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    Fever: A Novel
    Fever: A Novel
    Fever: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Fever: A Novel

    Written by Mary Beth Keane

    Narrated by Candace Thaxton

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes, a novel about the woman known as “Typhoid Mary,” who becomes, “in Keane’s assured hands…a sympathetic, complex, and even inspiring character” (O, The Oprah Magazine).

    Mary Beth Keane has written a spectacularly bold and intriguing novel about the woman known as “Typhoid Mary,” the first person in America identified as a healthy carrier of Typhoid Fever.

    On the eve of the twentieth century, Mary Mallon emigrated from Ireland at age fifteen to make her way in New York City. Brave, headstrong, and dreaming of being a cook, she fought to climb up from the lowest rung of the domestic-service ladder. Canny and enterprising, she worked her way to the kitchen, and discovered in herself the true talent of a chef. Sought after by New York aristocracy, and with an independence rare for a woman of the time, she seemed to have achieved the life she’d aimed for when she arrived in Castle Garden. Then one determined “medical engineer” noticed that she left a trail of disease wherever she cooked, and identified her as an “asymptomatic carrier” of Typhoid Fever. With this seemingly preposterous theory, he made Mallon a hunted woman.

    The Department of Health sent Mallon to North Brother Island, where she was kept in isolation from 1907 to 1910, then released under the condition that she never work as a cook again. Yet for Mary—proud of her former status and passionate about cooking—the alternatives were abhorrent. She defied the edict.

    Bringing early-twentieth-century New York alive—the neighborhoods, the bars, the park carved out of upper Manhattan, the boat traffic, the mansions and sweatshops and emerging skyscrapers—Fever is an ambitious retelling of a forgotten life. In the imagination of Mary Beth Keane, Mary Mallon becomes a fiercely compelling, dramatic, vexing, sympathetic, uncompromising, and unforgettable heroine.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMar 12, 2013
    ISBN9781442360884
    Author

    Mary Beth Keane

    Mary Beth Keane was born in New York City to Irish parents and grew up in Rockland County, New York. She attended Barnard College and the University of Virginia, where she received an MFA in Fiction. In 2011, she was named by Julia Glass to the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35.” She lives in Pearl River, New York, with her husband and their two sons.

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    Reviews for Fever

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    • 2/5
      This book about Typhoid Mary was interesting. It was especially so since I had typhoid fever as a child. However, the author spent too much time on Mary's hapless boyfriend.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      It was a quick listen. Not an amazing read but definitely a good one
    • 5/5
      Well written with a good narrator, and a full and richly told story
    • 4/5
      Fever is a very good historical novel of a woman who was loved and hated throughout her adult life. Mary Mallon was a hard-working Irish immigrant living in the crowded working class sections of New York at the turn of the 20th Century. Trained by her grandmother to be a housekeeper, Mary did domestic work for wealthy families in the New York area. On occasion, she was asked to fill in for cooks and discovered a passion for creating dishes that were pleasing to her employers. From cleaning mansions and doing laundry, Mary became a good cook sought out by the upper class families.On the ship from Ireland to New York and in her domestic and cooking placements by a temporary worker business in the United States, Mary recalled incidents in which people near her became ill, and typhoid fever seemed to be a disease that respected no class barriers. Mary was a kind person who risked her own health to nurse sick people close to her at her work sites. Her live-in partner, Alfred, did not develop symptoms of typhoid fever. She did not realize that she was a carrier of typhoid “germs” and was infecting members of the families who employed her. The Department of Health was very concerned about growing incidence of typhoid fever, and a “medical engineer” by the name of Dr. Soper was an aggressive investigator with the agency. He made the connection with Mary’s work history and the deaths of her clients and took steps to have her quarantined at North Brother Island in the East River where at first she was housed with tuberculosis patients. Mary’s story was picked up by a New York newspaper, and a reporter nicknamed her, “Typhoid Mary.”The story of Typhoid Mary is very interesting with a focus on the moral dilemma plaguing Mary Mallon for her entire life. She suspected before the Department of Health investigation there was an unlikely coincidence between her activity and the illness and death of people she contacted. When she learned that typhoid fever was spread through improper hand washing after defecating, Mary was very careful in her personal hygiene and thoroughly cooking all foods in order to destroy the typhoid germs. But, it was very difficult to admit to herself that she was the cause of infection and death of more than ten people. Mary’s relationship with her alcoholic mate Alfred and her isolation on North Brother Island are creatively portrayed by Mary Beth Keane. Ms. Keane’s style of writing is consistently realistic and straight forward with interesting descriptions of the physical and social conditions in New York in the last of the 1800s and the early part of the 1900s.
    • 4/5
      As a kid i had heard about a lady named typhoid Mary but i didnt know her whole story until now. Very sad.
    • 4/5
      Fever is a fictionalized account of the real-life "Typhoid Mary", who was the first known healthy human carrier of typhoid. She was a cook in New York City in the early 1900s and transmitted the disease through her cooking. Because she refused to stop cooking, she was held in quarantine for the majority of her adult life.

