Sacrament: A Novel, Susan Straight, author; Stacy Gonzalez, Marisol Ramirez, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Jasmin Walker, narrators.
Nurses Larette and Charisse may be important characters in this novel, but it is their shared experience with family, patients, and others from diverse backgrounds, that were, and are possibly still today impacted by the Covid virus, that illuminates Covid’s ongoing effect on all of us. The interaction with Rachel, Charisse’s daughter and Grief, Larette’s husband, serves to add authenticity to this story as the ravages of the Covid pandemic on society continues even now. It is through these characters that we witness and remember Covid’s effect on all of our daily lives, as it forced necessary changes and challenges that everyone had to face.
Covid created anxiety. It emphasized the need to have a strong sense of devotion and loyalty to each other, in order to deal with the hoarding and scarcities of products to come, and the inevitable loss of loved ones. We would all have to face loss and grief. In the beginning, there was simply little that could be done to fight the disease. The” trial and error” approach, often resulted in errors. So, this is a heartfelt and often heartbreaking tale, but those of us still standing are filled with the hope of building a better future for all of us.
The author has exposed the details and the ramifications of the inadequate, often “fly by night” rules, and/or lack of them, developed in the earliest stages of the pandemic. Unfortunately, we were largely ignorant of the disease, and our understanding of how to treat Covid only slowly evolved. Kudos to the author for enlightening the reader, with such clarity, to the sacrifices made by the dedicated workers in the medical profession and also in the other essential service fields. These workers had to overcome their own fears as they faced their daily, traumatic experiences while they feared for their own safety and the safety of their families.
At a time of such a disastrous event like a pandemic, that threatened the continuation of our very existence on earth, the loyalty and courage of essential workers was often either ignored or unappreciated. Their job performance was often thankless. Their inability to save many victims was often cause for abusive criticism. The unreality that we all faced, of possible extinction, as we faced a danger that seemed beyond our control, created chaos in some circles of society; yet our dedicated professionals never seemed to give up hope or weaken and run from their responsibility to help those less fortunate, even when their own safety was threatened.
The author steered clear, for the most part, of politics, and instead concentrated on humanity and its ability to treat each other humanely. Responding to extreme measures, health care workers chose to remain and comfort the victims, helping the dying as they shuffled off this mortal coil without the benefit of their loved ones surrounding them. The morality of some of the choices made, by political entities and some in position of authority, was left out in this book. It was deemed to be a story for another day of judgment. For this book, we can only judge the devoted professionals and agree that they were angels of mercy. Although, some found this book slow in the beginning. I did not agree with that assessment. I was glad that my fear that it would become political was unfounded. It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.

I received this audio book from Netgalley

Four nurses are living in a trailer park during COVID in order to protect their family from COVID. They are sharing all aspects of their lives. I believe this book would have been better to read instead of listening to. They were way too many characters and I felt the story just jumped around a lot. There was also singing which I felt did not add anything to the story.