As Bright As Heaven by Susan Meissner – 400 pages
ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Book Blurb:
In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters–Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa–a chance at a better life. But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without–and what they are willing to do about it.
My Review: 4.5 stars
As Bright as Heaven is about the reality and the harshness of the Spanish flu, family, adoption, war, life and death in a beautifully conceived novel. Susan Meissner continues to write one book after the next with skill, excellent plotting, interesting characters and stories that suck you right in. I was familiar with Yellow Fever that hit Philadelphia based on the YA book entitled 1793, yet I had no idea this city was hit so hard again with the Spanish flu.
The primary setting of the novel was in a mortuary, which I imagined to be a scary and awful place. However with the author’s deft hand, it instead became a home where people loved and lived and others came to seek peace for their departed. Death was its own character throughout this book and oddly gave a sense of comfort to the matriarch of the family.
The flu took people of every age, gender, color or religion, but this novel had a much bigger story to share. It considered how we grieve, the hope we hold on to, the loves we yearn for, the outcomes of the decisions we make, the strength of sisterly bonds, the things we do to follow our dreams, the effects of war, what makes a family and adoption.
I found the scenes when Pauline or Maggie took care to make the dead look their best to be very well drawn. The conversations they had with the departed seemed to be therapeutic way of coping as well as a way to respect those they’re caring for. The strength portrayed in all the characters was admirable and really made one think what would you do to keep your loved ones safe.
I really liked the ending even though it was quite neat. I need that for this book in particular. Susan Meissner has yet to do a sequel, but if she did, I’d hope it’d be about Maggie.
Quotes I liked:
Everyone has a past, and everyone’s past matters.”
– “Home isn’t a safe place where everything stays the same; it’s a place where you are safe and loved despite nothing staying the same.”
-“If people don’t do their part to stop the spread of evil when they’re asked to, it just gets stronger and then no one can stop it.”
-“…the flu wanted to make barbarians of us, to have us think life is not precious and the dead are not worthy of our kindest care. Our humanity is what made what happened to us so terrible.”
– “You think you have a view of what’s waiting for you just up the road, but then something happens, and you find out pretty quick you were looking at the wrong road.”
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