The Mercury 13 by Martha Ackmann

I do not remember who recommended this book to me, but since my daughter was studying space in class I thought I would finally sit down and read it. It was not the inspiring story I thought it might be from the subtitle: The Untold Story of the Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight. This book is set primarily in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and the first woman, Sally Ride, did not make it into space until 1983. The first female commander (pilot) was Eileen Collins in 1999. Obviously the thirteen women profiled in this book never made it into space.

The author details the lives of these thirteen (and a few more) extraordinary pilots. Many set distance, altitude and speed records. She describes the tests the women underwent, which were comparable to those of the Mercury 7 – the first seven astronauts chosen by NASA in 1959. The way in which these men were chosen automatically limited the field as the author points out here:
“Eisenhower initially believed that astronauts should come from a variety of professions – arctic explorers, mountain climbers, meteorologist, flight surgeons, deep-sea divers. People with a wide range of abilities and perspectives would enhance space exploration, he thought. But the President changed his mind. In late 1958 he decided that NASA should narrow the field and choose astronauts from the ranks of military jet test pilots, a field that barred women and included few minority men.”
It was surprising to me to learn that the Army was the first to allow female military jet test pilots in 1974, the Navy in 1983, and the Air Force not until 1988.

Jerrie Cobb is the female candidate profiled the most extensively and the one who went through the most tests. The tests were privately done and primarily overseen by Dr. Randy Lovelace who was interested in the possibilities of women in space and how their tests might differ from men. The tests were eventually shut down by NASA. Cobb and a fellow hopeful candidate, Janey Hart, appealed to the vice-president Lyndon Johnson. Janey Hart was a senator’s wife and the mother of 8 children. Johnson’s assistant had drawn up a letter for him to send to NASA’s head that was slightly supportive of having women astronauts, and here is what Johnson wrote on it:
“In his distinctive hand, Johnson announced the verdict that Hart, Cobb, and the press never knew: ‘Lets Stop This Now!’”

A congressional hearing as well as some fighting over control of the Mercury 13 group did not change anything. Another woman extensively profiled in the book is Jackie Cochran, who at the time was too old for the tests – possibly in her fifties. She had headed the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during WWII. She was also the only woman with jet test experience due to her connections. She is portrayed as doing everything in her power to keep women out of space if she couldn’t be the first one or at least in charge of picking who would be first.

The Mercury 13 is an interesting book to read, and a part of our history that we shouldn’t overlook, even if it is slightly depressing.

A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

This mystery is set in South Africa in 1952. Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is sent from Johannesburg to investigate the murder of an Afrikaner police captain in a small town. Captain Pretorius’s body is found in a river and the investigation is complicated by the fact that the other side of the river is Mozambique and off limits. Pretorius’s five sons are used to ruling the town and interfere in the investigation as well.

Emmanuel forms an alliance with Shabalala, a black policeman in the town. Shabalala has been given the native name of Mfowemlungu or “brother of the white man”, with Captain Pretorius being the white man with whom he grew up. As Emmanuel looks more into Pretorius’s life he finds a number of contradictions. Unfortunately he is soon sidelined from the case by the Security Branch as discussed here:
“Prime Minister Malan and the National Party had begun to enact their plan as soon as they’d taken office. The new segregation laws divided people into race groups, told them where they could live and told them where they could work. The Immorality Act went so far as to tell people whom they could sleep with and love. The growth of the defiance campaign meant that the Security Branch, or Special Branch as it was tagged on the street, would walk right into Emmanuel’s investigation and call the shots.”

This mystery has many twists and intriguing characters. It is also set in a very interesting time in the history of South Africa, right before there are going to be many changes. I hope the author continues to follow this character in South Africa. It is in reading a book like this for fun that I realize how much history of the world there is that I never studied in school.

oxygen by Carol Cassella

This novel centers around the life of Marie Heaton, an anesthesiologist at a hospital in Seattle. It is written by a practicing anesthesiologist and is an interesting look into this profession. The story points out how much time and consideration one may take choosing a particular doctor for a surgery, but the anesthesiologist is usually whoever is assigned to that particular surgeon on that day. They rarely meet with the patient for more than five minutes. It seems like there should be more choice and input on the part of the patient, if this person is in complete control of your sedation.

