The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman

A realistic and hopeful story, even when you can’t imagine how anyone can be hopeful in some of these circumstances, makes for a down-to-earth narrative of America’s working class and one woman’s survival and happiness against all odds. Race, poverty and a mining community after a financial disaster is what takes center stage as Patience visits families who need her help, even when she isn’t sure what she can do for them. There is some romance in this book but it’s not at the forefront. If you love Appalachian stories, THE MIDWIFE OF HOPE RIVER is fascinating and full of interesting characters. I really enjoyed Patricia Harman’s storytelling style. The people are a variety of race and poverty levels, some made recently poor by the stock market crash, others who have lived their whole lives poor, but all are rich in their faith and friendships, often providing for each other. Throughout the book we meet her patients, her past and her future, getting a glimpse of the births through Patience’s journal which she diligently keeps. Can a union defender and protector of equality not only survive this hard life but eventually be happy with it? Society isn’t pleased with this arrangement and the Klu Klux Klan is forming in West Virginia. Patience is white and her new friend is black. Patience takes in another woman’s daughter to teach her midwifing and to keep her company, per the mother’s request. Hiding out in the mountains is a good way to be anonymous but not always the most profitable. Chickens, wood, coal or a quilt will be her best payments. No jobs equals no money to pay the midwife.

The stock market crashed, not that Patience had any money invested but this means that businesses are failing right and left. Can her secrets stay safe in this coal mining community? Midwifery is what she can do while she hides out from the law for her past misdeeds.

Times are hard after Prohibition and a thirty-six-year-old widow can barely make it alone.

Death has become fairly constant in her life, having lost family, friends, the two men she loved as well as her only child, so helping other women is what Patience needs for her own healing. Taught the trade by one of the women, Patience ends up as the only midwife in rural West Virginia when her friend dies. Patience Murphy becomes a midwife by default when her husband dies and she moves in with two women who give her shelter. Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (August 28, 2012) The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman A wonderful depiction of a midwife’s life in 1930s Appalachia.