I started out really liking this book, but I got bogged down at times with all of the explanations of the battles in the Civil War. I did not appreciate the language used by the women. ( )

At 20 in 1860, Mary Sutter is a respected midwife, but aspires to be a surgeon. Repeatedly rejected by medical schools and surgeons for apprenticeships she heads off to Washington to offer her services to the war effort. Too young to be considered for Dorothea Dix's new corps of nurses she canvases hospitals looking to assist. Finally a desperate doctor, William Stipp, takes her on. Over the next 2 years she becomes more competent and exhausted. She is admired and loved by 2 doctors drawn to her spirit almost against their will. Mary is indomitable and vulnerable, torn between her aspirations and her family's need. The book is a picture of the War's human destruction. It shows the awful state of medicine, the efforts made by well meaning doctors, the deprivations and incompetency of decision makers, and the impact of all of it on human life. I highly recommend this story to historical fiction readers. ( )

I read that this is this author's first novel. It's about an ambitious young woman who finds love and fulfillment while amputating limbs during the Civil War.
Mary Sutter is actually aa midwife...a really good one...but she is ambitious and wants what at that time considered "above her station". Actually, it's above her sexuality. You have to remember that this is the mid 1800's and our Mary dared to desire to be a doctor. The 19th-cetunry's ideas of a woman's "place" will never consider or allow this. When the nation becomes divided in bloody conflict, Mary sees and seizes the opportunity to learn the art of medicine while trying to escape from the pain of the man she loves marrying her more conventionally lady-like twin sister, Jenny. The book had many elements that made the historical fiction compelling, but there are issues with the pacing and the dialogue from the very beginning. The story's opening features an expectant mother exhausted and whose life is endangered by a difficult delivery. This should have provided a dramatic way of showing Mary’s expertise and dedication to her trade...the midwife that she had been trained to be, instead, both the stories author portrays Mary to show a total lack of interest in the woman’s state and none of the abilities that Mary was trained for. Mary carries on a lengthy and aggressive dialog with the attending physician...the very man she is determined to make her mentor...the man she hopes can help her be trained as a doctor. The author diffuses this tense, life and death scene with other lengthy passages that have nothing to do with the drama she has just introduced into the storyline. The rest of the story is similarly like this, making what began as an interesting concept...disappointing. The author does seem to have investigated the social, military and medical history of that period, but what was put on paper didn't seem to reflect that much as the story seemed to drag a lot. It was an interesting subject...a fairly good heroine... but it would have benefited from a better execution. ( )

This book is the tale of a young midwife who wants to become a surgeon and gets her training on the battlefields of the Civil War. I found the story confusing at the start, as if I had been dropped into the middle of a movie that I had missed the first half hour. The characters were a little hazy - as if the author took for granted that we knew what was in her mind. The ending seemed rather abrupt. Nevertheless, the story held my interest. ( )

Another serendipitous thrift store find, MY NAME IS MARY SUTTER (2010) was Robin Oliveira's first novel, which is hard to believe, because it is so perfect, and so good! The title character is a young midwife (trained by her widowed mother) in 1860s Albany who longs to be a surgeon, but her application to the local medical school is rejected because she is a woman, and James Blevens, the young local doctor, refuses to take her on as an apprentice for the same reason. She is also secretly in love with Thomas, the recently orphaned young man next door, but he is enamored with her much prettier twin sister, Jenny. Then the Civil War intervenes, changing everything, as Thomas quickly marries (and impregnates) Jenny, enlists in the Union Army and departs, as do Dr Blevens and Mary's younger brother, Christian. Bereft and restless, Mary soon answers a call (from Dorothea Dix) for nurses in Washington, D.C., where she quickly becomes caught up in the confusion and madness of the War, and also manages to apprentice herself to the much older, widowed Dr William Stipp. Many historical figures play minor roles in Mary's story - Generals McClellan, Winfield Scott and orhers. Surgeons Letterman and Tripler; and, of course, President Lincoln, and his young secretary, John Hay. The author expertly weaves these persons into Mary Sutter's horrific baptism by fire in the horrific conditions of hastily assembled and ill-equipped hospitals in D..C., and then the filthy, primitive field hospitals near the battlefields of Manassas, Fairfax, and Antietam, strewn with thousands of dead and wounded soldiers from both sides of the conflict. After Antietam, Mary returns home, but her story continues a few years after the war in a heartwarming Epilogue.

I absolutely loved this book, and was sorry to see it end. But then I Googled the author and happily discovered that she has written a sequel called WINTER SISTERS. Time permitting, I will try to read that one too. This one? A worthy addition to the growing genre of War Lit. Bravo, Ms Oliveira. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )