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Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse's Life
Beautiful Unbroken One Nurse's Life
Author: Mary Jane Nealon
An unflinching memoir by a working nurse — As a child, Mary Jane Nealon dreams of growing up to become a saint or, failing that, a nurse. She idolizes Clara Barton, Kateri Tekakwitha, and Molly Pitcher, whose biographies she reads and rereads. But by the time she follows her calling to nursing school, her beloved younger brother is diagnosed with...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9781555975906
ISBN-10: 1555975909
Publication Date: 7/19/2011
Pages: 224
Edition: Original
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 7

3.9 stars, based on 7 ratings
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse's Life on + 191 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I really did not care for this book. It somehow seemed disjointed and not well put together. About a nurse who goes thru her life and tells her story. Some may like this book but it just wasen't my cup of tea.
nightprose avatar reviewed Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse's Life on + 112 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
For Mary Jane Nealon, she knew her entire life that she was meant to serve others. Her role models were saints, and those who could be saints: nurses, such as Clara Barton. She read the biographies of truly admirable women, mostly saints and nurses that she would strive to be like.

Mary Jane follows her dream into nursing school. There, her dream takes on a new and very personal meaning. Her younger brother becomes seriously ill with cancer. When she loses him to the disease, she finds healing for herself in her nursing career and in poetry.

Poets have used this medium for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. Poetry can put feelings into words helping to sort out feelings and events in ones life. It is cathartic and healing.

Writing poetry helped Mary Jane in her healing and coming to terms with issues, and it honed her skills as a writer. She brings her poetic sensitivity to her memoir. Here she speaks of some of her experiences as a nurse in many difficult, even desperate situations. She works for some time as a medical flight nurse. Later she works mens homeless shelters, and the first AIDS ward in New York City.

This is a remarkable book, beginning with a title that is appropriate and poetic. I dont know if she will achieve saint status, but I know some nurses should. Mary Jane Nealon may be one of them.
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