      The novel is very well written and makes Mary feel human and real. In the book she is a sympathetic character who is treated harshly in part because of her class - the doctors make little effort to really help her understand the risk when she cooks, and instead lock her up. She of course rebels since she doesn't fully understand and is not willing to accept that she could make people sick. Keane conveys her confusion and reactions to the accusations that she is transmitting typhoid in a realistic and believable manner.

      Additionally, Keane adds a love story element. She portrays a complex and troubled relationship between Mary and her long-time lover (but not husband). One that thing I really enjoy about Keane's writing is that all of her characters are complex and three-dimensional, with the result that they are sympathetic while also sometimes making poor choices.

      In the end, though, I did not love Fever as much as I did Keane's first book, The Walking People. I never felt as wholly drawn into the world as I did with her first book. Additionally the storyline was more linear and simpler, and overall the book was a bit depressing.
    • 4/5
      3.5 ★ Fever by Mary Beth KeaneMary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938)(Typhoid Mary), was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen found in typhoid fever.historical fiction-----------------------------I should have read a nonfictional account of Mary before a fictional one.It's hard for me to be sympathetic with her when she seemed to understandthe "medical engineer", after finding a trail of disease wherever she cooked.After her confinement, she was released under the condition that she never work as a cook again.Fortunately, epidemiology pursued her relentlessly when a trail of typhus appeared.She had defied the edict.When cornered, after a series of new settings including a bakery, a chef service from her home and of all things a primary chef in a maternity hospital...she was informed:"The first time carelessness.....the second time criminal."Mary Beth Keane has depicted her as fiercely compelling, dramatic, vexing, sympathetic, uncompromising and unforgettable .(book jacket)She definitely had the impact the author hoped to achieve.Now, I'm off to read an actual account.”
    • 4/5
      The early twentieth century saw many medical discoveries and advances. It was a learning process… slow and riddled with mistakes and the unknown. One of the issues concerning the medical community was the person at large who was healthy and unknowingly carried a disease – like typhoid - which spread to others. The story of "Fever: A Novel" is that of Mary Mallon. Typhoid Mary. An excellent and interesting account of a woman living on the edge in New York City is based on research and fleshed out to portray a life of struggle, strength, love, trauma, and abuse at the hand of the Department of Health. Mary Mallon had a gift for cooking and loved the work which paid well and gave her a sense of value. However, many suspicious cases of typhoid outbreaks were traced back to her, directly, through the preparation of food by her and consumed by her clients.This was a new theory. It was frightening and incredible. Mary was caught in the middle of the evolving medical controversy. Author Mary Beth Keane evokes the emotions and crisis in the life of a woman on the run. Mary’s life of poverty in NYC is portrayed in detail, colored with the hard decisions and actions of a woman alone. Enlightening, heart-breaking, and engaging read… recommended.
    • 4/5
      Typhoid Mary. We've all heard of her, but how many of us really know her story? An Irish immigrant with a talent for cooking who, unfortunately, is also a healthy carrier of Typhoid fever, spreading the illness through the food she cooks for the wealthy families she works for.It was difficult to feel sympathy for Mary in the beginning of this fictionalized account of her life, as she was incredibly stubborn and refused to believe she could be making people sick. I was frustrated with her inability to understand what she had been doing, and the anger she displayed in the face of her circumstances. Her unreasonableness (which was really denial and panic and fear) led her to both be ostracized in the press, and forcibly removed to an island in the Hudson River to live in isolation, and prevent her from further infecting people.With the help of a young lawyer, Mary finally wins her release, on the condition that she promise to never cook for anyone again. It is here that I begin to feel more sympathy for Mary. The one thing that she is talented at doing, cooking, is the one thing she should never do again. She tries to do other things, but circumstances seem to always lead her back to baking and cooking once again, and Mary becomes the queen of denial, telling herself that this couldn't possibly hurt anyone, or that baking is not the same is cooking. You get the sense that deep down inside, Mary knows she shouldn't be doing what she is doing, but she's good at pulling the wool over her own eyes. Mary's life is not comfortable - she is a working-class woman in early-20th century New York, and the author does a tremendous job of describing what that was like. In addition to all this, Mary's relationship with her companion, Alfred, was strained by her time on the island. She has difficulties finding a place to live. It seems that this one thing, her status as a carrier of the fever, is slowly breaking apart her life in all areas.My only issue with this book was the way the author jumped from past to present and back again. It was sometimes difficult to keep track of where in time we were. But overall, I enjoyed this novel, and would recommend it if you enjoy historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      What a horrid, selfish, stubborn woman Typhoid Mary was!
