Having dealt with the coronavirus for nearly a year, I found myself pouring over the characters how they deal with an issue that affected the world so greatly 100 years ago.
The issue that truly hit home to me as the reader, however, was when the Bright’s new life came to a screeching halt when faced with the Spanish Influenza pandemic. Pauline chooses to assist the mortician by doing the hair and makeup of the dead, which gives her ample opportunity to think about her recently dead son and how thin the line is between the living and the dead. While many new opportunities such as better schools, new friends, and friendly neighbors come with the Brights’ life in Philadelphia, so does the nearness of living among the dead. The Brights have unique challenges that any “modern-day” American could never wrap their head around: problems transition from finding space to dry tobacco leaves to roll cigars in Quakertown, to suppressing dangerous curiosity of a new home–in a mortuary. A curious Maggie who becomes engulfed in her neighbors’ lives, and an intelligent Evelyn “Evie” who pours over books and aspires to become a doctor. A young Willa who hardly sees the world beyond the tip of her nose and toys. A mother grieving the loss of her infant son, developing a mindset and relationship with death while managing a household with three daughters.
Meissner manages to tie together a story told from multiple perspectives. Who wants to listen to their mother’s recommendation? Well, I’m glad I did.Īs Bright as Heaven follows the Bright family: Thomas, Pauline, Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa, as they transition their lives from the small town of Quakerville, PA, to the city of Philadelphia during World War I. Unbeknownst to her, the story would become relevant in 2020 readers’ lives.Īs a historical fiction devotee myself, I picked up this book expecting a well-written war story, and while that desire was fulfilled, I had no idea that I would end up relating so closely to the events and characters.Īctually my mother, a librarian at the Walkersville Public Library, urged me to read it. In 2018, author Susan Meissner released a fictional story about a small family that comes face to face with the Spanish Flu in 1918.
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