This was a good historical fiction read providing a complex portrait of a woman
victimized by her class, ethnicity, gender, and circumstance, but overall, I felt the novel's story lacked momentum. Known today as "Typhoid Mary," the novel's protagonist Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant living in New York City in the early 20th century who unknowingly spread the disease of Typhoid Fever to the upper class families she worked for as a server and cook. During this time period, people knew very little about diseases and how they were passed, least of all Mary, who is completely caught off guard by these ridiculous-sounding accusations about the deadly effects of her cooking. Mary and the general population at this time simply did not have the education to understand how germs are passed. In the novel, Keane imagines Mary's daily experiences before and after she is quarantined by the City of New York public health officials. The story does attempt to capture Mary's struggle of her trying to "make it" in America as an independent woman during this time. After four years pass for Mary on her quarantined island, during which she receives minimal help or affections from her friends or lawyer, it seems impossible that she will ever again support herself. At times
the back story (and weak romance sub plot between Mary and her drunken lover Alfred) lacked spark and felt contrived. This romantic subplot seemed more like an opportunity to give Mary's character something else to do than provide an accurate or interesting addition to the story's main conflict, Mary's forced confinement on a quarantined island. After reading the novel, I did walk away
feeling as though I now have a more complex understanding of
this woman's perseverance and the realities of how the Irish working class and single women were discriminated against during this time. I rate this novel 3/5 stars and would recommend it to readers interesting in the history of public health, Irish immigration to America, or tales about strong, heroic women.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Review of Fever by Mary Beth Keane
This was a good historical fiction read providing a complex portrait of a woman
victimized by her class, ethnicity, gender, and circumstance, but overall, I felt the novel's story lacked momentum. Known today as "Typhoid Mary," the novel's protagonist Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant living in New York City in the early 20th century who unknowingly spread the disease of Typhoid Fever to the upper class families she worked for as a server and cook. During this time period, people knew very little about diseases and how they were passed, least of all Mary, who is completely caught off guard by these ridiculous-sounding accusations about the deadly effects of her cooking. Mary and the general population at this time simply did not have the education to understand how germs are passed. In the novel, Keane imagines Mary's daily experiences before and after she is quarantined by the City of New York public health officials. The story does attempt to capture Mary's struggle of her trying to "make it" in America as an independent woman during this time. After four years pass for Mary on her quarantined island, during which she receives minimal help or affections from her friends or lawyer, it seems impossible that she will ever again support herself. At times
the back story (and weak romance sub plot between Mary and her drunken lover Alfred) lacked spark and felt contrived. This romantic subplot seemed more like an opportunity to give Mary's character something else to do than provide an accurate or interesting addition to the story's main conflict, Mary's forced confinement on a quarantined island. After reading the novel, I did walk away
feeling as though I now have a more complex understanding of
this woman's perseverance and the realities of how the Irish working class and single women were discriminated against during this time. I rate this novel 3/5 stars and would recommend it to readers interesting in the history of public health, Irish immigration to America, or tales about strong, heroic women.
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