The Roosting Box: Rebuilding the Body after the First World War

by Kristen Den Hartog

“A hospital ... is like a roosting a communal space that provides ideal but temporary shelter for [the] vulnerable.”

In the aftermath of the First World War, a cash register factory in the west end of Toronto was renovated to treat wounded soldiers returning from war. From 1919 to the 1940s, thousands of soldiers passed through its doors. Some spent the remainder of their lives there.

The Roosting Box is an exquisitely written history of the early years of the Christie Street Hospital and how war reshaped Canadian society. What sets it apart from other volumes is the detail about the ordinary people at the heart of the veterans learning to live with their injuries and a world irrevocably changed; nurses caring for patients while coming to terms with their own wartime trauma; and doctors pioneering research in prosthetics and plastic surgery or, in the case of Frederick Banting, in a treatment for diabetes.

Naming chapters after parts of the body, den Hartog chronicles injuries and treatments, and through the voices of men and women, the struggles and accomplishments of the patients and staff. The cast of characters is diverse — Black, female, Indigenous, and people with all sorts of physical and mental challenges — and their experiences, gleaned from diaries, letters, service records, genealogical research, and interviews with descendants, are surprising and illuminating.

An unusual mix of history and story, The Roosting Box offers deeply personal perspectives on healing in the aftermath of war.

Genres: Nonfiction

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 20, 2024

About the author

Kristen den Hartog is a novelist and non-fiction writer whose novels have won the Alberta Trade Fiction Book of the Year and been shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award and the Trillium Award. She is the co-author (with her sister Tracy Kasaboski) of two previous non-fiction books: The Occupied Garden: A Family Memoir of War-torn Holland, a Globe & Mail Top 100 selection, and The Cowkeeper’s Wish, praised by Canada’s History as a blend of “graceful prose” and “meticulous research on a stupendous scale.” Work on these two books — intimate histories of ordinary families — sparked the writing of The Roosting Box and den Hartog’s ongoing interest in how war changes the direction of people’s lives so dramatically. Kristen den Hartog lives in Lyndhurst, Ontario, and also in the west end of Toronto, not far from the site of the former Christie Street Hospital.

Reviews

[Amanda Borys · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best word to sum up my feelings about this book is disappointing. From the title, I thought it was going to tell of how medicine advanced as doctors came up with new ways to treat the most common wounds from World War 1. It was actually more of a hodge-podge of stories about soldiers and nurses that were injured during the war and received some kind of treatment in Canada. The majority of the stories were not about medical treatment at all, just life histories, some sad and some not, of what seemed like a random group of ex-soldiers and the occasional nurse.

That is not to say the book wasn't interesting, but the development of insulin to treat diabetes is not a war story. However it is related in great detail in the book.

Another thing I found odd and which I think affected the book was the bits of poetry added in. The author stated she was surprised by how many poets died in WW1 and wanted to honour them. Which is a lovely idea, but was poorly executed. If she had broken up stories by including small parts of poems by some of the lost poets, it would have been great. Especially if she had included the names of the poets and perhaps when and where they lost their lives. But she literally picked out as few as two or three words from a poem and build a sentence around it. Which lead to some strangely worded sentences that could be out of context. The parts from the poems were distinguished by italics and a lighter colour of ink, but there was no mention of where they came from, who the poet was, or even if it was a war poem (as opposed to a poem written about the war). This may have been included in the 19 pages of notes at the end of the book, but I wasn't going to stop every time and look.

Overall, I think this book could have earned three or even four stars, my two stars is based on the disappointment I felt at what was presented as opposed to what I was reading.

[Susan Hopkins VanZant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic read. Kristen den Hartog is a meticulous researcher who is able to turn her findings into a captivating narrative that reads like a movie or painting in the mind of the reader. I can’t wait to hear her Zoom presentation with the Toronto branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society!

[Jbondandrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book. I would have given it five stars but there should have been more than one African Canadian and an Asian Canadian. Though as Den Hartog focused only on one hospital perhaps the patients were mostly white.

[Maria Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent historical account of medical advances during the wars and how science drove new methods of treatment and cures. Historically the book does a great job of recognizing researchers and care givers of the past and how innovations improved patient care.

[Mindy Simon]

Extremely informative for those interested in medical care and rehabilitation during and after world war 1 . The book introduces the reader to care for amputations, psychiatric illnesses and the discovery of insulin. The book is set in a hospital at DuPont and Christie .
Very well written and filled with personal stories.