The Light of Luna Park

The Light of Luna  Park is  written  by Addison Armstrong. She has written  this novel at the age of 24 and that gives her a long career of writing more interesting and entertaining historical novels.   I  enjoyed this book, though I did not think it was the most sophisticated writing style I have faith she will improve with experience.  

The subject matter of this plot carries the book. Looking at the idea of high infant mortality rates in this  country during the early 20th century.  We look  back to the beginning of neonatal care in hospitals.   To  think that it was pushed forward by a man who set up incubators at Luna Park, Coney Island, NY and on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ.  He was really  using the babies who were premature and could survive if started out in an incubator as a tourist attraction, but amazingly he was really onto a serious scientific sound idea.  He was able to save hundreds of babies.

In this novel, Armstrong takes the idea and creates a nurse who has seen the incubators and has delivered babies prematurely, who are going to die in the hospital.  She decides that even though the babies are on display, the chance of survival might be worth it.  Challenging the doctor she works with in the hospital is risking her career as a nurse, but finally it is one child too many that is left to die.  The doctor and the parents don't believe int he possibility of the incubator.

Althea Anderson is a young woman on her own going to nursing school at Bellevue Hospital.  Life for a woman alone in 1926  is difficult, but one night Althea decides to risk it all for a baby born two months too early.  She decides to save a baby's life against the order of the doctor and the wishes of the father.

It will drastically change the trajectory of her life.  This story line is told along side that of 25 year old Stella Wright,  a young, newly married school teacher.  Her mother has just died and she is having a crisis of faith in her teaching ability.   Working with special needs students that she is not properly trained for, she doubts herself.  She misses her mother and when she goes to close up the apartment she grew up in she begins to uncover a confusing past. 

Althea tells her story as Stella slowly discovers hers.  Stella's husband Jack is there dealing with his own demons following his return from war.   The year is 1950.  Stella and Jack are working to keep their marriage together as they both deal with their secrets.

The writing is a bit stilted but the story  is entertaining and the history is interesting so you will want to keep reading until the end of this novel.