Surgeon in Blue: Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War Doctor Who Pioneered Battlefield Care
By: Scott McGaugh / Narrated By: Kyle Munley
Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
Premise? COMPELLING!!! Execution? …uhm… not so much…
Amazon tells me that I’ve thought Surgeon in Blue would be an AWEsome work about the life and times of Civil War surgeon Jonathan Letterman since waaaaay back August 1, 2016. Yup, it’s been sitting in my Library since then, and it’s only been since I’ve been all doleful and woeful about the state of the nation that NOW is the time I’ve given it a thought.
I must disclose that I was swayed by the Publisher’s Summary (You see, back then I was an avid reader of them and believed it when they told me this that the other); I was swayed by the rave reviews which stated how gritty it was and what an important addition it was to Civil War historical research. So I was pretty happy that it got the most votes when it came to my Next Listen. After all, the other audiobooks I offered looked pretty gosh awfully depressing and sad. Civil + War = Bummer, who knew?
So I pretty excitedly dived in; after all this was coming after a string of nifty Thanksgiving Listens, so a gritty bio was something I was in the mood for.
Okay, first thing… I’m preeeeeetty sure there were some glitches when it came to technicalities like names and such. Now, I’m totally not a Civil War know it all, but I’m pretty sure it’s not John Longstreet, not A.G. Hill (Don’t ask me their proper names cuz like I said, I’ve not wallowed in Civil War history, but I HAVE listened to a few and I’m fairly certain that’s not them…) So as far as coming off as historically pinpointed, I dunno.
Oh nooooo! Okay, no really: FIRST thing! The narration! Egad!!! Kyle Munley could not POSsibly sound any less enthusiastic than he does for the most part of this audiobook. Generally, I up my listening speed to x1.2-x1.5 cuz I’m just easily agitated by ponderous narrations. For this? Good heavens, I listened at x2 just so it sounded like Munley cared about SOMEthing, added some pacing instead of droning the entire text.
Which is verrrrry unfortunately because, it turns out, the entire text is sorely lacking also. I get it, back then lives were shorter, and also unfortunately, Jonathan Letterman’s life was fairly brief, soooooo drag his enTIRe life out, right? Author Scott McGaugh draaaaags out Letterman’s stints at various forts prior to the Civil War, letting us know about how he treated malaria, how he didn’t get on with this superior, what all this or that of his superiors were up to, bureaucratic details left and right.
Add to this that Letterman didn’t spend the entire Civil War as a surgeon but left to become a wildcatter in California then a coroner, and I was feeling a tad sorry for m’self several hours in. Indeed, this over 11 hour listen coulda been a heckuva lot shorter, and it would’ve been nice to get more Civil War thrown in, esPECially when calling the whole shebang Surgeon in Blue. Make no mistake, what Letterman did during his time, what he saw, the innovations he made, was awesome. We’re shown just how battles were viewed then fought at the time, how the fantastical: This whole war’ll be over so soon mentality was shattered by the reality of shredded men, limbs torn, bleeding, heads nearly torn off, having to walk to hospitals that didn’t exist just yet, to find tiny depots of ill-prepared medical services all lacking even the most basic of supplies. No stretcher bearers, nothing.
Letterman immediately saw the needs, and he immediately organized and administrated. Scintillating!
Then we go off to him drilling hopelessly for oil wells, of him (Tragically) misdiagnosing his young wife, then pretty soon he up and dies, and then we get a smattering of what all his brothers were up to. I’m telling you, I got more from the Wikipedia article on him.
So I guess, whilst I’m rather panning this audiobook here, I should at least own that it piqued my interest to the extent that I was driven to Wikipedia the man. And ANY work that makes me hit Google or Wikipedia for more info should be lauded for that, at the very least.
Nope, not what I was expecting, but a very compelling man and premise indeed.
… juuuuust those glitches…. juuuuust that narration… juuuuust wish it coulda been more battlefield less bureaucracy…!
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