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Somewhere in France
As John Rolfe Gardiner's gripping and elegant new novel opens, World War I is raging and letters home from Major William Lloyd describe his life as a volunteer doctor in charge of a base hospital in the "zone of advance."
The Major's new command is both dream and horror to this upright son of an old New York family, bred to Victorian virtue and duty. Supplies are erratic, sanitation abysmal. Some of his nurses are behaving like trollops and an old prep school enemy turns up as his adjutant.
On the home front, the doctor's anxious wife, Emma, has troubles of her own. Her daunting mother-in-law has moved the family to her Long Island estate to escape city germs. Her two sons, one of enlistment age, are developing alarming pacifist sympathies, and the flag-waving chauffeur is spreading rumors about them. Her teenage daughter is growing up too fast.
But it's the doctor's correspondence from "somewhere in France" that most disturbs, with its frequent mention of the remarkable French nurse, Jeanne Prie. We hear about her devotion to the patients, her doctor-like authority, her revolutionary work with victims of the dangerous unknown fevers spreading through the trenches. We learn, too, of her mysterious origins, of claims that she was an assistant to Louis Pasteur, of the aura of suspicion and wonder that surrounds her.
Gradually the doctor's obsession with Jeanne becomes clear to everyone but himself. And when his son is drafted and follows him to France, and when the nurse's audacious experiments involve her in controversy, the situation spins out of control, forever changing all their lives.
Somewhere in France is a riveting tale of medical suspense, a portrait of a society in transition, and an affecting love story that explores the mysteries of trust and faith.
The Major's new command is both dream and horror to this upright son of an old New York family, bred to Victorian virtue and duty. Supplies are erratic, sanitation abysmal. Some of his nurses are behaving like trollops and an old prep school enemy turns up as his adjutant.
On the home front, the doctor's anxious wife, Emma, has troubles of her own. Her daunting mother-in-law has moved the family to her Long Island estate to escape city germs. Her two sons, one of enlistment age, are developing alarming pacifist sympathies, and the flag-waving chauffeur is spreading rumors about them. Her teenage daughter is growing up too fast.
But it's the doctor's correspondence from "somewhere in France" that most disturbs, with its frequent mention of the remarkable French nurse, Jeanne Prie. We hear about her devotion to the patients, her doctor-like authority, her revolutionary work with victims of the dangerous unknown fevers spreading through the trenches. We learn, too, of her mysterious origins, of claims that she was an assistant to Louis Pasteur, of the aura of suspicion and wonder that surrounds her.
Gradually the doctor's obsession with Jeanne becomes clear to everyone but himself. And when his son is drafted and follows him to France, and when the nurse's audacious experiments involve her in controversy, the situation spins out of control, forever changing all their lives.
Somewhere in France is a riveting tale of medical suspense, a portrait of a society in transition, and an affecting love story that explores the mysteries of trust and faith.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 1, 2020
I really enjoyed this, although I must admit it took a while for the novel to get to the heart of its story. The entryway for the author into the story was apparently a batch of real life letters his grandfather wrote as an adolescent at a fancy boarding school and, also, later, as a doctor serving in France during WW 1. A version of such letters play a big role in the novel, but, for me, the letters are easily the least interesting part of the book. I actually think it could have been just as good if not better of a novel if traditional narration had been employed straight through. Because the story Gardiner has developed is a very good story, and, by the way, far more of a medical story than a war one. It's a story about love too, for sure, but also, maybe more, about the uncertain place that talented women--in this case, a nurse interested in studying microbes--found themselves in that time period when working around, with, and/or for opinionated, authoritative men. Gardiner's French nurse/microbe-hunter character is by far the most fascinating here, so inherently fascinating she causes the American doctor protagonist to totally overhaul his life. Enough said. No more spoilers!
January 27, 2008
I just finished this novel that is set mostly in WWI France. Not so much a good read about France but a great story set in France.
January 11, 2014
Originally published at Reading Reality
The quote that opens this book, "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time" is one that is often used in reference to the Great War, as World War I was referred to. It’s a quote that has haunted me since the first time I read it in The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell, a literary exploration about how WWI changed public consciousness in the mind of a generation.
