The Wet Nurse's Tale

June 1, 2009
In her first novel, Eisdorfer offers as a guide to Victorian England her entertaining and surprising protagonist, Susan Rose. A bawdy young woman who could easily have walked off the pages of The Canterbury Tales
, Susan ends up wet-nursing after getting unexpectedly and illicitly pregnant, and her alcoholic and abusive father forces her to leave her child and take up the occupation. Her journey into the intimate lives of England’s upper crust proves an illuminating and dangerous one as Susan jumps from family to family—until her father sells her son. As Susan attempts to balance other peoples’ babies with her quest to regain her own, she is faced with difficult choices between duty and love, and between her life and her child’s. Whether she is carousing in the Jewish quarter or planning how to reclaim her son, Susan navigates the stratified social world with humorous vigor. A promiscuous, randy and hefty lady, Susan’s a vibrant character, at once sweet and scheming, and given to such a crass frankness that even readers wary of historicals may want to give this a look.

July 15, 2009
Illegitimate pregnancies lead to a career in lactation in Chapel Hill bookseller Eisdorfer's inventive first novel.

Victorian ladies who couldn't or wouldn't breast-feed their infants hired someone like Susan Rose to do it for them. Susan, one of ten children, leaves her farm family in the English village of Leighton to work as a scullery maid at the local Great House. Soon, however, her Rubenesque figure and generosity with her favors lands her in trouble. After several meetings in the pantry with the master's son, Freddie Bonney, she leaves the Manor; unbeknownst to her employer, she is about to give birth. Furious at the prospect of one more mouth to feed, her venal, drunken father Tom is mollified when his wife, herself a retired wet nurse, finds Susan lucrative employment as live-in milk source for a succession of families in nearby Aubrey. But she can't take baby Joey with her, and he dies after being weaned too soon. While in Aubrey, Susan has a brief affair with a Jewish dentist. When work dries up, she goes back to the Manor and resumes trysting with Freddie. Assuming (erroneously) that Freddie is the father of Susan's second out-of-wedlock baby, Tom blackmails the Bonneys, who farm out infant Davey to their London cousin, Mrs. Norval. Insinuating herself into the Norval household as a wet nurse, Susan soon discovers that Mrs. Norval is decidedly not the maternal type; in fact, she's psychotic. Playing on her mistress's delusions, Susan concocts a subterfuge, too delicious to reveal here, that enables her to rescue Davey from the Bonneys' misguided charity. Periodic set pieces illustrating reasons for surrogate suckling reflect exhaustive research but interrupt the story's flow. Susan is such an appealing narrator and heroine, however, that readers will cheer on her quest for a true home.

An engaging romp propelled by Susan's infectious voice and determined resilience.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 15, 2009
Bawdy Susan Rose grows up in Victorian England watching her mother serve as a wet nurse to supplement her drunken father's wages. She knows that her homeliness and impoverished background relegate her to a lowly status, but, seeking a better life, she works as a maid at the Big House. Never one to turn down pleasure, she becomes the young master's lover, which results in pregnancy. What is an uneducated, unwed mother to do, aside from engaging in the lucrative profession of wet-nursing? But temptation leads Susan astray again, and a second illegitimate child is sent away by her father. Frantic, Susan sets off to locate the baby and lands in the foster home where he has been placedas his wet nurse. VERDICT Susan is blatantly immoral, but readers will be charmed by her lively voice. This and the cast of quirky characters, along with a fascinating glimpse into the underbelly of Victorian life, make up for a somewhat thin plot. Recommended for fans of Philippa Gregory (see review on this page), although this novel is lighter fare. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 4/1/09.]Jamie Kallio, Thomas Ford Lib., Western Springs, IL

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