Love’s slings and arrows
The Roads We Take
by Christy K. Lee
Toronto: Rising Action Publishing, 2023
$21.99 / 9781998076062
Reviewed by Valerie Green
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A historical novel with an opening line that reads: “There was just so much damn blood,” immediately draws the reader into a story that promises to be a compelling read.
Langley-based Christy K. Lee does not disappoint with her debut novel The Roads We Take, a story of one of Canada’s first female physicians, Clara Thomas, which begins in April 1885. Against her parents’ wishes for her, Clara attended medical school back east and now has a dream of her own—to open her own medical clinic as a practicing doctor.
As a woman, she had already faced scorn in medical school, so understands the battles she will be facing ahead. The only way her father eventually allowed her to follow her chosen career was to serve in a military camp infirmary in Saskatchewan. This was during the North-West Rebellion of Métis under Louis Riel and an associated uprising of Cree and Assiniboine against the Canadian government. Even then, he sent Clara there under the watchful eye of a serving officer, John McKay. He hoped she would eventually agree to marry McKay, settle down, and raise a family, but Clara had no desire to marry him.
Luckily for Clara, the camp’s doctor, Dr. Cameron, could see her talent as a doctor and often called on her to assist him in surgeries such as limb amputations on soldiers brought in from the battlefield. Eventually, he even allows her to perform her own amputation surgeries.
Clara befriends an Irish immigrant, Brendan Murphy, who comes to the infirmary for her help, and through him she is drawn into his Irish community living in the camp—his sister, Rebecca, who is pregnant, and their friend Marty. When they have enough money, they all plan to head west and homestead.
When Clara discovers that the man she is expected to marry had raped Rebecca (who is now carrying his child), she is appalled. McKay thinks she is becoming too friendly with the Murphys and turns his aggressive behaviour to her. In no time, Clara is looking for a way to escape. Brendan offers to marry her, and she agrees. She feels an attraction for him even though they come from vastly different backgrounds and she knows virtually nothing about him. But marriage will allow her to leave the camp, escape from John McKay, and travel west, where she hopes she will be able to open a medical clinic.
After she becomes Brendan’s wife, she realizes she has made a terrible mistake. He is an angry man and a violent alcoholic and has what his sister describes as “a melancholy”—that today would be known as deep depression about his past life in Ireland.
Brendan has no intention of allowing his wife to work and things soon become tense between them. Upon arrival in British Columbia, the four of them and a young Chinese girl they call Jo settle on an acreage. Clara has rescued Jo from a life of poverty and malnutrition and brought her with them despite Brendan’s opposition. He temporarily goes along with the arrangement because Clara’s father had purchased the acreage for his daughter even though he has misgivings about her sudden marriage and really wants her to come home to Ottawa and the life of wealth she was born into.
That’s where the story becomes a heartbreaking love story, because Clara soon feels a strong and binding attraction for their neighbour, Joaquim, a divorced man and father of five. He feels the same attraction for her, and it grows into strong love between them when he realizes how badly her drunken, lazy husband treats her. He is also a doctor as well as a hard worker on his homestead in addition to raising his children alone after his wife abandoned them all.
The author’s characters are all strong as they develop and grow throughout the story. With words like “I ache for you, Clara, with my body and my soul,” Lee clearly describes a love affair that cannot be consummated because of society morals. She makes her readers feel the despair of family loss, witness the graphic medical scenes and the eloquent, beautiful birth scenes, and experience first-hand the harrowing deaths, all told in rich descriptive detail of the era. The love between Clara and Joaquim must survive all of this if they are ever to be together. The story builds up in emotional tenor to an exciting but violent end.
Throughout the story, Lee depicts an age where a woman’s rights and choices were always decided by her husband. And she’s created the strong character of a woman who must decide between true love and convention. All told, The Roads We Take tells an engrossing story about Clara, a talented doctor and loving woman trying to find the right path to take in late Victorian Canada.
[Editor’s note: In support of The Fort, her forthcoming historical novel, Christy K. Lee will be reading at the following BC locations: Chapters Coquitlam May 24 (1-4pm); Indigo Victoria July 12 (12-3pm); Indigo Langley July 13 (12-4pm); Chapters Nanaimo July 19 (12-3pm). Please check Events listings in individual stores to confirm times and dates.]
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Valerie Green was born and educated in England, where she studied journalism and law. Her passion was always for writing from the moment she first held a pen. After working at the world-famous Foyles Books in London (followed by a brief stint with MI5 and legal firms), she moved to Canada in 1968 and embarked on a long career as a freelance writer, columnist, and author of over twenty nonfiction historical and true-crime books. In 2024, Hancock House released Tomorrow, the final volume of The McBride Chronicles (after Providence, Destiny, and Legacy). Now semi-retired (although writers never really retire!) Green enjoys taking short road trips around BC with her husband, watching their two beloved grandsons grow up and, of course, writing. [Editor’s note: Valerie Green has recently reviewed books by Faye Bayko, Joanne Thomson, Joan Steacy, R.W. Butler, John D’Eathe, M.A.C Farrant, Olga Campbell, and Beka Shane Denter for BCR.]
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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