And that’s fitting, because the WWI era has become very popular in the 21st century. The WWI era is also the Downton Abbey era, and we think we know it well because of the popularity of Downton.
But the lamps really did go out, as is shown quite clearly in Somewhere in France. We live in the world created by the shuttering of those gentle lights. The universe lit by our much harsher electricity is a much different place.
Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford is a woman that we would recognize. She wants to be whatever she can be. She’s bright and intelligent and wants to stretch her mind and her horizons.
But the class-ridden society that she was born into has placed her upon a pedestal, one that her station does not allow her to step off of without dire consequences. On the one hand, she has wealth and privilege; on the other, she is not permitted the education or training that would fit her to make her own way in the world. And, as she discovers, if anyone assists her in gaining that knowledge, the punishments are severe.
An old family retainer teaches her to drive. Her parents take away his retirement cottage and his pension. This is legal, there is no safety net. It is not right, but they have that privilege. It is also the last in a series of venal punishments that Lilly can no longer bear. She wants to help in the war effort, but her mother in particular feels that the aid organizations are no place for an earl’s daughter.
Lilly leaves with a carpetbag and goes out to earn her own place in the world, armed only with determination and those driving and mechanical skills that cost so dear. She sells her jewels to pay for her parents’ cruelty to the man who taught her.
A young woman set on a course to do her duty to her country, she intends to help with the skills that she has. The Army recruits women ambulance drivers, and she serves in France under horrific conditions. But there she is reunited with the two men who have been steadfast in their belief that she can be whatever she wants to be if she just keeps trying; her brother Edward, and Edward’s best friend, Robbie Fraser.
When she was Lady Elizabeth, Robbie was considered unsuitable for her. He’s a Scot who made it into university on scholarship and is supporting himself as a surgeon. As a professional man, her family considers him barely more than a tradesman. But for Lilly the independent woman, Robbie is the only man who knows who she really is and loves her for herself.
If he can just get over who she used to be, and what the war has done to them both.
Escape Rating A: This is a fantastic book to start the year with. Absolutely stunning.
Lilly starts the story as a bird in a gilded cage. You can feel her beating her wings against the bars; she wants out, but she’s letting herself be made smaller and smaller every day. Then the war (and an opportune visit from Robbie) kicks her into realizing that she can make a difference if she’s willing to step outside the box that her parents are determined to put her in.
Once she decides to start taking what to 21st century readers seem like reasonable risks (learning to drive, writing letters to friends) Lilly really starts to blossom. She doesn’t whine, she gets down to work.
We see the war from Lilly’s perspective as an ambulance driver. Think of MASH only with less developed surgical techniques and 30 years fewer medical advances. In other words, more death. Lilly drove the wounded through a nightmarish “No Man’s Land” day after torturous day, yet still kept on, because it was the best way she could contribute.
That a romance flourishes at all under these circumstances is both amazing and not surprising at all. The urge to find a spark of life amidst all that death seems natural, but Lilly finds Robbie at an Aid station, and they move haltingly beyond friendship. Robbie has an impossible time believing that they have any future, and there is often heartbreak.
The portrayal of the woman rising beyond everything her society believed possible of her is a terrific read. If you enjoy Downton Abbey, you will fall in love Somewhere in France.
And if you get caught up in Lilly’s wartime escapades, you may also enjoy Bess Crawford. Bess is a nurse in France in this war. Her first story is A Duty To The Dead.
The quote that opens this book, "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time" is one that is often used in reference to the Great War, as World War I was referred to. It’s a quote that has haunted me since the first time I read it in The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell, a literary exploration about how WWI changed public consciousness in the mind of a generation.
And that’s fitting, because the WWI era has become very popular in the 21st century. The WWI era is also the Downton Abbey era, and we think we know it well because of the popularity of Downton.
But the lamps really did go out, as is shown quite clearly in Somewhere in France. We live in the world created by the shuttering of those gentle lights. The universe lit by our much harsher electricity is a much different place.
Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford is a woman that we would recognize. She wants to be whatever she can be. She’s bright and intelligent and wants to stretch her mind and her horizons.
But the class-ridden society that she was born into has placed her upon a pedestal, one that her station does not allow her to step off of without dire consequences. On the one hand, she has wealth and privilege; on the other, she is not permitted the education or training that would fit her to make her own way in the world. And, as she discovers, if anyone assists her in gaining that knowledge, the punishments are severe.