    • 5/5
      This is historical fiction about Mary Mallon - the infamous Typhoid Mary. It's full of historical events of the late 19th and early 20th century - the sinking of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the widespread, uncontrolled use of addictive drugs like heroin and morphine to control pain and then developing restrictions on them, and of course, the science that tormented a healthy woman who couldn't believe she was the source of a dangerous disease in others. This is my favorite kind of historical fiction, one that humanizes a woman we have been told to automatically disdain and emphasizes the misogyny of men who oppress her. And it's a good story, 5 stars from me.
    • 3/5
      This book takes on an interesting color in the light of Keane’s view of historical fiction, which is that documentation and fact must be subject to character and plot, and especially so after hearing about her process for writing this book, which involved much research although no note-taking. One wonders how much of it is real, which takes away from the emotional effect of the book. It does a considerable amount to explain how Mary Mallon is presented as such a modern woman, however; and maybe this book is simply an exercise in projecting the self into a historical context. Maybe an author can never do more than that, but I am hesitant to believe that; I feel like a certain removal of self and replacement with character is present in good fiction. To Keane’s credit, she mentions that the heart of the book was produced from trying to understand the historical Mary Mallon, and whether or not she truly believed she was to blame for the typhoid deaths around her. This story certainly has the “emotional truth” that is considered to make good fiction, but provides an interesting example of a questionable opinion on historic accuracy. I did find the setting convincing, however, and did not have the feeling of being strung along that D’Agata’s nonfiction provides within the context of his views on the essay.
      Ideas from Keane are taken from a recording of her visit to a UVA class on historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      An engaging fictionalized account of the infamous Typhoid Mary. We find speculation about why she continued to work as a cook even after she had been identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever, as well as her life-long relationship with what some of her friends called an "unsuitable man." Well-written and hard to put down.
    • 3/5
      Historical fiction about Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary. The author focused on Mary without having a lot of source information. The result is a lot of invention including a major character, Albert. In the book he is presented as Mary's life partner, alcoholic, and addict. Questions about public health and public interest vs. personal freedom arise, but they are not dealt with in a fulsome manner.
    • 3/5
      The famous story of Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary, has captured our attention over the past century. Some of the most intriguing questions that her story conjures up are: Did Mary realize that she was spreading this deadly disease as those around her kept succumbing to it, even though she herself never got sick? How would it feel to be unwittingly responsible for causing the deaths of so many people? Fever, by Mary Beth Keane is a historical novel that richly portrays Mary as an atypical woman for her time, providing insight into her mind as she struggles to understand her role in the epidemic. Keane provides the reader a peek into the bleak existence of a lower class immigrant living in the early 20th century. Her version of Mary is flawed in many ways-proud and defiant despite her position in society. Building upon the existing archival information about Mary’s capture and quarantine, Keane imagines how a woman in her position would need to steel herself in order to survive the infamy and guilt she might have felt. Did Mary experience denial when faced with the charges against her? Did she acknowledge her role and forgive herself for the tragedies left in her wake? Or, did she knowingly and maliciously spread Typhoid to the wealthy New York families she worked for? Although the pacing lags a bit in the middle of the book when Mary is first confined, Fever is a nice character study and provides a realistic vision of a sad and difficult period in our history.
    • 4/5
      This is a fictionalized account of Mary Mallon, an Irish cook in the late 1800's, early 1900's, who was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, and supposedly had infected many people for whom she cooked. It deals with the almost inhumane way she was treated in the effort to keep her isolated from society. It is also a story of the ignorance of an era when little was known of disease or how it was spread. The story is a well written fiction account of the possible trials and struggles of this unfortunate woman. It was an interesting read.
    • 3/5
      I would think that it is a little difficult to write a fictional account of a real event. The author has to make many assumptions and take some literary license with thoughts, feelings, etc. when it comes to fictionalizing an historical figure. I have a feeling that Keane did a pretty good job here with Mary Mallon, better known as "Typhoid Mary".

