‘The Wonder’ Suspenseful and Well-Crafted

Eleven-year old Anna O’Donnell is a living miracle: She has not had anything to eat for four months. If this seems impossible, it is because it is actually impossible. Lib Wright—the protagonist and a nurse—sets out to prove this by taking up a job in the “dead centre” of Ireland. However, all of her expectations are shattered after she gets to know Anna. She realizes, “‘This fast, it’s Anna’s rock. Her daily task, her vocation.’” Everything else is likewise not as simple as it seems, and the book ultimately shapes up to be a shocking and suspenseful piece of work. With its well-drawn characters, unusual setting, and fluid plot, “The Wonder” shines.

Emma Donoghue, author of the international best-seller “Room,” flawlessly portrays her characters, as well as the emotional relationship between nurse and patient. Seemingly insignificant riddles, vulnerabilities on both of their parts, and Lib’s eventual choice to save Anna’s life establish their connection. The riddles cleverly show moments of bonding—“She repeated the [riddles] about wind, paper, and flame; she turned to Lib only to confirm one or two words”—that lead up to comfort and eventually love. Anna also confides in Lib, and Lib breaks formalities. A particularly tender moment occurs when Anna learns her nickname: “‘Lib,’ said Anna with a satisfied smile. ‘Hello, Lib.’ It was sweet to hear. Like childhood days, when Lib’s sister still looked up to her, when they’d thought they’d always have each other.”

Donoghue also successfully presents Lib as a special character both within and outside the novel because her voice is portrayed through third-person limited point-of-view, and she is the complete opposite of the other characters. She is singled out within the plot by her level of education (she was taught by Florence Nightingale), her religion (Protestant), and her country of origin (England) in contrast to most of the others characters, who are uneducated, Catholic, and Irish. The diction is so precise that it performs Lib’s educated mind with word choices such as “creosote,” “menses,” “antediluvian,” and “thaumatrope.” Also, the reader experiences the events of the novel entirely through Lib’s perspective. Donoghue distinguishes Lib from the rest of the characters through this distinctive point-of-view and contrast with the other characters.

The setting, an equally strong aspect of the novel, is original in that it is rarely used in novels. The story takes place in mid-19th century Ireland in a town that Lib describes as dull, extraordinarily ordinary, and poor. Not only a distinctive backdrop, the setting serves as an explanation for the popularity of Anna’s story. Little technology and a deeply religious country that suffered a famine a few years before successfully provide a motivation for the characters to believe that Anna can survive without eating.

The plot flows fluidly and rapidly as well. The beginning half of the novel opens with several curiosity-provoking mysteries and conflicts such as whether or not Anna is eating and where her brother has gone. The only distinct separations within the novel are short poems at the chapter breaks. These poems resemble definitions of the words “nurse,” “watch,” “fast,” “vigil,” and “shift,” which adds to the narrative continuity and tension by reflecting the events that occur within the chapter.

The greatest thematic paradox in the novel is that the O’Donnells, Dr. McBrearty (Anna’s doctor), and Mr. Thaddeus (the priest), all of whom are Catholics, do nothing to aid Anna, while Lib Wright, whom a character named William Byrne affectionately calls “blasphemous” and a “heathen,” does everything in her power to save Anna’s life. The narrator effectively criticizes the Catholics for their blind faith in the abstract and their blindness to the physical. They refuse to acknowledge the true psychological issues that Anna battles yet easily claim her to be a living miracle.

On top of all the book’s other strengths, Donoghue adds emotion to the novel by successfully convincing her audience that Lib will do anything for Anna, no matter the personal cost. When speaking to Sister Michael, Lib movingly asserts, “Good nurses follow rules, but the best know when to break them.” Sister Michael and William Byrne help Lib help Anna, but Sister Michael would never have disobeyed from orders if it were not for Lib, and William Byrne does everything primarily for Lib’s sake. There are people who want to help Anna, but Lib learns to love Anna like family.