Wickett's Remedy: A Novel by Myla Goldberg (English) Paperback Book

Description: Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg The triumphant follow-up to the bestselling "Bee Season, Wicketts Remedy" is an epic but intimate novel about a young Irish-American woman facing down tragedy during the Great Flu epidemic of 1918. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description From the author of the bestselling Bee Season, the magnificently imagined story of a winning young Irish American heroines determined progress through an all but forgotten historical tragedy--Boston during the 1918 influenza epidemic. First time in paperback.Lydia Kilkenny is eager to move beyond her South Boston childhood, and when she marries Henry Wickett, a shy Boston Brahmin who plans to become a doctor, her future seems assured. That path changes when Henry abandons his medical studies and enlists Lydia to help him invent a mail-order medicine called Wicketts Remedy. Then the 1918 influenza epidemic sweeps through Boston, and in a world turned upside down Lydia must forge her own path through the tragedy unfolding around her. As she secures work as a nurse at a curious island medical station conducting human research into the disease, Henrys former business partner steals the formula for Wicketts Remedy to create for himself a new future, trying-and almost succeeding-to erase the past he is leaving behind.Alive with narrative ingenuity, and tinged with humor as well as sorrow, this inspired recreation of a forgotten era powerfully reminds us how much individual voices matter-in history and in life. Flap The triumphant follow-up to the bestselling Bee Season, Wicketts Remedy is an epic but intimate novel about a young Irish-American woman facing down tragedy during the Great Flu epidemic of 1918. Wicketts Remedy leads us back to Boston in the early part of the 20th century and into the world of Lydia, an Irish-American shop girl yearning for a grander world than the cramped confines of South Boston. She seems to be well on her way to the life she has dreamed of when she marries Henry Wickett, a shy medical student and the scion of a Boston Brahmin family. Soon after their wedding, however, Henry shocks Lydia by quitting medical school and creating a mail-order patent medicine called Wicketts Remedy. And then just as the enterprise is getting off the ground, the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918 begins its deadly sweep across the world, drastically changing their lives. In a world turned almost unrecognizable by swift and sudden tragedy, Lydia finds herself working as a nurse in an experimental ward dedicated to understanding the raging epidemic -- through the use of human subjects. Meanwhile, we follow the fate of Henrys beloved Wicketts Remedy as his one-time business partner steals the recipe and transforms it into QD Soda, a wildly popular soft drink. Based on years of research and evoking actual events, Wicketts Remedy perfectly captures the texture of the times and brings a colourful cast of characters vividly to life, including a sad and funny chorus of the dead. With wit and dexterity, Goldberg has fashioned a novel that is both charming and grand. Wicketts Remedy announces her arrival as a major novelist. "South Boston belonged to Lydia as profoundlyand wordlessly as her thimble finger. Her knowledge of its streets was more complete than any atlas, her mental maps reflecting changes that occurred from season to season, day to day, and hour to hour. Each time she left 28 D Street -- one among a row of identical triple-decker houses, the tenements lining the street like so many stained teeth -- her route reflected this internal almanac. . . . For ten years this was enough. Then in fifth grade, Lydia saw a city map and realized her entire world was a mitten dangling from Bostons sleeve. Across the bridge lay Washington Street -- the longest street in all New England -- which began like any other but then continued north, a single determined thread of cobblestone that wove itself through every town from Boston to Providence. Once Lydia saw Washington Street she knew she could not allow it to exist without her. --excerpt from Wicketts Remedy Author Biography Myla Goldberg is the author of the bestselling Bee Season, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2000 and made into a film, and, most recently, of Times Magpie, a book of essays about Prague. Her short stories have appeared in Harpers, McSweeneys, and failbetter. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Review "Brilliant. . . . A wonderfully courageous second novel." –Newsday"Remarkable. . . . A historically credible account of the period just after America entered the First World War, when the Spanish Lady laid waste to Boston and much of the rest of the country." –Salon"Her second novel is of a piece with [Bee Season] in its invention and stylistic skill. . . . A warmhearted, unusual and intelligent consideration of a world about which few people know." –San Francisco Chronicle"An engrossing look at how one young woman grows through personal losses at a time when so many lost so much." –The Philadelphia Inquirer Long Description Lydia Kilkenny is eager to move beyond her South Boston childhood, and when she marries Henry Wickett, a shy Boston Brahmin who plans to become a doctor, her future seems assured. That path changes when Henry abandons his medical studies and enlists Lydia to help him invent a mail-order medicine called Wicketts Remedy. Then the 1918 influenza epidemic sweeps through Boston, and in a world turned upside down Lydia must forge her own path through the tragedy unfolding around her. As she secures work as a nurse at a curious island medical