An old family retainer teaches her to drive. Her parents take away his retirement cottage and his pension. This is legal, there is no safety net. It is not right, but they have that privilege. It is also the last in a series of venal punishments that Lilly can no longer bear. She wants to help in the war effort, but her mother in particular feels that the aid organizations are no place for an earl’s daughter.
Lilly leaves with a carpetbag and goes out to earn her own place in the world, armed only with determination and those driving and mechanical skills that cost so dear. She sells her jewels to pay for her parents’ cruelty to the man who taught her.
A young woman set on a course to do her duty to her country, she intends to help with the skills that she has. The Army recruits women ambulance drivers, and she serves in France under horrific conditions. But there she is reunited with the two men who have been steadfast in their belief that she can be whatever she wants to be if she just keeps trying; her brother Edward, and Edward’s best friend, Robbie Fraser.
When she was Lady Elizabeth, Robbie was considered unsuitable for her. He’s a Scot who made it into university on scholarship and is supporting himself as a surgeon. As a professional man, her family considers him barely more than a tradesman. But for Lilly the independent woman, Robbie is the only man who knows who she really is and loves her for herself.
If he can just get over who she used to be, and what the war has done to them both.
Escape Rating A: This is a fantastic book to start the year with. Absolutely stunning.
Lilly starts the story as a bird in a gilded cage. You can feel her beating her wings against the bars; she wants out, but she’s letting herself be made smaller and smaller every day. Then the war (and an opportune visit from Robbie) kicks her into realizing that she can make a difference if she’s willing to step outside the box that her parents are determined to put her in.
Once she decides to start taking what to 21st century readers seem like reasonable risks (learning to drive, writing letters to friends) Lilly really starts to blossom. She doesn’t whine, she gets down to work.
We see the war from Lilly’s perspective as an ambulance driver. Think of MASH only with less developed surgical techniques and 30 years fewer medical advances. In other words, more death. Lilly drove the wounded through a nightmarish “No Man’s Land” day after torturous day, yet still kept on, because it was the best way she could contribute.
That a romance flourishes at all under these circumstances is both amazing and not surprising at all. The urge to find a spark of life amidst all that death seems natural, but Lilly finds Robbie at an Aid station, and they move haltingly beyond friendship. Robbie has an impossible time believing that they have any future, and there is often heartbreak.
The portrayal of the woman rising beyond everything her society believed possible of her is a terrific read. If you enjoy Downton Abbey, you will fall in love Somewhere in France.
And if you get caught up in Lilly’s wartime escapades, you may also enjoy Bess Crawford. Bess is a nurse in France in this war. Her first story is A Duty To The Dead.
August 29, 2009
If someone had asked me to rate this book after 100 pages, I would have been hard pressed to find anything good to say about it. From the beginning, the characters, subject matter and pacing irked me. Here was the prissy, smug physician and paterfamilias, Dr. Lloyd, his mannish mother, and Emma, the weak and vacillating wife -- all more concerned with observing and reflecting on life instead of living it. As an early narrative element, Gardiner contrives to have Lloyd's children reviewing his childhood letters from boarding school; it's a distateful business manifesting young Lloyd's preoccupation with pleasing his parents, the overweaning influence of the mother, the insularity and lack of intellect attending their lives. Why should we care about this family?
But Gardiner's story is about transformation, not just of character but narrative viewpoint. Lloyd goes to WW I France where his assignment as manager of a combat hospital leads him to the strange, but gifted nurse and healer, Jeanne. As his wife, children and mother mark time by petty squables and drift, waiting for war's end and Lloyd's return to the family estate on Long Island, Lloyd in France becomes more deeply involved with Jeanne and in her work in virology and vaccination. The double-narrative technique -- the war at home versus the war on the front -- is not an uncommon one, but here it's enriched by the controlled manner in which the author gradually reveals Jeanne as a latter-day Joan of Arc -- humble, of unknown, possibly mythic origin, utterly pure in her devotion to empirical truth (I'm reminded of Hollywood's rendering of the Gallic spirit in such movies as The Life of Emile Zola and Dr. Erlich's Magic Bullet). By the time the war ends and Lloyd returns to America, the ending is pre-ordained, faithful to the transformative elements in the middle and late sections of the book but completely different than the intentionally prosaic beginning.
