Publisher: Mt Kisco, NY: Pinto Press

ISBN: 0-9755677-0-5

The following review was contributed by: John Walsh & CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's Reviews

During the Prohibition Era, the region of the Adirondack Mountains became noted for its proximity to Canada and hence a potential source for illegally imported alcohol. It was also noted as the base for treatment clinics for people suffering from tuberculosis. In her enjoyable and moving novel of the Adirondacks, Patricia Reiss Brooks has combined these two elements and framed them in a human and humane love story among the best and the worst of people.

Joe Devlin walks hundreds of miles in the snowy midwinter in order to reach his wife, Alice, who has been sent Conifer Cottage in the slim hope that the mountain air can cure her of the horrible wasting disease to which she is subject. His determination to be with her and his subsequent diligence and determination to support her as best he may, earn the respect of those who come across him. Just as well, because the mountains are home to bandits and criminals as much as they are to laconic but good-hearted hunters and farmers. Joe does what he feels he has to do to pay for Alice’s expensive treatment by becoming involved with the rum runners and their louche lifestyle. Alice, meanwhile, is obliged to endure endless days of sitting in the cold air, being relentlessly optimistic and trying not to think of any negative thoughts, despite the presence of sickness all around and the decline of so many of her fellow patients. She is also required to face the discrimination that affected all victims of the disease – or ‘lungers’ as they are somewhat unkindly termed. Forced to look inwards, the patients develop their own habits and customs and create a brittle, slightly desperate community. The descriptions of the two societies, the patients and the rum runners, are perhaps the most interesting parts of this novel. They certainly brought alive a community which was not previously known to me, although Americans presumably know more of this history.

Tuberculosis has in the past been regarded as something of a romantic disease, with images of frail young poets taking the cure in the Swiss Alps while penning slim volumes of lyric verse. The reality is somewhat less pleasant and it is a matter of great concern that this disease is now increasing in prevalence in so many inner cities. There is said to be a connection with poor health care for people who are migrants from certain countries and this points out the need for much greater levels of effective health care for international travellers.

John Walsh, Shinawatra International University, April 2005