Wickett's Remedy in Q&A with Myla Goldberg

Jan 10, 2008 Amy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, historical-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but sometimes a thing happens to me in a bookstore where I'll pick up a book off the shelf, because the title is intriguing or something about the cover design captures my interest, but then discover, though the description on the back cover, that this is not something I want to read at all. So I put the book back on the shelf, often scoffing at the book, and then move on.

The weird part is that as soon as I walk away from the book, I completely forget I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but sometimes a thing happens to me in a bookstore where I'll pick up a book off the shelf, because the title is intriguing or something about the cover design captures my interest, but then discover, though the description on the back cover, that this is not something I want to read at all. So I put the book back on the shelf, often scoffing at the book, and then move on.

The weird part is that as soon as I walk away from the book, I completely forget the entire interaction took place. So the next time I'm in the vicinity of the book, whatever it was that attracted me the first time around calls to me again: I pick up the book, read the back cover, put the book down, scoff, and move on.

Eventually, I do start to remember that I've reviewed the book previously, and even more eventually it starts to sink in that I've been picking up that same book and putting it down for almost two years. At that point, I figure that I can either devote the rest of my life to re-enacting this Memento-like scene, or I can give in and read the book, even though I'm not really interested, just so that I'll never have to pick it up again.

Wickett's Remedy is one such book with which I went through this little dance, and though I'm extremely gratified to have read the book, I can't exactly say that I like it. It has lingered on my mind much since I read it with a vague sense of dissatisfaction which is directed mostly at the end.

There is a lot about this book that is well-done, and it is, at the very least, a bold undertaking and elaborate play with the structure of a novel. My favorite part of the book was the marginalia, which I must admit, it took me a little while to figure out what exactly was going on. These comments, in truth, are absolutely unnecessary to the story, but they are such a unique idea and so beautifully carried that the book would have suffered greatly from their exclusion.

Other 'narration novelties' didn't play out so well. The multiple points of view (which I don't all remember specifically, since it was about 6 months ago now that I read the book) didn't really all come together. The greatest disappointment on this front was the letters of Quentin Driscoll, 'inventor' of QD Soda. There seemed to me to be an implied parallel between his letters, Wickett's belief that the true remedy was the correspondence with his patients, that Quentin never wrote back to the widow, and that Mr. Finnister never responded to the woman from the nursing home. Yet, though the parallel was hinted at, it never came to fruition.

And that is my final impression of the book: that it never came to fruition. Which is a major disappointment, because if the book had tied together, it would have been phenomenal. It clearly was a major undertaking for the author, and she was really striving for something remarkable with this book. The ending (the paperback's differs from the hard-cover edition) really shows this off, I think, in that the book just kind of rambles to a close - not abrupt, but a gradual petering out, like a cartoon car slowly running out of gas, putt-putting along for a while before finally spluttering to a halt; as though Goldberg knew that she still had a way to go, but she couldn't quite get there. It makes for a frustrating and ultimately disappointing read, that you can't just see the book for what it is because what it could have been casts such a long and amazing shadow.

Yet, even in spite of the deep sense of dissatisfaction it left, I think this may be the best book I read all year. ...more

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Feb 05, 2010 Jules rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, 2010, historical-fiction

I enjoyed this story very much. It reminded me somewhat of Connie Willis' Doomsday Book and her description of the Plague Years in England's Middle Ages. Wickett's Remedy focuses several characters during the years of The Great War (WWI) and the epidemic of Spanish Influenza. Beautiful writing! The unusual format of interjected newspaper articles, letters, snippets of conversations, and newsletters punctuates the captivating narrative of South Boston's Lydia Kilkenny Wickett, a character as memo ...more

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Jun 21, 2010 Anita rated it it was amazing

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It takes place in the early part of the 20th Century in Boston. ( yes even a Yankee fan can enjoy a good story that takes place in Boston) The heroine came from a humble, blue collar family and married a young medical student. But soon after the wedding it was clear that the road ahead would have bumps and interesting turns. I couldn't put the book down.

The author, Myla Goldberg also wrote Bee Season. ...more

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Dec 05, 2007 Mickey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book more for the historical information than its cast of characters. The storyline is developed against the backdrop of the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, which I suppose has fallen out of our collective memory now, since survivors with memories of the period would be over 100 years old now. Although I had heard of this flu, I had no idea just how pervasive it was at the time. Fascinating reading!

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