Challenging times 

Southeastern Kentucky author and physician Erin Miller Reid is well aware of her place in this world—not in the usual sense of the phrase, but more to do with the timing of her existence. She muses about what life would have been like had she been born in a different era when women did not pursue careers outside the home or even enjoy the right to vote. 

In her new novel, But For Fortune, she explores the evolution of women in society through a generational lens based on her own family experiences. The dual timeline involves the plight of two women separated by 50 years. Mary Esther is a young 1950s housewife and mother who is stuck—in her small town, in her marriage to a heartless drunk, and with a mental illness misdiagnosed and mistreated. Corinth, a medical student living some 50 years later, struggles with feelings of inadequacy and of not belonging. Reid masterfully demonstrates that while their opportunities differ greatly, perhaps a woman’s pressure to perform and prove herself hasn’t changed all that much. 

Like Corinth, Reid once was a student on a psychiatric rotation in a mental hospital. Through her character’s discoveries, she sheds light on the antiquated, ineffective and cruel treatments patients in these institutions once endured, often with little interference from families or the outside world. Instead, a veil of shame and secrecy was pulled tightly over these family stories. 

Along this vein, Reid believes that each person holds a “narrative inheritance, a DNA made of stories, within themself.” That heritage is lost, she says, when families harbor secrets, leaving future generations feeling unmoored, uncertain and without identity. Because her own grandmother struggled with mental illness, Reid craved knowledge about her grandmother’s past and the part it plays in linking them. 

Through Mary Esther’s story, Reid hopes to remove the shame surrounding mental health issues and highlight the progress made in treatment, encouraging those who suffer to share openly and seek help without fear of stigmas or ridicule. In Corinth, she also introduces impostor syndrome, which particularly affects high-achieving, perfectionist women in high stress, hierarchical situations— something that holds lasting trauma for Reid from her own medical student days. She explains, “As I wrote about Corinth, I re-experienced the same feelings of dread, anxiety, self-doubt and rejection. Detaching my current self from the shadows of a past self proved challenging.“ 

Ultimately, Reid hopes that what readers take away will be the perseverance of both Mary Esther and Corinth, and “how, though they were flawed, they continued to strive toward hope in spite of obstacles.” 

Reid earned her master’s degree in public health and her medical degree at the University of Kentucky. At Columbia University, she also earned a certificate in narrative medicine, a field that uses art and the study and exchange of stories to improve patient care, as well as the emotional well-being of healthcare practitioners. 

But For Fortune (University Press of Kentucky, $29.95) can be found at www.kentuckypress.com or other major retailers