station conducting human research into the disease, Henrys former business partner steals the formula for Wicketts Remedy to create for himself a new future, trying--and almost succeeding--to erase the past he is leaving behind. Alive with narrative ingenuity, and tinged with humor as well as sorrow, this inspired recreation of a forgotten era powerfully reminds us how much individual voices matter--in history and in life. Review Quote "Brilliant. . . . A wonderfully courageous second novel." Newsday "Remarkable. . . . A historically credible account of the period just after America entered the First World War, when the Spanish Lady laid waste to Boston and much of the rest of the country." Salon "Her second novel is of a piece with [Bee Season] in its invention and stylistic skill. . . . A warmhearted, unusual and intelligent consideration of a world about which few people know." San Francisco Chronicle "An engrossing look at how one young woman grows through personal losses at a time when so many lost so much." The Philadelphia Inquirer From the Trade Paperback edition. Description for Reading Group Guide "Her second novel is of a piece with [ Bee Season ] in its invention and stylistic skill. . . . A warmhearted, unusual and intelligent consideration of a world about which few people know." -- San Francisco Chronicle The introduction, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, and author biography that follow are designed to enhance your groups discussion of Wicketts Remedy , Myla Goldbergs haunting follow-up to her bestselling Bee Season . Discussion Question for Reading Group Guide 1. How does Myla Goldberg re-create the city of Boston in the early 1900s? What descriptive details bring this era to life? 2. What role do the ghostly voices in the margins of the text play in Wicketts Remedy ? What kinds of commentary do they offer on the story? Why has Goldberg added this supernatural layer to her narrative? 3. How do the deceased try to communicate with the living in this novel? How do the living perceive these attempts? 4. After one day of volunteering at the hospital, Lydia announces: "I am meant to be a nurse. I am as sure of this as I have ever been about anything" [p. 200]. Why has helping the sick been such a compelling and transformative experience for her? How is her personal history related to this choice? 5. Henry and Lydia are quite different from one another. They come from vastly different neighborhoods and social classes and are dissimilar temperamentally and physically. What draws them together? What does each see in the other? In what ways do they complement each other? 6. What do the newspaper articles inserted into the text add to the story? What do they reveal about the temper of the times? 7. How does the story of QD Soda relate to the main narrative? What kind of man is Quentin Driscoll? Why does he cheat Lydia out of her share of the profits from QD Soda? 8. When Lydia sees Percival Coles corpse, she thinks: "A corpse was a dead animal. They were all nothing more than animals, bloated by vanity into wearing clothes and ascribing lofty purposes to their actions, when in reality they all died the same dumb death that awaited any overworked nag--limbs stiff, features frozen in a rictus of shock and pain" [p. 342]. What has brought Lydia to such a despairing view of human beings? Is she right about human vanity and pretension? In what ways was World War I an attempt to clothe base instincts in lofty purposes? 9. What is the attitude toward the war evinced in the novel? Why are Michael and his brothers so eager to join the fight? 10. In what ways do the characters in Wicketts Remedy and the era in which they live seem innocent compared to today? How do their views of sex, love, family, and duty differ from our own? In what ways are they similar? 11. What are the pleasures and rewards of reading historical fiction? What can a fictional narrative of a historical event or period give readers that a conventional historical account cannot? 12. How does Lydia change over the course of the novel? Is she fundamentally different at the end from how she is at the beginning? 13. One of the doctors at Gallups Island says of Lydia, "The girl doesnt know how to play bridge. She eats bacon like its filet mignon. She washes her clothes by hand rather than send them to the laundry. . . . And that accent!" [p. 285]. What ethnic and class prejudices are revealed in this assessment? To what extent is Lydia able to overcome these prejudices? 14. What does Wicketts Remedy reveal about early-twentieth-century ideas of social, scientific, and commercial progress? Excerpt from Book On D Street there was no need for alarm clocks: the drays, ever punctual, were an army storming the gates of sleep. The wooden wagons were heavy and low-riding with loud rattling wheels, their broad planks too battered and be Details ISBN1400078121 Author Myla Goldberg Short Title WICKETTS REMEDY Language English ISBN-10 1400078121 ISBN-13 9781400078127 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY FIC Year 2006 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Residence Brooklyn, NY, US Subtitle A Novel DOI 10.1604/9781400078127 AU Release Date 2006-10-10 NZ Release Date 2006-10-10 US Release Date 2006-10-10 UK Release Date 2006-10-10 Illustrator Paul Bransom Birth 1939 Death 1847 Affiliation both Research Scientists, Batelle Columbus Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio Position both Research Scientists Qualifications PhD Pages 384 Publisher Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc Publication Date 2006-10-10 Imprint Anchor Books Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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