But Gardiner's story is about transformation, not just of character but narrative viewpoint. Lloyd goes to WW I France where his assignment as manager of a combat hospital leads him to the strange, but gifted nurse and healer, Jeanne. As his wife, children and mother mark time by petty squables and drift, waiting for war's end and Lloyd's return to the family estate on Long Island, Lloyd in France becomes more deeply involved with Jeanne and in her work in virology and vaccination. The double-narrative technique -- the war at home versus the war on the front -- is not an uncommon one, but here it's enriched by the controlled manner in which the author gradually reveals Jeanne as a latter-day Joan of Arc -- humble, of unknown, possibly mythic origin, utterly pure in her devotion to empirical truth (I'm reminded of Hollywood's rendering of the Gallic spirit in such movies as The Life of Emile Zola and Dr. Erlich's Magic Bullet). By the time the war ends and Lloyd returns to America, the ending is pre-ordained, faithful to the transformative elements in the middle and late sections of the book but completely different than the intentionally prosaic beginning.
November 2, 2010
I'd have to give this book a fat C (satisfactory). It's lucky to get that when I barely cared for the characters at all. It's a simple story based on the author finding letters that belonged to his grandfather. It was a nice concept for a book but the story really moved too slowly. Here it is World War I with a doctor separated from his New York family while in France. The doctors' letter writing clearly renders his loving infatuation with a young nurse while dealing with medical antidotes. The writing seemed relatively good but the story lacked intrigue and interest. It's a mix between a family surviving without the head of household and a 'want to be' love story. Why I chose to finish the book is beyond me, but I did underscore some beautifully written excerpts such as:
A true intellect rushes on with what it has to say without stopping to admire its penmanship. (I think the author stopped to admire his handwriting--that's for sure!)
I don't think I'll ever marry. ...a book can be far better company than a silent man or an irritable woman. Why not spend your life with books? (not this book!)
Stop this quarreling. There is too much to be grateful for.
(Okay, the author made an effort.)
His pages were still secrets locked in a desk. (more secrets and development needed to be unlocked for this book to work)
If the city's grid was a chessboard, she moved across it with the queen's whim and freedom, a celebrity denying a destination, as if bound to keep moving for her own security. (Hmmm...could the writer of this book moved along too quickly with whim & freedom as well?)
Without rubbing their noses in his contentment, he was eager to share experience. (There were a few touching moments but it was hard to feel emotion when I never embraced the characters to begin with.)
A true intellect rushes on with what it has to say without stopping to admire its penmanship. (I think the author stopped to admire his handwriting--that's for sure!)
I don't think I'll ever marry. ...a book can be far better company than a silent man or an irritable woman. Why not spend your life with books? (not this book!)
Stop this quarreling. There is too much to be grateful for.
(Okay, the author made an effort.)
His pages were still secrets locked in a desk. (more secrets and development needed to be unlocked for this book to work)
If the city's grid was a chessboard, she moved across it with the queen's whim and freedom, a celebrity denying a destination, as if bound to keep moving for her own security. (Hmmm...could the writer of this book moved along too quickly with whim & freedom as well?)
Without rubbing their noses in his contentment, he was eager to share experience. (There were a few touching moments but it was hard to feel emotion when I never embraced the characters to begin with.)
May 27, 2016
I often do not know immediately if I will love or hate a book. This is one that I did love after reading a few chapters. I loved the character development, and found myself thinking about the characters while I was unable to read the book. I think this would be a great movie. Unfortunately, I felt like the story was running out of steam by the end, and if not for that fact would have given it another star.
March 22, 2014
WWII aristocracy heroine becomes invaluable front line ambulance driver. Typical sort of romance/family displeasure saga (think Lady Sybil in Downton) but this one had some meat to it, and overall I liked it. If you liked this read Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes.
January 24, 2014
I could not make myself finish this book. I read about 120 pages and could not get interested at all.
September 6, 2014
Ugh...took me forever to finish this book.
February 26, 2015
Meh. Was not really impressed. The family was boring, the stories from the war are interesting, but it does not seem to make up for the family lacking in personality.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews