring how poverty and its impact makes people very vulnerable so that by the time they are in hospital with the flu, they’ve already had a lifetime of damage (to their health). It seems like health is always political.”
The differences between the Spanish flu and the current pandemic were profound, the treatment tools in 1918 limited to aspirin (which may have caused deaths), whiskey and a few other calming and painkilling drugs.
“In 1918, the health-care community were bewildered by that flu and they couldn’t do a thing for us … They didn’t even know what a virus was,” said Donoghue. “There were no ventilators or (drug) treatments. It was far worse and there was also a world war going on. In every way, it was worse.”
During the Spanish flu, the public latched on to rumours, such as carrying garlic or eating onions to treat the flu, or that the disease was caused by eating fish that had fed on the bodies of men killed in the war, not unlike today where some people refuse to wear masks or practise social distancing because they believe the pandemic is a hoax, even consuming disinfectant “instead of following the advice of doctors.”