R Review of “CALL THE MIDWIFE, Jennifer Worth’s Memoir
By
Loretta Paraguassu
Reaching the last page of this
engrossing memoir is like walking away from a neighborhood where you have
settled in and become part of people’s lives. Worth carefully stitches together
her experiences as a midwife living in the 1950s with nuns who gave their lives
to God and to child-bearing women in the poverty-stricken east side of London.
The reader rides with Jennie Lee on her
bicycle through the neighborhoods and learns – in detail – what it was like and
what she encountered. She also schools us on the details of her practice – the instruments she used, how babies were
delivered then, the long hours she spent and the emotional involvement it took.
Having watched a number of “Call the
Midwife” episodes produced for television by PBS – based on the book, of course
– there were any number of “oh, that’s what it really meant” or “now I
understand why that person reacted the way he or she did” – awakenings after
plowing through the book. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was as simple and
straightforward as the TV rendition would have you believe.
It would be wrong to say that the PBS
version does the book a disservice. However, the depth of the characters and
their motivations are clearly impossible to communicate in scenes that flicker
past in rapid rotation. It took courage to attempt as ambitious a project this
one and the television version does an excellent job of bringing Worth’s world
back to life.
For
instance, there were more shocks and surprises about babies that were born
black – and one that might have been black. We get a picture of immigrants coming
into the neighborhoods and repercussions in personal lives. It’s a very
interesting part of history that is rarely explored. With the luxury of more
time and space, the written version presents this issue in a way that explains
the bigger picture.
There are also revelations that some of
the glitzy, romantic scenes we see on the television screen weren’t based on
the original book. (Surprise?) The relationship between Jennie Lee and Jimmy?
Don’t look for it in the memoir. Chummy and her romance with the constable?
Also, not to be found. Even the girls going out to a dance together -- if it
happened, Worth wasn’t sharing. Some of it is “prettified” and probably has to
be for the sake of keeping an audience on board.
The very dramatic kidnapping of a baby
by a young woman Irish woman named Mary is powerful on-screen. Once again, the
depth of Mary’s story is far more powerful in the book. The reader is given
insights into her background and her relationship with Jennie Lee that
television simply doesn’t have the time or structure to present.
Worth’s book is, indeed, a very
well-written, page turner. It’s hard to say it’s “better“ than the television
series. It comes down to simply being a different animal. Anyone who has
enjoyed the television series should enjoy the book – and vice versa.
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