Marie is portrayed as a very kind and caring doctor. She tries to make her five minutes with each patient reassuring. A surgery that she works on results in a death and the anesthesia is thought to be to blame. She takes this very hard. I found this surprising; of course, my only experience comes from watching ER where lots of patients die. On TV, at least, as long as the doctors did their best they pick up and move on. Marie cannot seem to move beyond this case and goes over and over in her mind what could have been done differently.

It is at this point, when for the first time she feels vulnerable in her career, that her father is becoming more and more ill. It is clear that either Marie or her sister will have to do something. This takes Marie away from Seattle and her problems there and down to Texas. The contrast between her sister’s life with a husband and three kids and Marie’s solitary life is readily apparent. How Marie resolves longstanding issues with her father and the potential harm to her career from the unexpected death in surgery is at the crux of this book.

There is a significant amount of detail in the book about what being an anesthesiologist is like. Here Marie reflects on her skills after reading the autopsy of the difficult case: “I have lost the ability to look at a stranger’s face without estimating the ease of difficulty of intubating their trachea. I have forgotten what it was like to be ignorant of the telltale clues that failing internal organs and multiplying infectious organisms surreptitiously display. Physical diagnosis is the study of optical illusions, the art of seeing through what is expected in order to detect which part of the pictures is changed, what hidden shape hides in the shadows and creases of familiar scenes. Since I began medical school fifteen years ago this second sight has seeped into me the way tea stains dental enamel or cigarettes color smokers’ fingers. To read Jolene’s autopsy report is to slap my forehead - my own moment of ‘Aha!’”

I’m looking forward to more from this author. I did wonder why the cover of this book has a picture of a button down white collar shirt on it – maybe it is supposed to belong to the patient who died? Anyway, it does not make for a very interesting cover.

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

This novel has long been a favorite of mine. It is a fictionalized account of four sisters in the Dominican Republic under the Trujillo reign. The Mirabal sisters did exist and three were murdered after visiting their imprisoned husbands, but most details of their lives are unknown, hence the fictionalization. Although the outcome of the novel is never in any doubt, Alvarez does a fine job of bringing each sister to life and also examining the grief and guilt of the surviving sister, Dedé.

Here Dedé dreads the annual November visitors that come to honor her sisters: “Usually, if she works it right – a lemonade with lemons from the tree Patria planted, a quick tour of the house the girls grew up in – usually they leave, satisfied, without asking the prickly questions that have left Dedé lost in her memories for weeks at a time, searching for the answer. Why, they inevitably ask in one form or another, why are you the one who survived?”

The story is told by Dedé in 1994 and also by all of the sisters from the late 1930s to 1960. Here is Patria, the oldest sister, in 1959.

“My sisters were so different! They built their homes on sand and called the slip and slide adventure.
Minerva lived in a little nothing house – or so Mate had described it to me – in that godforsaken town of Monte Cristi. It’s a wonder her babies didn’t both die of infections.
Mate and Leandro had already had two different addresses in a year of marriage. Renters, they called themselves, the city word for the squatters we pity here in the country.
Dedé and Jaimito had lost everything so many times, it was hard to keep up with their frequent moves. Now they were in our old house in Ojo de Agua, and Mamá had built her up-to-date cottage on the main road from Santiago, complete with aluminum jalousies and an indoor toilet she called ‘the sanitary.’
And me, Patria Mercedes, like I said, I had settled down for life in my rocksure house. And eighteen years passed by.”

I highly recommend reading this book to learn more about how these four women may have lived during this time and why they became targets of the regime. It is an amazing story of women standing up to tyranny. And, it is so difficult to imagine doing that while raising children. But as the story eventually brings out, how could they not fight for a different way of life for their children?