      I found Mary to be an extremely likable character. At first, that is. She was no nonsense, hard-working, respectful, and very talented at her occupation as a cook to the affluent. However, once it was obvious that she was a carrier of typhoid fever, she absolutely refused to believe that it may be true, and do what the authorities asked of her.

      With that said, the book was very easy to read, and compelling. It was factual, as far as Keane could research, and the characters were very realistic. I had no sympathy for Mary, despite the author trying to convey a sense of sympathy in her writing. Nor did I have any sympathy for Mary's partner, Alfred. As a matter of fact, I came to the point of thinking that they deserved one another.

      I enjoyed the book, recommend it, and will read more by this author.
    • 4/5
      Few people recognize the name Mary Mallon, but virtually everyone knows of “Typhoid Mary.” This is her story.

      Keane does a fine job with this work of historical fiction. Her Mary is at once sympathetic and infuriating. A strong-willed Irish immigrant who takes great pride in her cooking – with good reason – and who needs to work to support herself and her man, Mary feels attacked and persecuted when she’s told she is making her employers sick and must stop cooking for a living.

      Mary is a woman trapped by biology, by society, by her own personality and desires. She was the first asymptomatic carrier of the typhus bacillus who was identified, but she was by no means the last. And she was the only one who was subjected to isolation for years on end. Keane explores what this enforced “arrest” and quarantine did to Mary. She begins defiant, not believing what she is told, questioning their authority to detain her and demand constant samples for testing. She sinks into despair as she is kept from contacting her friends or common-law husband, Alfred. She is depressed when letters from neighbors dwindle to nothing, and feels she’s been forgotten. She refuses small kindnesses because she does not want to be pitied; she has always worked and earned good wages to afford the nice things she owned, why should she take someone else’s cast-offs now?

      Keane gives us a complex character facing an unimaginable scenario. While there were times I wanted to give her a good thrashing, I found myself mostly sympathetic to Mary’s plight. Someone I’ve always seen as a nefarious villain has now become, for me, a woman who was wronged by society. I could not help but think of the recent Ebola scares in the U.S. and how our society reacted – we imposed quarantines on those exposed, and some of them, just like Mary, refused to follow those restrictions.
    • 4/5
      Typhoid Mary seems to be one of the historical nicknames we come across at one point or another, usually in a brief mention, and forget about soon after. Though I teach history, I had heard very little of Mary Mallon's story prior to reading Mary Beth Keane's Fever.

