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    My Name Is Mary Sutter: A Novel
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    My Name Is Mary Sutter: A Novel
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    My Name Is Mary Sutter: A Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    My Name Is Mary Sutter: A Novel

    Written by Robin Oliveira

    Narrated by Kimberly Farr

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In this stunning historical novel, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, headstrongmidwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becominga surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against womenin medicine-and eager to run away from her recent heartbreak-Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D.C. to help tendthe legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of WilliamStipp and James Blevens-two surgeons who fall unwittingly inlove with Mary's courage, will, and stubbornness in the face ofsuffering-and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to helpwith the birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medicalcareer in the desperately overwhelmed hospitals of the capital.Like Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain and Robert Hicks's TheWidow of the South, My Name Is Mary Sutter powerfully evokesthe atmosphere of the period. Rich with historical detail (includingmarvelous depictions of Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, GeneralMcClellan, and John Hay among others), and full of the tragediesand challenges of wartime, My Name Is Mary Sutter is an exceptionalnovel. And in Mary herself, Robin Oliveira has created atruly unforgettable heroine whose unwavering determination andvulnerability will resonate with readers everywhere.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 13, 2010
    ISBN9781101223024
    Unavailable
    My Name Is Mary Sutter: A Novel
    Author

    Robin Oliveira

    Robin Oliveira is the New York Times bestselling author of My Name Is Mary Sutter. She holds a BA in Russian and studied at the Pushkin Language Institute in Moscow. She received an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is also a registered nurse, specializing in critical care. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

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    Reviews for My Name Is Mary Sutter

    4/5

    442 ratings69 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excellent Civil War book told from a strong woman's perspective. Mary was raised a to be a midwife but wanted to be a surgeon - unheard of at this time. Even with the war wounded flooding the nation's capitol women were not wanted. Mary defies everyone and pitches in, learning as she goes. Lincoln, John Hay, Dorothea Dix and others make appearances. This is a well researched, well written, gripping novel with strong female characters.
    • 4/5
      I found this very fascinating. Mary Sutter is a very strong woman who was determined to be a doctor when women were not "equipped" to hold such a difficult job. Well worth the read.
    • 3/5
      For such a promising premise, this book falls flat. The book begins during pre-Civil War when the threat of the pending war is permeating everyone’s lives. Mary Sutter is a mid-wife, same as her mother, who has the ambitions of becoming a surgeon. Will she or won’t she?The satisfying elements in this book includes the portrayal of American Civil War brutalities and its complete lack of decent medical care including the numerous amputations, and Mary Sutter’s work ethnics. The distracting elements are the love triangle between Mary and her twin sister that needlessly thread into the storyline even though they are in separate locations (get over it already!) and the inclusion of President Lincoln into the story, adding false gravitas to a story that turned out to be only a hair above chick lit. SMH.This is possibly a three-star book but minus half a star, especially for the Lincoln passages.Some quotes:On grief:“No one ever told her that grief was a leveling of all emotion, that life would stretch before you, colorless and endless, devoid of any hope.”On slavery:“Their slaves’ skin might be black, but it was not as black as the souls who might enslave them.”On injured soldiers:“This thirst is not thirst. This pain is not pain. This world is not being rent in two.That howling is only a whisper. That screech is just a murmur. That explosion is nothing but a sigh. That musket fire is but a rustle.I am not here. We are not here. Armies are not here. The country is not depending on this moment.Battles are conversations. An exchange. A dialogue.None of this is true.”
    • 3/5
      Mary Sutter wants to be a surgeon more than anything. Instead she is working as a midwife which is acceptable in her day and age - the civil war period in the United States. Mary is a very strong character even though she has some very serious insecurities as a woman due to being rejected by a man she thinks she loves. She feels inferior to her much prettier twin sister. Through the course of the story, we see Mary handle her fears and face her perceived weaknesses. This is an interesting historical novel and I read this as a selection for my local book club.
    • 5/5
      A very different perspective on the American Civil War, and an ambitious and talented young woman. I listened to this and enjoyed it a lot, will search out other books by this author. 4.5 stars.
    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable read that I wish had taken more time. I very much enjoyed the characters and the historical research that defined this short book. Mary Sutter is a strong woman who is put into impossible situations but manages to keep control of herself. I wanted to read more about her and the people in her life. I don't know how the author could have kept it going, but that is all that I was disappointed with.

      I recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the Civil War or historical fiction. It deals with the medical practices of the time, so some of the reading might be difficult for some people to get through as it is very graphic and accurate to the time. If you can handle all of that, I think you will enjoy the read.
    • 2/5
      The reviews and the actual book cover were much better than the book itself. I felt like the story was as much about Lincoln and his Generals as it was about Mary.


