Next Patient, Dr Anne
Gilzean
Original publication: 1959
For today’s #FridayFiction, I am indulging in my love of nurse romance with this oldie, but goodie. Dr Anne is somewhat unusual for the nurse romance genre, since this woman decides to be a DOCTOR! Best of all, she actually becomes a doctor. Anne fails her entrance exam, while boyfriend Jonathon heads off to medical school without her. She spends the next year working and studying and then finally is accepted. Jonathon, is already there and is evidently not the same guy she knew when she was planning her life. There are a few hints that he isn’t the one from the get go. However, fellow doctor pal Bill, who was not quite on Anne’s love radar, professes his love for Anne.
Given the pub date, I was so glad that Anne did not quit medicine to “be a real woman”. She struggles and makes mistakes, gets yelled at by nurses, and works hard. I like that she is not necessarily portrayed as some serene goddess of perfection. She seems to mature through the book as both an adult woman and a doctor.
Mary
I am laughing at the top of page 25, and pleased that a really old Harlequin isn’t as musty or disgusting as all of the others. Archive.org doesn’t have it, but does have one of her other books, “Children’s Hospital” https://archive.org/details/childrenshospita0000gilz
Page 5 just taught me the word ‘plumule,’ which I had never heard before!
In this case, a monocotyledon?
A Harlequin Romance, no less! Next: write these types of books to pass the Bechdel test. Then they wouldn’t be the typical romance, no? Yes; no.