      In what is quickly becoming a popular genre, Keane takes the bits of what was known about Mary Mallon and pieces together a fictionalized biography of her life as one of the first healthy carriers of Typhoid fever. Mary spent her life and livelihood cooking for others until the Department of Health quarantined, and eventually charged her, for intentionally spreading the disease through the food she served.

      While it is difficult to get a true sense of everyone's intentions from what has been left behind by history, Keane does a lovely job of writing a novel that is sympathetic to Mallon's side without making her out to be completely innocent. Instead, she is written as a strong, modern character who is able to handle the unimaginable situations she is thrown in without blame or self-pity.

      Unfortunately, I felt the pacing was off a bit in the second half of Fever. What was fascinating and page-turning through the beginning became a little too cyclical as Mallon's decisions became repetitive. While I know Keane was following the character's historical choices, I think the story would have benefited from focusing on a shorter time frame, particularly around the trial.

      Still, I think it's a very interesting read that is worth picking up. Keane writes her Typhoid Mary as a likable, fierce woman who we won't be quick to forget.
    • 4/5
      FEVER by Mary Beth Keane breathes life into the too-often caricatured personality of Mary Mallon, better known (unfortunately) as Typhoid Mary. In fleshing out Mary Mallon’s harsh youth in Ireland, tenacious present in New York City and isolated future on North Brother Island in the East River, Keane replaces the “germ woman” of cartoons with a finely drawn, astonishingly healthy female cook whose talents in the kitchen netted her employment with such upper-crust families as the Fricks. Mary’s reluctance to cooperate with sanitary engineer Dr. Soper’s demands for isolation and testing makes perfect sense. She’s cooked for many people who did not become ill. Keane raises concerns with the Department of Health’s coercive handling of Mary Mallon. There were other asymptomatic carriers (who had also caused deaths from typhoid) known to the department who were allowed to remain in the community. Mary Beth Keane makes a daring choice to write the story such a well-known historical figure . We all know how it’s going to end; why bother reading? Because you will get to know Mary Mallon as a real human being, full of contradictions and hopes and disappointments; a person easily dismissed because of her gender, race and class. The author seems very much at home in early 20th century New York City, somehow giving it a contemporary feel while grounded firmly in the details of the past. Keane’s lyric style finesses every scene and shows to great advantage in Mary Mallon’s self talk. You can almost hear the Irish accent coming off the page.7.5 out of 10 Highly recommended to all
    • 3/5
      As novels go, this one is very easy to read - the narrative voice is clear and we follow 'Typhoid Mary's misadventure in what is her (fictitious) life before, during and after her trial. The characterisation is very good and we can follow her train of thoughts leading to her decisions - whether or not this was her true thoughts, I couldn't say, this is fiction after all. However, I find that there is a discrepancy between Mary's Irish upbringing, her day to day life with a good for nothing partner in a poor neighbourhood, and her 'educated', middle class internal monologues - her inner voice does not express itself save through the reader's interpretation; her actions are pretty much in opposition to her thoughts: we, as readers, forget that she is acting stupid for the whole novel because of this inner voice. This interference is most unnerving, because I suspect this inner voice is the author's, and she didn't put herself at the level of her character. The book did not convince me as such, this is why I rate it so.
    • 4/5
      A few years ago, I read Anthony Bourdain's biography of "Typhoid Mary," an Irish immigrant cook who unknowingly started an epidemic in early twentieth-century New York. Fever also focuses on Mary Mallon, but, being fiction, it gives her character more depth and creates empathy for the way she was hounded, isolated,villainized, and humiliated. Kean's story's antagonist is a Dr. Soper, the researcher who tracked down Mary as a healthy typhoid carrier and determined that the bacilli were passed on through her cooking. Never having been ill herself, Mary finds it hard to believe that she could be the source of the disease that had killed two of her employers' children and several others and had sickened a number of her coworkers. But in quieter moments, she ponders all the deaths she had attended in Ireland and on the ship crossing the Atlantic, and the death of an employer's toddler whom she had grown to love. Kean covers Mary's forcible arrest and hospitalization, her exile to an island hospital for consumptives, her suit to be allowed to return to a relatively normal life--as long as she promises never again to work as a cook. She also provides a colorful yet sympathetic portrait of life for the working class in New York, ca. 1900-25. And then there is Mary's complicated relationship with Alfred, her German lover, with whom she has lived since the age of seventeen. I found this novel well written and engaging and recommend it to those interested in historical fiction of this period.
    • 2/5
      I have heard a lot of promising thing about the book. Its about Typhoid Mary(!) and I always read articles about her and I enjoy dramatization of actual people related to medical science. But, I'm plain disappointed by this book. It was a romanticized life of Mary Mallon although a bit dull and dreary but the main focus of this book wasn't a good representative of her situation. In fact, the attempt to humanize Mary and demonized the doctors involved pretty much reduced the the narrative value of the story.