      It was OK, but I really didn't think that it is anything to rave about.
    • 5/5
      Intense and good. Not for the squeamish. Not only are there graphic descriptions of war casualties, but even childbirth has its fatal bleedouts.Mary learns midwifery from her mother, who comes from a long line of midwives. The ability to project calm and to keep rational in the midst of stressful situations is one of her assets. She really wants to know more: why & how does the body act as it does? But women are not allowed to study medicine. She takes the initiative, as the Civil War begins, of traveling to a Washington DC "hospital" (formerly a fleabag hotel). Even tho they are understaffed, she is only allowed some nursing & housekeeping tasks until the night the surgeon needs assistance with an amputation.I am horrified by the dangerous remedies & unsanitary conditions & surprised anyone survives. As the war progresses, we learn of research attempts to learn how to improve survival, the impetus for studying bacterial causes of diseases.As a nurse, I was most engrossed in the medical aspect of this novel. However there was a good amount of emotional/family drama. Also Oliviera did in depth historical research for this book and it shows. There are cameo appearances of Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, Abraham Lincoln & various military men. I'll leave that for other reviewers to praise.
    • 4/5
      Writing not terrific, but the story is a page turner..
    • 5/5
      Damn good read.
    • 3/5
      Nice historical about a young single woman named Mary Sutter, who has legendary skills as a midwife but secretly yearns to become a surgeon. Mary goes to local surgeon James Blevens and asks to become an apprentice. Unfortunately Blevens is eager to go to the war and rejects her request, devestating Mary. Then a potential beau is stolen by her prettier twin sister Jenny. Mary reads about a call for nurses in Washington DC on the same day she learns Jenny is expecting a child, and runs away in pain to join the cause. The story mostly focuses on Mary's experiences nursing and learning medicine during the war. I have to admit the flow of the story wasn't real great. I enjoyed the storyline, but think it would have been much better if the book had been broken up between two or three books in a series. The storyline focused so much on the war period that the ending seemed very rushed. But overall I really liked the book and the characters were realistic. I just wished I could have spent a little more time with each of them. Three and a half stars.
    • 4/5
      interesting
    • 3/5
      Lately I have been cruising through audio books, but this one took awhile. While I wanted to know what was going to happen, there were so many parts that were just so tedious. Perhaps this is a book better read than listened to. The narrator was good with the different voices, but very slow. Also, much of the descriptions were very repetitive. Clearly, the author really wants us to know that Mary was not an attractive woman by conventional standards.
    • 4/5
      Mary Sutter is a midwife who wants to know more about the human body works. She tries to get into medical schools, but is not even considered because she is a woman. She finally finds a doctor to apprentice with at the Union Hotel, turned hospital in the early days of the Civil War. The author's description of the hospitals, the wounds, and the primitive nature of medicine at the time are eye-opening. It's amazing anyone survived. The battle scenes and conditions of the soldiers are also not at all romanticized. This is an interesting read, although Mary Sutter herself is a bit beyond belief as she sacrifices so much for the soldiers. As a epilogue, we see her a few years after the war with her own medical practice in Manhattan, her remaining family gathered around her, and her old mentor finding her to pledge his undying love. I kind of liked her single better.
    • 5/5
      Descriptive, emotional novel of Civil War midwife wanting to be surgeon. Beautiful love story, too. Not sex, but true deep love. Gore, proximity to DC, best practices for surgeries not yet known, true to life characters.
    • 4/5
      Great setting - Civil War - strong woman character- just enjoyed it!
    • 4/5
      Really well written book. The language was beautifully descriptive and really conveyed a sense of time and place. Having toured Antietam myself a year or two ago I had a pretty good idea of how that battle went, down to troop formations and the Sunken Road and Burnside's Bridge, etc. But the author brought the battle to life with her descriptions of the scene and the men and the carnage that occurred. I could vividly see the death and destruction in my mind. And then from the POV of the surgeons and specifically what the aftermath of the battles were like - it was haunting and heartbreaking for its grim reality. For me the author brought the civil war to life in all its wonderful horror.

