Bad Juliet by Giles Blunt

Giles Blunt is an accomplished writer who has recreated particular aspects of the world of 1915-1916 with great attention to detail, a strong sense of verisimilitude, and highly polished wordsmithing. The setting for this work of historical fiction is a tuberculosis sanitorium in the Adirondack Mountains. The narrator, a failed academic, is Paul Gascoyne who reluctantly takes a position as tutor to some of the patients requiring diversion. Cocky, droll, pretentious and having been recently jilted by the love of his life, Gascoyne amuses himself by attempting to seduce one of the nurses. His initial impressions of the sanitorium are worth reproducing:

I was at first appalled to see people behaving as if there were no danger of infection.  How could they sit next to each other without fear? But Dr. Tissot calmed me down on that score.  Saranac Lake, he assured me, had not had a single case of anyone – anyone – catching tuberculosis from a patient.  Knowing, as they did, that the tubercle thrived in conditions of darkness, dirt, and poor ventilation the san’s founders had set out to create conditions of the exact opposite, and thoroughly succeeded.  Sunlight and fresh air were the patients’ best friends, and they got more of it than anyone could have asked for.  The cough was treated with pastilles, creosote inhalations, and sometimes opium.  Signs admonishing No Spitting - $50 Fine were everywhere and rigorously enforced.

As Gascoyne becomes acclimatized, he begins to interact with the patients, tutoring them in poetry, fiction and memoir writing. One of his patients is a frail young woman named Sarah Ballard who had survived the sinking of the RMS Lusitania (sunk by a German Navy U-boat off the coast of Ireland in 1915). Gascoyne is immediately drawn to her.

Much like the ending in The Great Gatsby, one is left wondering about the illusive nature of fulfillment and genuine happiness for Blunt’s characters.

Sarah is a talented painter suffering not only from tuberculosis by ennui brought about by the inconsistent attentions of her beloved, the famous playwright Jasper Keene. Although Jasper is also a patient at the sanitorium, he disappears for weeks at a time with no explanation. During his absences, Gascoyne convinces Sarah to write her memoir and is both fascinated and horrified by Sarah’s stories. The sinking of the RMS Lusitania is one of her many accounts:

It was all such confusion, such chaos. We had been in port cabins but the lifeboats on that side were unusable, the ship was listing too far the other way.  Which meant we were not exactly first in line for a starboard lifeboat. The ship was sinking so fast the bow was already under water. People say this or that was ‘like a nightmare,’ but I’ve never had a nightmare that compared to this. Suddenly, the world was ending.  The sea, which just minutes ago had been placid and welcoming, had turned into this monster, this ferocity incarnate, boiling up the deck intent on devouring us, swallowing the entire ship. I did manage to get into a boat, but the ship was levelling out by then – I suppose from all the water in the lower decks and so on – so the lifeboat practically lowered itself to the water. Or rather, the ship lowered it as it sank.  But they couldn’t cut the rope – a man was hacking at it with an axe and the ship was coming down right beside us. I don’t have words to describe the sheer size, the immensity of it… threw everyone into the sea. When I came up, the screams were unbearable —

Some of Sarah’s tales are so appalling that Gascoyne has difficulty knowing how much of what she is recounting is truth and how much was simply intended to shock. As Gascoyne endeavors to define himself as a poet or novelist, he is unwittingly drawn further into the drama and mystery of Sarah’s tales. The characters, while not particularly endearing, are well-drawn and memorable. There’s a Nick Carraway feel to the narration, and the thrust of the narrative is well-paced and engaging. Much like the ending in The Great Gatsby, one is left wondering about the illusive nature of fulfillment and genuine happiness for Blunt’s characters.

This is an impressive work by a gifted writer.

Giles Blunt grew up in North Bay, Ontario, before studying English Literature at the University of Toronto. The author of twelve novels, including the award-winning John Cardinal Mystery series, Blunt has more recently turned to literary fiction with Bad Juliet. He lives in Toronto.

Publisher: Dundurn Press (August 5th, 2025)
Paperback: 8″ x 6″ | 352 pp
ISBN: 9781459755727

Lucy E. M. Black

Website

Lucy E.M. Black (she/her/hers) is the author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks and Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth. A Quilting of Scars will be released October 2025. Her award-winning short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada. She is a dynamic workshop presenter, experienced interviewer and freelance writer. She lives with her partner in the small lakeside town of Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations.