Queen of Hearts: Coming of Age in a Hospital Bed
3.5/5
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About this ebook
On the prairies of Canada during World War II, a girl and her two young siblings begin a war of their own. Stricken with tuberculosis, they are admitted to a nearby sanatorium. Teenager Marie Claire is headstrong, angry, and full of stubborn pride. In a new strange land of TB exiles she must "chase the cure," seek privacy where there is none, and witness the slow wasting decline of others. But in this moving novel about fighting a way back to normal life, it is the thing that sets back Marie Claire the most—the demise of her little brother—that also connects her with the person who will be instrumental in helping her recover.
Martha Brooks
My sister and I were raised in southwestern Manitoba, near the U.S. border. Mom was a nurse and Dad a thoracic surgeon. We lived on the lyrically beautiful grounds of a tuberculosis sanatorium in a sprawling many-roomed house with sleeping porches and a wraparound veranda that overlooked Pelican Lake. The surrounding hilly countryside and the feeling that a living spirit moved within this landscape was my earliest artistic influence and I still write from and in that landscape. In fact, our summer home across the lake from where I grew up is the perfect place to grow a novel! The other influence was my own chronic illness as a child, forging my vision and opening me to an early understanding that suffering and miracles often exist side by side. I still write from these influences. Other personal details include: the surgery when I was eighteen that gave me health and my two voices as an artist; a husband of forty years who is my soul mate and best friend; a grown daughter who is an anthropologist–poet, a three decade career in writing and public speaking, eight books (the first is out of print), four plays, and—at sixty-three years of age—a joyful parallel career as a jazz singer and lyricist where I get to play with some of the best jazz musicians that Canada has to offer. Martha Brooks resides in Winnipeg, Canada, with her husband, Brian.
Read more from Martha Brooks
True Confessions of a Heartless Girl Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Two Moons in August Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLetters to Brian: A Year of Living and Remembrance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Queen of Hearts
35 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imagine, as a teenager, being confined to a sanatorium, or any confinement for that matter. Marie-Claire, a willful Canadian teenager stricken with tuberculosis, must confront her own mortality as she struggles to maintain her strength - both physical and emotional - inside the confines of her ward. She attempts a friendship with a frail girl, Signy, who despite her wealth is desperately lonely and in need of a friend. And she catches the attention of another patient, Jack, and wonders if it could be love.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great historical fiction/coming of age entry by Martha Brooks. Marie-Claire and her younger brother contract tuberculosis during World War II in Manitoba, Canada. Sent to a sanitarium to heal, they are separated from their family and even each other. In those days, antibiotics had not been discovered which could cure TB, so treatments like sleeping outdoors in the bitter cold and collapsing a lung to rest it were common. Marie-Claire is sick, angry with her father for his emotional distance, and determined not to become friends with long time patient Signy, her roommate. This story is about her journey to health, to friendship, and to first love, all in a hospital bed or not far from it. Marie-Claire’s emotions ring true. She is dealing with very challenging circumstances we readers feel all of her sadness, despair, excitement and hope. This book provides a window into what TB sufferers faced, and a greater understanding of the disease itself – that it is not as quickly contagious as one might think, and that healing from it is not always a fixed and clear path. Sadly, TB is on the rise again as drug resistant strains take hold, which the author explains in her Author’s Note at the beginning of the book. She provides detail about her sources in the Acknowledgements, noting that she lived near one herself as a child.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very sweet book about a period of history that is all but forgotten - when tuberculosis almost always meant a lingering death. Interestingly, while this coming-of-age narrative brings in the expected elements of young love, it also places an emphasis on friendship over the impermanent thrill of romance - something not often seen in YA literature, and especially not in books directed at girls. While many references might be lost on non-Canadians and people who don't live in the American communities near the Northern border, it is still a good read for teen girls, and an excellent book for the summer.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marie-Claire contracts TB in 1940. She and her younger brother and sister, who also contract the disease, are confined to a sanitarium. Through Marie-Claire's story, you find out about the 'cures' that they had for a disease that had no cure.Brooks has put together a great story.