      Compared to "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", Rebecca Skloot had a better understanding as she is scientifically-educated and able to give a greater understanding of the complications revolving the HeLa controversies at it added layers of depth about the complexities of the issues in addition to that she was involved with the Lacks family and the book was realistic enough to be considered as non-fictional. She also explore the problem through several lenses and one of it, definitely not romanticizing the situation. But Keane only offer a plain fictionalization of the era, she skim about the significance of Mary among the scientific society because narratively the story only spin about what the character felt when she was being demonized by the public health society and she is but in turn the book play around the romanticized history around the character and the settings rather than going in depth about it.

      Plus, she did cause these deaths by her ignorance and cause more deaths because she persist in her ignorance although she was informed first hand of her role as a Typhoid carrier. Rather than explore various characterization which stem from her nurtured way of thoughts and upbringing that perhaps it can give a sense of depthness to her as a realistic flawed human being. The book seem to be preoccupied in spending its time exploring the romantic elements of Mary Mallon.

      Mary Mallon is a scientific enigma of her time and that was as interesting as the depth of her characterizations but I felt the book overplayed the emotional part of her character and it was extremely diverting. I also studied pastry and bakery for a year and from that experience, there was a lot of literary elements you could do to give more flair to Mary's characterization. There was no culinary passion in this Mary. The book skim on that integral part that made me understand why Mary still continue on with her food service. I don't feel it clicked to me that she only did all of it to be stubborn and opinionated because that was too one dimensional to describe this once living woman. The book didn't make me feel Mary was a good cook either. In fact, the book did poorly on her motives to continuously feed people. I don't think it was that simplistic need to feed people. She could have work as a grocery store if she was that altruistic. Cooking itself need some artistic skills and also require a scientific one too. You have to learn the right way to cook, the subjective taste and the talents in need. The book made Mary's cooking ability as dull like she's a food processor. Mary is a smart and independent woman and if she had the right education, she would be a marvelous woman of science herself or even a chemist because personally, food science is a legit science itself. If you know how to cook, you're scientifically talented as it is. How I know about this? My late grandmother is similar to her in some ways. She had struggled and life is bad and turbulent in Singapore at that time, she also make bad decisions with her love life and she's a good cook and gave birth to kids who end up being smart and also a scientists and great cook too. I know perfectly well how this situation could have been played in real life and I do sympathize with Mallon and wish things could play out different for her.

      Mary Mallon was smarter than this book did on her. It tried to reason around her behaviours but always fall into being portrayed as "emotionally driven". I still don't feel the book was right about her motivation to continue to cook.

      I get that this book employ literary methods from someone with mostly literary background and can be appreciated by those without scientific background surrounded with the Typhoid Mary issue. But Mary Mallon is a person of significance in science because of her existence that touched all expect of medical issues, epidemiology and human rights. Keane could have done the book better if she discuss this expect more with the world Mary lived in rather than the geographical era accuracy about the fashion, culture and era-specific attitudes. The book could have been better for me if it played about humanizing all the characters more rather than attempting to make Mary as a sympathetic character. I did note that the book didn't come with its own references so it does made it hard to know which part is real or not. In the end, its still a historical fiction that didn't make much an impact to me when it should.

