Toss aside that history textbook: It's time to actually enjoy reading about the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918. Author Myla Goldberg creates a captivating medical history tale with her sophomore effort, "Wickett's Remedy."
Her first book, bestseller "Bee Season" (2001), a novel about a modern family whose daughter is a spelling bee champion, was released as a major motion picture in late 2005. "Remedy" explores a completely different genre, time period and style, but Goldberg still keeps up her deep emotional development of the main characters.
This work of historical fiction is seen through the eyes of Lydia Wickett, a likeable girl from early 20th century South Boston. Her husband Henry quits medical school to create a cure-all medicine called Wickett's Remedy. Soon, Lydia's whole world crumbles when the Spanish influenza epidemic strikes.
After watching countless loved ones fall victim to the horrible disease, Lydia finds herself working in an experimental ward that uses human subjects to study the epidemic.
Goldberg intersperses this narrative with random people's conversations about current events, actual articles taken from period newspapers, and most significantly, glimpses into Quentin Driscoll's life and his QD Soda empire. Driscoll steals the formula for Wickett's Remedy and creates a soft drink called QD Soda, which becomes a huge hit for decades to come.
Goldberg's unique additions to the main storyline add depth and authenticity to Lydia's narrative. In the beginning, the stark contrast between the beginnings of Wickett's Remedy and the modern-day QD Soda empire is very interesting to see. The margins contain colorful commentary on Lydia's narrative from various characters; this commentary explores other characters' thoughts and corrects Lydia's perception supplies a fascinating touch.
Somewhat confusingly, the book's conversations include only the dialogue and no quotation marks or identification of speakers. While this style makes the banter more natural to read, these sections also become very confusing when one tries to sort out who is talking or what the relevance is to the main narrative.
By the end of the novel, the reader realizes the QD Soda storyline was probably unnecessary. One becomes frustrated reading all seven pages of the cloyingly cheery QD Soda Factory tour script while Lydia is preparing to leave her family for the dangerous experimental influenza study on Gallups Island.
The modern-day soda empire is a remarkable contrast to the 1920s storyline, and Goldberg does not even try to bridge the gap between the two. The reader never sees the actual evolution of Wickett's Remedy into a soft drink conglomerate, so the QD Soda storyline is jarringly out of place.
Even Wickett's Remedy itself is largely unnecessary for any of the storylines. The Remedy plays no real importance in the influenza or QD Soda narratives, except for the small fact that Henry's syrup is the thin thread connecting the two plots.
Lydia's narrative (the main storyline) is composed of two drastically different situations strung together by a weak transition. The start of the novel details Lydia's lower-class life before she meets the well-to-do Henry, and continues on to discuss how she meets him. This section makes the story seem to be about Lydia's climb up the social ladder and about her altered life with Henry after the creation of Wickett's Remedy.
Then, suddenly, the Spanish influenza strikes and Wickett's Remedy almost completely disappears from the story. Goldberg devotes the bulk of the rest of the book to Lydia's work as a nurse battling the epidemic and, simultaneously, her guilt and grief. This part of the narrative is so compelling and powerful that by the end the reader almost forgets about Wickett's Remedy and Lydia's life before the flu epidemic.
Goldberg includes two very potent storylines for Lydia, but she shouldn't have used both. She needed to either discard one plot or split the stories into two separate novels.
As in "Bee Season," Goldberg does an excellent job of painting lush, multifaceted portraits of all of her characters, especially Lydia. By the end of the novel, the reader knows her complete character as well as her deepest, most complex emotions. At times, the reader can even empathize with her. All of Goldberg's characters are as believable as real people. Even if Goldberg's plots are a little ridiculous, her character exploration is definitely her strongest talent as a writer.
If one can get past the frivolous, over-the-top details, "Wickett's Remedy" proves to be an enthralling read. That said, it probably won't be made into a movie.