      The ending did leave me slightly unsatisfied I have to say, but being more realistic than say a typical romance, I was probably destined to feel that way.
    • 5/5
      Mary Sutter is a brilliant, headstrong midwife from Albany, New York, who has aspirations of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the inherent prejudices against women in medicine - and eager to escape her recent heartbreak - Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D. C. to help tend to the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of William Stipp and James Blevins - two surgeons who unwittingly fall in love with Mary's courage, will, and stubbornness in the face of suffering - and resisting her mother's desperate pleas for her to come home and assist with the birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career in the desperately overwhelmed hospitals of Washington.In this stunning debut novel, Robin Oliveira has created in the character of Mary Sutter, a truly unforgettable heroine whose unwavering determination and startling vulnerability will resonate with readers everywhere. My Name is Mary Sutter: A Novel by Robin Oliveira powerfully evokes the atmosphere of the period. Rich with historical detail - including marvelous depictions of such individuals as Abraham Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, General McClellan, and John Hay among others - as well as immersed in the tragedies and challenges of wartime, My Name is Mary Sutter is an exceptional novel. I must say that I found this to be an absolutely brilliant book. It really brought home to me not only the suffering and hopelessness of war, but also the immense courage and indomitable strength that human beings are capable of. This book resonated with me and I'm eagerly awaiting Ms. Oliveira's next book I Always Loved You, with baited breath. I give My Name is Mary Sutter: A Novel an A+! - What a debut!
    • 4/5
      Civil War era historical fiction. I like this time period. Good book for the most part but not necessary to have the main character meeting President Lincoln, Secretary of State John Hay, and be Dorothea Dix's first applicant, not to mention a surgeon doing amputations after the battle of Antietam. I prefer books to be more realistic when they are historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      Mary, a midwife, wants to become a doctor at a time when women couldn't be doctors. She forces a doctor to take her on and teach her in a hospital that ends up taking a ton of wounded soldiers. Gruesome, realistic and wonderful
    • 3/5
      This Civil War novel about a woman who wanted to be a surgeon was very well researched and written, but I think it included entirely too much battle information and all the amputations were a little graphic for me. Overall I liked it, but I wish it was shorter.
    • 4/5
      Update May 14 - My library already has a copy of this! Yay!

      Received as a giveaway here - thank you! So far this ARC is interesting, if a little dry. I'm not sure of by ability to judge because the only stuff I've read remotely like it, I believe, are Tracy Chevalier's works.

      Update - Got more engaging about halfway. Definitely recommended for fans of historical fiction and anyone who interested in a smart story and meaningful characters. Well-researched; educational. Thank you very much for giving me a chance to read something I probably would never have picked up otherwise.
    • 3/5
      Mary Sutter is a mid-wife in Albany and was well known and respected for what she was able to accomplish. Her desire was to become a surgeon when there were no women physicians and admittance to a medical school was unheard of. She was an interesting character and I enjoyed her journey to become a surgeon.The first half of this book flowed smoothly and the character development was wonderful. I found the second half of the book rather difficult to follow - perhaps because I'm not familiar with the battles of the civil war. It was frustrating at times because I wanted certain things to happen which didn't. Her journey took many twists - some of the almost unbelievable.
    • 4/5
      Mary, a talented midwife, wants more. She wants to be a surgeon. After being turned down by schools and surgeons, she travels to Washington, D.C. eager to find work in one of the many hospitals treating those wounded in the Civil War. Back home, her twin sister marries a man she once loved, and quickly becomes pregnant. Mary’s sister and mother beg her to return home, to deliver the new baby. Torn between the dying soldiers in the hospital and her sister, Mary is faced with an excruciating decision.This was an interesting and engaging book. Mary was very realistic, and easy to like. I did thing that the book had too many points of view. They tended to distract from the story, rather than add to it. Overall, well worth picking up. I look forward to reading more from this author.
    • 4/5
      My Name is Mary Sutter is the story of a New York midwife who becomes a nurse to soldiers of the Union Army, men who were more likely to die from infections than they were from gunshots. Mary's ultimate goal is to become a surgeon at a time when women in America were not admitted to medical schools. The novel begins with Mary’s failed attempt to apprentice herself to James Blevens, a surgeon in Albany. In a related plot, Mary also decides to leave New York due to the upcoming marriage of her twin sister to the young man Mary loves. Mary’s service as a volunteer nurse in the Washington D.C. And her fierce desire to learn the art of surgery drives the plot along with the ripple effects of war. She's eventually assigned to the Union Hotel hospital in Georgetown where she crosses paths with Dr. William Stipp. Together they try to bring order to the hygiene-deficient hospital under challenging conditions. Eventually Mary works her way onto the battlefield and learns what it means to be a surgeon.