      And in the end, I didn't think the author even understand what a Salmonella really is.
    • 3/5
      This was a very good story in the sense that Mary was shown as a human being. She had gained notoriety for having been a carrier of Typhoid, and as a cook if people ate her food they sometimes died. The story is very heavy on her personal life as well as the personal life of the man she loved most her life.
      Not everyone who ate her food died, she only had the live virus active in her body at random times. It could only pass thru uncooked food she touched or tasted with a spoon she didn't wash. Now a days we use gloves and don't 'double dip' when tasting food.
      Although the story did mention the small amount of information about typhoid, even mentioning a man who delivered milk who infected hundreds of people, it was never brought to a conclusion.
      The author mentions bleeding horses to make an injection against a disease (can't remember if it was typhoid or another) I would have liked to know how the disease itself had a life of it's own and in the end how did Dr's stop it? I dont mean a ton of medical mumbo jumbo, but something would have been nice.
      Overall this is a pleasant story but not as in your face as the cover art makes it seem it is.
    • 5/5
      This novel is based on the life of Mary Mallon, better known as "Typhoid Mary", presumed to have infected around 50 people, 3 of whom died, over the course of her career as a cook in the early 1900's.Mary emigrated from Ireland at the age of 15, to New York City to live with a great aunt. She dreamed of being cooked, and she fought and climbed her way up from the lowest rung of the domestic service ladder. She eventually worked her way into the kitchen, and discovered she had a true talent as a chef. She felt she had achieved her dreams, until a medical investigator discovered she left a trail of disease wherever she cooked, and identified her as an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid Fever, and Mary became a hunted woman.The Department of Health sent her to North Brother Island, to be kept in isolation. After 3 years, she was released on the condition that she never work as a cook again. But Mary was proud of her former status, and passionate about cooking, and defied the edict.This was a fascinating read, and the author did an excellent job of blending fact and fiction. Just keep in mind if you are reading it for a history lesson, it is a work of fiction; the author can only guess at Mary's motives for doing what she did. Mary is portrayed as sympathetic, but by not as a heroine. While reading this story, I could understand why Mary made the choices she did, without excusing her for them.I think this would be a great book for a book club, there is a lot of material that would make for great discussions, especially Mary's civil rights vs. protecting the public from a contagious disease.
    • 5/5
      Historical fiction, without a doubt, can bring history to life, erases the dull facts and fleshes out a story in a way that makes you keep reading, and when you finish that book, seek out more information. Fever by Mary Beth Keane tells the story of "Typhoid Mary" Mary Mallon in a way that the reader is enthralled with the tale of this poor woman. It is sympathetic and sensitive, and you will never think about Typhoid Mary the same way again.Before reading this book, I was not familiar with the facts of Mary Mallon's life. I knew only of her notoriety as a pariah, and have even described myself as "Typhoid Mary" when I had the flu last winter. I wasn't sure what that meant, only that this woman was accused of killing people with her cooking, spreading her typhoid about recklessly.Mary Mallon immigrated to the United States from Ireland as a young girl. Always talented in the kitchen, she soon moved up from laundress to cook. And unknowingly, left in her wake sickness, disease, and death. Mary was a proud woman, keeping her appearance neat and clean, confident of her abilities, sure of her talents. She was healthy and strong, slim and attractive. Then one day her turned upside down. Dragged from her world, literally. Taken by force by doctors who said her crime was spreading fever from her kitchens. How could it be her? She was healthy, never sick, could run up and down stairs and lift heavy pots from the stove without a problem, so how could she be causing illness? The doctors explained about germs, but this all seemed like magic to Mary.They took her away, held her in isolation against her will, without even a trial or a lawyer.Without Mary being able to tell her friends and loved ones where she was going. She was just gone. They said they couldn't let her go, that she was a menace to the health and well being of society as a healthy carrier of typhoid. It was barbaric and an abuse of power. She was the first healthy carrier found, but she wasn't the last or the only one. But only Mary was not able to be free. Could