A Final Arc of Sky: A Memoir of Critical Care

by Jennifer Culkin

Overview

A critical care and emergency flight nurse, Jennifer Culkin is no stranger to death and its dramas, or the urgency that accompanies them. Her memoir plunges us into the chaos of emergency medicine at all altitudes, masterfully reflecting on the most pivotal moments of our lives and the beautiful fragility of our mortality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807073292
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	05/01/2010
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Culkin, winner of a 2008 Rona Jaffe Foundation Award, is a writer and longtime neonatal, pediatric, and adult critical care nurse. A graduate of Russell Sage College and the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University, her work has appeared in many literary magazines and in The Jack Straw Writers Anthology 2006.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One: The Shadow We Cast
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "A Final Arc of Sky"
by .
Copyright © 2010 Jennifer Culkin.
Excerpted by permission of Beacon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Chapter One: The Shadow We Cast
 
Chapter Two: A Hold on the Earth
 
Chapter Three: Omens
 
Chapter Four: Swimming in the Dark
 
Chapter Five: Some Inner Planet
 
Chapter Six: A Little Taste for the Edge
 
Chapter Seven: A Few Beats of Black Wing
 
Chapter Eight: Longview
 
Chapter Nine: New Worlds, Like Fractals
 
Chapter Ten: Theories of the Universe
 
Chapter Eleven: Night Vision
 
Chapter Twelve: Out There in the Deep

Editorial Reviews

In this compelling memoir, her moving reflections on life and death interweave clinical encounters with her own life. . . . Culkin sees herself and others clearly, and poetic juxtapositions make her sentences soar.—Publishers Weekly

"A marvelous writer, mixing tragedy and reflection with luminous prose . . . We are privileged to share her passion and heartbreak."—Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Talker

"With its perfect capture of the fragility of life and our vulnerable human bodies and bonds, A Final Arc of Sky . . . is a disturbing, powerful read."—Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times

"Rarely have we heard from such an eloquent yet urgent voice from the front lines of mortality. . . . Culkin writes with elegiac grace and unblinking honesty."—Robin Hemley, author of Invented Eden

"Absorbing . . . This former neonatal and pediatric intensive-care nurse has vivid memories of the tiny patients whose lives were in her hands, and she writes of them with warmth and clarity. . . . Powerful and lucid . . . The risks of being an emergency flight nurse-night flights, bad weather, human error-come fully alive. . . . Enthralling."—Kirkus Reviews

"With her electrifying scenes, her gorgeous sentences, and her provocative explorations of the borderland between life and death, Culkin engaged my heart, my intellect, my artistic sensibility, and my adrenaline."—Ann Pancake, author of Strange as This Weather Has Been

"I loved the stories, the language, the point of view, but what I loved most was the way this book was able to break my heart—then mend it."—Judith Kitchen, author of Distance and Direction

From the Publisher

Over three decades, more than 4,000 patients and their loved ones have shared "their most wrenching ultimate experiences" with Culkin, a critical care nurse living near Seattle. In this compelling memoir, her moving reflections on life and death interweave clinical encounters with her own life. She looks back at the "clockwork of hormones" as she began her relationship with her future husband while working 12-hour shifts in a San Francisco intensive-care nursery, moving on to become a traveling nurse in Anchorage, then living in the Alaskan wilderness, "completely alone at the edge of the civilized universe." Her marriage, sons, problems with her parents and family dynamics intertwine with memories of patients extricated from wreckage and an impromptu procedure in a helicopter on a patient who couldn't breathe. Culkin details the "sisterhood" of nursing, with its risks and stress and sharing "cups of 0900 coffee," and her own bouts with multiple sclerosis. Describing her life as a flight nurse in the final chapters, Culkin sees herself and others clearly, and poetic juxtapositions make her sentences soar. (Apr.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Absorbing debut collection, portions of which previously appeared in literary magazines, recalling the author's work as a critical-care nurse. Life-and-death experiences aboard an emergency helicopter are not Culkin's only focus. This former neonatal and pediatric intensive-care nurse has vivid memories of the tiny patients whose lives were in her hands, and she writes of them with warmth and clarity. She also gives the reader glimpses of her personal life: as a bride living in a simple cabin in the woods of Alaska, a worried mother of two teenage sons, the irreligious sibling of doctrinaire and disapproving Catholic sisters, the daughter of sick and dying parents. Aboard the chopper, Culkin's demanding job was to keep victims of heart attacks and critically injured survivors of traffic accidents alive as they were being transported to hospital emergency rooms. Her accounts of these events are both powerful and lucid. She doesn't overwhelm with arcane medical terminology, but she makes clear the details of equipment and procedures and the difficulties of managing them inside a helicopter's cramped quarters, giving the reader a reassuring picture of a compassionate professional at work in a stressful environment. Although there is no hint of her personal health problems in earlier pieces, the penultimate chapter reveals that she is facing the challenges of multiple sclerosis and can no longer lead such a strenuous life. The risks of being an emergency flight nurse-night flights, bad weather, human error-come fully alive in the final chapter, a moving account of dealing with the deaths of colleagues in helicopter crashes. Not quite a full-blown memoir, but the individual pieces areenthralling. Author events in Seattle and Portland, Ore.

Kirkus Reviews