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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Over There by Jane Loeb Rubin begins with Eli and Miriam, a newly married couple immediately thrust into World War I. After their honeymoon, Eli enlists in the Medical Corps just as they begin adjusting to married life. Miriam is unable to serve due to her disability but takes on a crucial role working at a hospital in New York. Eli and Ben, Miriam's uncle, also a physician, both board a hospital ship bound for France to assist in treating the wounded. Eli requests further training in trauma care and is sent to the front to gain experience firsthand, where the emotional and physical toll is brutal. Ben is in Paris, focused on his reconstructive surgery work at The American Hospital. Back in New York, Miriam, frustrated by her rejection by the Red Cross, secretly assumes the identity of a deceased nurse to join the war effort. Upon arriving in Paris, Miriam reunites with Ben, but her relationship with Eli begins to unravel when she discovers a terrible secret.
In Over There, Jane Loeb Rubin does a great job of piecing together the intersecting lives of four main characters—Miriam, Eli, Hannah, and Ben—with each narrating their perspective in alternating first-person voices. This unique structure allows readers to connect a bit deeper with the characters and their individual battles. I was drawn in further when it came to Hannah, whose story I felt was the most fragile. Out of everyone, with a husband and niece abroad, and children who were handling their confusion in difficult ways, Hannah had the most to lose. I'm incredibly grateful that Rubin was sympathetic in that depiction. And yes, we get knee-deep into the devastating realities of World War I, but there's also the lesser-known impact of the influenza pandemic, of which I knew nothing and found particularly fascinating. Rubin's attention to detail about the war and its effects on soldiers, medical staff, and civilians is great, and the writing is comfortable and clean, making the story a solid entry into the historical fiction canon.
