Mary Mehan Awake

This book is the sequel to The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan and is about a young Irish girl whose brother was killed in the Civil War and whose father basically became temporarily insane then ended up returning to Ireland, leaving her along.

Mary worked for a long time in the hospitals treating soldiers injured in the Civil War and she saw so much suffering that she eventually pretty much shut down emotionally. She is recommended to a naturalist as a girl that could help around the house and she's hired as a servant, doing just about any jobs. The owner of the house, though, is very mild-mannered as is his wife and Mary finds her new job not to be any major kind of hardship.

There is a young boy there, Henry, who served in the Civil War in the artillery and as a result lost his hearing. The book deals with Mary's gradually coming alive again, being able to feel and sense things and actually have feelings towards someone else; namely, Henry.

It's an interesting book and a good story about how someone can triumph over great emotional pain.

Main Index

Yadult Index