Interview With Jane Rubin On The New Release Of Over There
1. Over There is your newest book. What is it about? Over There, the third installment of the Gilded City trilogy, immerses readers in the gripping journey of four family members from Threadbare and In The Hands of Women all dedicated doctors and nurses facing the daunting realities of The Great War. The narrative unfolds across three distinct stages, transporting readers from New York City into the terrifying nightmare of trench warfare, showcasing the magnificent rise of the American Hospital in Paris, while highlighting groundbreaking medical innovations fueled by the unwavering commitment of healthcare workers, and finally, those left home in a state of constant worry. This powerful book addresses war’s often-overlooked, profound impact on children, evoking a deep sense of empathy and prompting critical reflection on the cost of war.
2. It is your third historical novel in a trilogy. What draws you to the subject matter? War is both a daunting and exciting challenge for a writer. The key for me was to ensure the setting was accurate, reflecting the realities of the war while bringing forward into the center stage the characters and their emotions. My adored Isaacson family loved their adopted country so much that three fought as soldiers (Jake, Martin, and Julian), and three served to care for the wounded (Ben, Eli, and Miriam). Their service and sacrifice reflected how many new immigrants felt about America. Some served as a means to fast-track their citizenship, while others saw their new home as a uniquely safe place worth protecting. It is interesting to note that twenty Jewish soldiers earned the Medal of Honor.
3. What were the first two award-winning books in the series about, leading up to your newest one? Threadbare is the fictional immigrant story of my great-grandmother, Tillie. Although the novel includes a few facts I could gather, her character embodies many immigrants’ determination and grit. It also focuses on some of the significant issues of the time: disease, poor medical care, discrimination, and misogyny.
In The Hands of Women centers around Hannah, Tillie’s younger sister, one of the first female obstetricians in New York City. The novel is set in Baltimore and New York City in 1900 when birth control and abortion were both illegal. Hannah, a devoted women’s advocate and suffragist is determined to make a difference and joins Margaret Sanger in her crusade to overturn the restrictive Comstock Laws prohibiting birth control. After coming to the aid of a woman dying from a botched abortion, Hannah is charged with murder and sent to the terrifying Blackwell’s Prison to await her trial. With the support of influential friends, including the female trustees of Johns Hopkins Medical School, she challenges the Governor of New York with a novel proposition.
4. Your books have been meticulously researched. Tell us how you went about achieving historical accuracy in your books. Before beginning the writing process, I spend two to four months researching the period’s geographic location, political and social climate, state of healthcare, and so forth. Once the opening scene comes to me, I begin drafting the novel. However, I constantly research the details as I write—from common expressions to clothing, music, tools, and inventions.
5. Your trilogy takes us to the time of the Great War over a century ago. What was lifelike back then? In many ways, it was the beginning of the modern era in New York. Women were on the cusp of the vote, women’s fashions were evolving, becoming more comfortable and sensible, and many innovations such as cars, indoor plumbing, furnaces, electricity, and telephones were part of the American fabric. Although modern medicine, as we know it today, was still in its infancy, the war fueled significant advancements in anesthesia, antiseptics, and surgery. For the first time, X-rays and blood transfusions were administered close to the battlefield. In 1914, when the war began, ambulances were horse-drawn. By the end of the war, they were all motorized.
6. How do you write about war’s frightening impact on children? As naturally imaginative beings, children can stoke their fears with little real information. Emotional reactions are broad and often age-based. The children in my novel lived in New York City, away from the fighting, but they knew the dangers their fathers faced were real. My main character, Albert, was an adolescent, and like his peers, he became increasingly physical and challenging.
7. The jarring reality of trench warfare comes to life in your books. What do you want to portray about it? This element of the book posed a challenge for me as I didn’t want to repel my audience with the extensive violence and turn them away from the novel. By focusing on the medical aftermath of the battles and the reaction of the doctors and nurses, I was able to indirectly take my readers into the soldiers’ worlds, fears, and physical devastation. I can only imagine how terrified the soldiers were.
8. You had a successful three-decade career as a healthcare executive. Is this why your books write of the unimagined medical innovations owed to the dedication of healthcare workers? I have had a lifelong fascination with medical discoveries and innovation, beginning in my elementary school library, where I read every medical biography that I could lay my hands on - Madam Curie, Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, Alexander Fleming, and so forth. As a healthcare executive, I was passionate about introducing new physicians to the medical staff who brought more advanced, less invasive surgical skills and procured the equipment and training needed to elevate patient care.
9. What social lessons are shared in your trilogy, such as women’s rights or immigration? The most general and essential is the repetitive nature of social and political mistakes. In the first book, Threadbare, the protagonist, Tillie, invents a unique garment product and is practically squelched by misogynist men who try to steal her idea. The root issue is their disregard for women. In The Hands of Women explores the deep and often fatal price women paid when they lost control over family planning. Over There poses the question of whether the benefits of war outweigh the costs and the critical role battlefield nurses played.
10. How do your books reveal the cost of war? The most significant cost is always human – families destroyed, life potential ended. 17 million soldiers died in WW1. To further amplify the losses, the returning soldiers became vectors of the worldwide spread of Spanish Flu, claiming an additional 20 million lives. Ironically, many soldiers responding to a call for arms had no clue what they were fighting for. Many if not most, historians view the Great War as pointless, as it left behind severe economic challenges across the globe, setting the stage for WW2.
11. Why do you describe lower Manhattan at the dawn of the 20th century as poor, filthy, and combusting with talent and pent-up ambition? As a historical novelist, it is critical that I set my characters in an accurate world. From the Hudson River to the East River, in Lower Manhattan, people struggled with overcrowding, poverty, and disease. But many of our industrialists, inventors, entertainers, and scholars came from that world. The two generations of assimilated immigrants who fertilized that explosion of American assets are the fodder for my books.
12. Are you surprised at your books’ praise from best-selling authors. Kirkus Reviews and the Historical Novel Society? As a relatively new entrant to the historical fiction world, I am both pleased and humbled.
13. What, if anything, has been the greatest challenge for you in writing these books? Time—there never seems to be enough of it. I am a very organized writer, but historical fiction is never straight writing. Not only is there constant stopping and restarting to research, but plot and character ideas are not linear for me. As a panzer by nature, I prefer to have the ideas flow organically, and every once in a while, I need to shake things loose with a brisk two-mile walk or hot shower.
14. Your first book was your memoir, detailing, in part, how you are a two-time cancer survivor. Do you have any advice for those diagnosed with a life-threatening disease? My guiding principles and what I diligently practice are the following:
• Live
every day to the fullest with a healthy dose of hope and humor.
• Engage
in the activities that make you happy.
• Don’t
put off your bucket list.
• Stay
away from negative people.
• Treasure your family.
After I complete my fourth book (which will take my Isaacson family into the birth of the Borscht Belt in the Catskills—yes, bootleggers and the Ku Klux Klan), I hope to write a second memoir that shares what I’ve learned in my sixteen years of survivorship.
15. How has your medical fight shaped your writing? My cancer diagnosis drove me to write. I had always wanted to put pen to paper but was blinded by my responsibilities and the need to make practical choices. It was the diagnosis of a deadly, incurable cancer that made me realize how short life could be and the importance of using my time in ways that felt important to my heart.
For more information, please see: www.janeloerubin.com.
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