      While the novel is told mostly from Mary’s point of view we do get some chapters involving Abraham Lincoln, George McClellan and his staff that give us some background on the difficult decisions of the war. The author's research into mid-19th century medical procedures seemed very authentic. There was lots of information on the surgical practices, the filth of army hospitals and the desperation of doctors fully aware that they didn't have knowledge necessary to save their patients. I liked the character of Mary, who seemed very heroic without being too saintly. She was sympathetic but not always likable. I really enjoyed this book and plan to check out another one by this author.
    • 3/5
      Audio performed by Kimberly Farr
      3.5 Stars

      This is a work of historical fiction, centering on Mary Sutter, a midwife in Albany, New York, who is determined to become a surgeon. As the novel opens the Civil War is just beginning and she has been turned down, yet again, by the only medical school in Albany. Mary decides to seek an apprenticeship with a practicing surgeon, and so appears at the door of Dr James Blevin’s clinic just as he was about to send for her to help deliver a woman whose labor is not going well. She saves the mother and child and impresses Blevins with her knowledge and skill. However, Blevins is about to enlist as an Army surgeon and insists he cannot accommodate her request that he teach her what he knows. This refusal only strengthens Mary’s determination, however, and when she sees an advertisement for nurses she heads to Washington.

      I really enjoyed this book and was drawn in immediately. I particularly appreciated the information Oliveira included about the very poor state of medical care, and how what was learned by Army surgeons on the battlefield helped to change the practice of medicine. There were times, as I listened, that I wanted to yell to the characters,“Wash your hands! Use a clean cloth!” I felt enervated by the seemingly never-ending horrors of war witnessed by these brave men and women, despite my obvious distance from the actual events. Their tireless service in the face of impossible odds was commendable. That they had any success at all, given their ignorance of the infectious process, and their lack of supplies (seems that the most heavily used “medication” was whiskey) was nothing short of miraculous. The writing was vivid, and the aftermath of the battles – thousands of dead and wounded, laid so closely together it was nearly impossible to walk among them – called to my mind the scene from the movie of Gone With the Wind when Scarlett goes in search of the doctor for Melanie and the camera crane zooms out to show a screen filled with thousands waiting for any little comfort.

      Oliveira doesn’t just write about war and medicine, however. Her characters have to deal with various weaknesses and emotions – pride, guilt, sibling rivalry, impetuousness, fear (and even cowardice), snobbery, ineptitude, joy, excitement and love. There is underlying romantic tension between Mary and certain male characters, which I found a little distracting and unnecessary to the basic story. However, I’ll admit that I have always been interested in reading about medicine and that was much more interesting to me than her love life.

      Kimberly Farr did an excellent job of reading the audio book. She had a somewhat limited range with the male voices, but was credible and it was still easy to distinguish among the characters when there were two- or even three-way conversations.
    • 5/5
      This is the perfect book for someone to read who is interested in medicine, women's history and the Civil War. Robin Oliveira. I have read many book in both areas but not in the same book. The story is fictional but all the details about the history of medicine and status of women are true. I happened to be in a great of pain on the day I started it! I went to ER and was admitted for about four days. I am so glad that I took this book with me. I had discussions about the book with nurses, technicians and a social worker, all five of them now want to read this book.The author is a master at writing, I never got bored or confused. I was glued to book in one particular scene when a young man's leg had to be amputated. The Mary Sutter character was so determined to learn, learn, learn. She had already mastered being a midwife and dreamed of being a surgeon. I am so thrilled with this book that I am already searching out more books about women in the Civil War. I would not change a word in this book. I am definitely a fan of Robin Oliveira now.
    • 4/5
      I do not usually reach for historical fiction but this was more than interesting in terms of the medical information at that time along with all of the political/war details. Using Mary's life against this backdrop made for a fascinating story.
    • 2/5
      After reading Birth House, I thought another book about a midwife when only men were doctors would be of interest. I was wrong. While I appreciated her journey, I never felt like a part of it. As much as I wanted to, I never felt what Mary Sutter experienced.
    • 4/5
      Mary Sutter is a highly acclaimed midwife in Albany NY, and she wants to be a surgeon. Unfortunately, the United States is on the verge of a Civil War, and women just do not become surgeons. Her twin sister Jenny has married the man Mary loves, so when the war begins, and the call goes out for nurses, Mary leaves her mother and twin sister and travels to Washington on the heels of her brother & brother-in-law. She is turned down because of her age, but she manages to find a place where she is needed, and begins studying anatomy books when she has a chance. When her mother writes and asks her to come home to tend her sister when she goes into labor, Mary is torn between doing the work she wants to do, and going back home.This is a rather gory book, as you would expect a Civil War novel about doctors and nurses to be. And when the story is about Mary, it's very good. But occasionally, the author takes us into the White House and inside Lincoln's head, and it's kind of distracting and unnecessary. Mary's affection is all over the place, and it's almost a tease to see which man she will end up with (if any). Outside of those two points, it was a very interesting book.