The dimly lit room smelled of sage and mint and boiled cotton. ~ Opening of Lazaretto
Lazaretto by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Harper, 2016
Fiction (Historical); 352 pgs
The novel, Lazaretto, is named after the first American quarantine hospital, built in 1799, where immigrants and cargo entering Philadelphia stopped over to ensure they were not bringing in any illnesses or plagues. The Yellow Fever had run rampant in Philadelphia a few years before and city officials did not want that to happen again. Lazaretto was located on an island where the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers meet. The name comes from Lazarus, the patron saint of lepers.
Surprisingly, Lazaretto is not introduced into the novel until close to the halfway mark. The description of the novel on Goodreads and other sites makes it sound like the majority of the novel takes place there. The novel is less about the place than it is about the characters we meet in the novel. The book opens with Meda, a black servant, giving birth to the child of her wealthy white employer Sylvia, a fourteen year old nurse in training, performs the birth under not so ideal circumstances. As Meda receives news that her baby did not survive, she also learns that her hero Abraham Lincoln has been assassinated. She is devastated. Sylvia, meanwhile, struggles with the lie she just told the young mother. Her child, in fact, did not die, but was handed over to the father and the child's fate was unknown.
The novel follows the story of Meda and Sylvia, the two young white boys that Meda takes under her wing while assigned by her employer at a local orphanage, and Sylvia's own family, including the niece she raises. The reader sees the characters falter and fall as well as grow and blossom.
All her life, Sylvia has wanted to be a nurse. Her parents had a successful catering business and are doing well for themselves. Sylvia grew up with a certain amount of privilege within the black community as a result, but that meant very little outside it because of the color of her skin. She finds it difficult to get too close to others, haunted by a secret she holds close. Her best friend Nevada and her niece Vergie are the only two she really lets in. Nevada has a reputation of being wild and loose, but what she really is is smart and resourceful. She and Sylvia grew up on opposite sides of the track, but their friendship grows quite strong. I loved both Sylvia and Nevada.
My heart went out to Meda from the start. She hid how far along she was in her pregnancy from her employer, and while he was expecting her to abort the baby, by the time he got her to the clinic, she was ready to give birth. I cannot even imagine having your child taken from you, in death or otherwise. She shows an amazing amount of strength and resiliency, however. Which, I suppose shouldn't be a surprise. What else could she do? At first it seemed cruel when her employer sent her to spend a few days working in an orphanage given what she had just been through. It is hard for her, especially when she comes across two infant boys who have recently been abandoned. She names them Lincoln and Abraham, after her hero. Her heart opens up and she lets them in, and they love her right back. For Linc and Bram, life in the orphanage is not easy, and it only gets worse as they get older and the orphanage changes hands. The two boys may not be blood related, but all they have is each other.
I do wish the author had expanded on Amy and Meda's story. Amy, who was initially overseeing the orphanage when Meda first met Linc and Bram, plays an important part in Meda's life, and yet I feel she got short-changed. At a time when same-sex relationships was forbidden, more depth into the two women's exploration of their feelings for each other would have only made the novel stronger, I think. I also felt the ending was too abrupt. Maybe I just wasn't ready to say goodbye to the characters. Ultimately though, it seemed like everything happened so quickly in the end and then, bam! It was done, and I was left re-reading the ending to make sure I didn't miss anything.
Some people might be put off by the many characters and the time jumps in the novel, but I thought it was an effective way to tell the story given its scope. I do wish I could have spent more time with the characters. It speaks volumes of an author who can create characters that I don't want to let go of.
Lazaretto provides a window into an interesting time in American history, taking the reader to a time and place where the color of your skin determined your standing in society. An accurate portrait of this time in history would not be complete without describing the rampant classism and racism. But, also in this novel, you will find love and the strength of friends and family. Lazaretto is a character driven novel, rich in history. The author really brings that time period to the present. My heart broke several times over, I got angry, and my heart swelled with love right alongside the characters.
Surprisingly, Lazaretto is not introduced into the novel until close to the halfway mark. The description of the novel on Goodreads and other sites makes it sound like the majority of the novel takes place there. The novel is less about the place than it is about the characters we meet in the novel. The book opens with Meda, a black servant, giving birth to the child of her wealthy white employer Sylvia, a fourteen year old nurse in training, performs the birth under not so ideal circumstances. As Meda receives news that her baby did not survive, she also learns that her hero Abraham Lincoln has been assassinated. She is devastated. Sylvia, meanwhile, struggles with the lie she just told the young mother. Her child, in fact, did not die, but was handed over to the father and the child's fate was unknown.
The novel follows the story of Meda and Sylvia, the two young white boys that Meda takes under her wing while assigned by her employer at a local orphanage, and Sylvia's own family, including the niece she raises. The reader sees the characters falter and fall as well as grow and blossom.
All her life, Sylvia has wanted to be a nurse. Her parents had a successful catering business and are doing well for themselves. Sylvia grew up with a certain amount of privilege within the black community as a result, but that meant very little outside it because of the color of her skin. She finds it difficult to get too close to others, haunted by a secret she holds close. Her best friend Nevada and her niece Vergie are the only two she really lets in. Nevada has a reputation of being wild and loose, but what she really is is smart and resourceful. She and Sylvia grew up on opposite sides of the track, but their friendship grows quite strong. I loved both Sylvia and Nevada.
My heart went out to Meda from the start. She hid how far along she was in her pregnancy from her employer, and while he was expecting her to abort the baby, by the time he got her to the clinic, she was ready to give birth. I cannot even imagine having your child taken from you, in death or otherwise. She shows an amazing amount of strength and resiliency, however. Which, I suppose shouldn't be a surprise. What else could she do? At first it seemed cruel when her employer sent her to spend a few days working in an orphanage given what she had just been through. It is hard for her, especially when she comes across two infant boys who have recently been abandoned. She names them Lincoln and Abraham, after her hero. Her heart opens up and she lets them in, and they love her right back. For Linc and Bram, life in the orphanage is not easy, and it only gets worse as they get older and the orphanage changes hands. The two boys may not be blood related, but all they have is each other.
I do wish the author had expanded on Amy and Meda's story. Amy, who was initially overseeing the orphanage when Meda first met Linc and Bram, plays an important part in Meda's life, and yet I feel she got short-changed. At a time when same-sex relationships was forbidden, more depth into the two women's exploration of their feelings for each other would have only made the novel stronger, I think. I also felt the ending was too abrupt. Maybe I just wasn't ready to say goodbye to the characters. Ultimately though, it seemed like everything happened so quickly in the end and then, bam! It was done, and I was left re-reading the ending to make sure I didn't miss anything.
Some people might be put off by the many characters and the time jumps in the novel, but I thought it was an effective way to tell the story given its scope. I do wish I could have spent more time with the characters. It speaks volumes of an author who can create characters that I don't want to let go of.
Lazaretto provides a window into an interesting time in American history, taking the reader to a time and place where the color of your skin determined your standing in society. An accurate portrait of this time in history would not be complete without describing the rampant classism and racism. But, also in this novel, you will find love and the strength of friends and family. Lazaretto is a character driven novel, rich in history. The author really brings that time period to the present. My heart broke several times over, I got angry, and my heart swelled with love right alongside the characters.
To learn more about Diane McKinney-Whetstone and her work, please visit the author's website or visit her on Twitter.
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