Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Wednesday Whatever - Fever by Mary Beth Keane

Fever by Mary Beth Keane is an interesting  little novel about Typhoid Mary. Since we went through our own little pandemic in 2020 and we know a lot more about germs and vaccines, etc. this book is an eye opener. 

At age fifteen,  Mary Mallon emigrated from Ireland to New York City. She's an ambitious gal and is a truly talented chef.  She manages to become the head chef for some of the finest families. It's just a shame that she slowly leaves a trail of deaths behind her. 

A "medical engineer" manages to track her and expose her as the source of typhoid deaths. But she's hale and hearty. How can that be?

Mary has never been ill.  But the bloodwork done in  the early 1900s shows she has the typhoid germ within her.  She is put into quarantine for years.  This dramatic historic novel retells a forgotten life and you feel for our "deathly" heroine. 

Cough, fever, die!
 

3 comments:

  1. thecontemplativecat here . What a fascinating person. Her life? What must she have felt?

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    1. And interesting how far we’ve come in knowing about germs, but still learning

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  2. Hi Joanne - I picked up this story somewhere else too ... and note the comments above ... cheers Hilary

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