Helpful Score: 1
What attracted me to this book in the first place was the mention on the cover of the "Spanish flu." which killed so many people world-wide at the end of World War I and later. Turns out there is not all that much about the flu here. What kept me reading it is the story of American nurses in that conflict, and that the main characters really existed. However, this is a fictionalized history of those characters.
With fictionalized histories you expect the author to take literary license---as in this novel's romance---with history. Some authors take so much literary license the story is spoiled for me. But I found only one instance which raised an eyebrow for me. On page 190, she writes, "Our troops [American] were starting to arrive, and many were assigned to British units until there were enough in numbers to form their own commands." This is what the British and French wanted, but General Pershing insisted American troops would only fight under American commanders.
However, this is not entirely true, as he allowed the Afro-American regiments to serve under French commanders throughout the war. When you consider "Black Jack" Pershing received that nickname due to serving as commander of an Afro-American regiment before the war, it was a pretty poor display of racial prejudice on his part. But these Afro-American regiments astounded the French with their combat performance and received numerous decorations. One such regiment from New York City even earned the name "Harlem Hell Fighters."
After you read the book, and my copy was requested and mailed, you should also check out Julia Stimson's page on Wikipedia. It's not very long, but it tells about her life and career after World War I.
With fictionalized histories you expect the author to take literary license---as in this novel's romance---with history. Some authors take so much literary license the story is spoiled for me. But I found only one instance which raised an eyebrow for me. On page 190, she writes, "Our troops [American] were starting to arrive, and many were assigned to British units until there were enough in numbers to form their own commands." This is what the British and French wanted, but General Pershing insisted American troops would only fight under American commanders.
However, this is not entirely true, as he allowed the Afro-American regiments to serve under French commanders throughout the war. When you consider "Black Jack" Pershing received that nickname due to serving as commander of an Afro-American regiment before the war, it was a pretty poor display of racial prejudice on his part. But these Afro-American regiments astounded the French with their combat performance and received numerous decorations. One such regiment from New York City even earned the name "Harlem Hell Fighters."
After you read the book, and my copy was requested and mailed, you should also check out Julia Stimson's page on Wikipedia. It's not very long, but it tells about her life and career after World War I.