it have been that she was a woman, Irish, a member of domestic service, and living with a man without the benefits of marriage that she was the only one to suffer this way? I think so. They built her a little cottage on North Brother Island, with a cot and an area to make tea, but she was not allowed to cook for herself or for others, especially for others. She had to provide stool and urine samples weekly. She was not allowed to contact anyone.Keane's portrayal of Mary's suffering dignity, loneliness, humiliation, and confusion at what was happening was heartbreaking and dramatic. I could easily imagine what it would have been like in Mary's shoes. How scary it would have been. Yet she also describes Mary as intelligent, strong willed and determined to get off that island, taking matters into her own hands. She found a lawyer, paid for her own testing. Eventually she was allowed to leave the island, but on the condition that she never cooked again. You can imagine though, how at that time, being unable to use your most profitable skill would be frustrating. After working as a laundress, Mary found work as a cook again. This time at a hospital. And wouldn't you know it, a few weeks after she began, people started getting sick.I couldn't put this book down. I was drawn into the story very easily, from the very first page. Keane's depiction of Mary Mallon made we want to read this book, and want to read more about her, the infamous Typhoid Mary. You will never think about her the same way again, after reading this book.
    • 4/5
      Keane's research for this novel was not only impressive, she also demonstrated the ability to translate those details into a very readable and enjoyable work. The legend of "Typhoid Mary" was about the extent of my knowledge on the Typhoid epidemics from the early 20th century. This work, although a fictionalized version, did a great job of exploring the bigger picture of what was happening during this time and more specifically addressing what made her so interesting to both the public and researchers. While I enjoyed the book overall, through the first half of it, I found myself wishing the author would have started a little earlier in the narrative. As the book begins, Mary has already been identified as an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid, and the first half deals primarily with her arrest and immediate aftermath. Eventually Keane does start filling in the back story, albeit in a slightly awkward manner, so the full history is eventually unveiled. Unfortunately, a portion of this history includes Typhoid Mary's boyfriend - a story line which seemed superfluous at best. Admittedly, without this addition, the result would have been significantly shorter. But I am a strong believer in quality over quantity, and a shorter/tighter story would have made for a stronger work.Overall, however, Keane has an excellent writing style and the sheer readability of her text kept me going.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written and very evocative historical novel of Mary Mallon, who infected over 25 people as an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever in the early 1900s. Written almost as a documentary, the book captures everyday life in New York City at that time. Wonderful.
    • 4/5
      Typhoid Mary's story told in an engrossing page turner. Mary Beth Keane's well written book on the life of Mary Mallon and the turn of the century epidemic in NY known as typhoid fever is also a story of the depth of medical knowledge of the day - alarmingly primitive it seems and the class structure and prejudices of the times.
    • 4/5
      Where I got the book: from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.This is the story of Mary Mallon, aka the Typhoid Mary who was accused of willfully passing typhoid to New York families for whom she cooked in the early decades of the 1900s. It's a set-the-record-straight story, told essentially from Mary's point of view, and therefore sympathetic to her.Pretty interesting story, on the whole. Keane tries to encapsulate Mary's character in the account, and that in fact made it a bit harder for me to feel for her, as she's a fairly hardbitten sort to whom life is not particularly kind. But by the end I did sympathize: Mary Mallon was not the only typhoid carrier in New York, but she was the first to be isolated and therefore bore the brunt of the attention from the authorities and the media. The rest were basically left to go about their business because the authorities realized the problem was beyond their control, while Mary ended up as a sort of lab rat on a fever island. Keane does a good job of putting us in Mary's shoes. You can see how Mary never really understood why she was made the scapegoat, and how passionate she was about cooking, the only job she was not supposed to do. In her place, would we have acted differently? I'm glad I got the chance to take a closer look at this much-reviled figure.