The fact that we still know names like Mrs. O’Leary and Lizzie Borden, dramatic figures from the late nineteenth century, speaks loudly of their collective influence. FEVER takes on the story of Mary Mallon, who was known to the media of her time as Typhoid Mary. This novelization of the life of a hardworking Irish immigrant is tough to resist, largely due to the professionalism of Candace Thaxton’s narration. Thaxton transitions fluidly between Mallon’s brogue and the rest of the narrative, presenting a clear-eyed view of the time period and its people. Details of life in New York City and its environs are fascinating, and Mary herself is a complex character. At times, the story slows, but Thaxton gets it going again with her steady delivery. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
Fever: A Novel
Narrated by Candace Thaxton
Mary Beth KeaneUnabridged — 9 hours, 53 minutes
Fever: A Novel
Narrated by Candace Thaxton
Mary Beth KeaneUnabridged — 9 hours, 53 minutes
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Overview
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.
Editorial Reviews
What's of paramount interest here is the mind of a woman who could not and would not understand why, being herself in good health, she sickened others, and then, when the evidence became overwhelming, got twisted up in grotesque knots of delusion, paranoia and self-deception…until finally, inevitably, almost gratefully she gave in…It's in the tender, detailed portrayal of willed ignorance collapsing in the face of truth that Mary Beth Keane has made of Mary Mallon's life a fine novel of moral blindness, and also remorse, of a sort.
Keane (The Walking People) rescues Typhoid Mary from her “cautionary tale” status by telling her true story. Apprehended by the New York Department of Health in 1907, following the deaths of the family for whom she cooks, Mary Mallon is turned into a guinea pig on an East River island with little to comfort her aside from rare letters from her lover Alfred. Slowly she builds a case to win her freedom and returns to a changed New York of Chinese laundries, tenement fires, and Alfred, now-destitute. Dogged by her reputation as a tainted woman, Mary defies the virus she carries by doing what she does best, even as her nemesis—the “medical sleuth” Dr. Soper (the novel’s most engaging figure)—hounds her from kitchen to kitchen. There’s a tremendous amount of retrospection and research circling the myth, but Keane, by staying so close to Mary, occasionally loses sight of what might have been a more lucrative subject: the birth of the health scare. Typhoid is frequently treated as though it’s little more than a metaphor for difference or estrangement, and we don’t entirely understand why Mary never seems to grasp the consequences of her actions. Still, as historical fiction, Fever seldom disappoints in capturing the squalid new world where love exists in a battlefield both biological and epochal. Agent: Chris Calhoun, the Chris Calhoun Agency. (Mar.)
An absorbing and beautifully written novel…
Keane builds a sympathetic character…the result is that, while we occasionally forget that Mary’s disease is inherently linked with her fate, we never lose sight of her as an afflicted individual.
[Keane] is a talented storyteller, her style plain and steady, not unlike Mary’s demeanor. What’s most remarkable about this novel is its brilliantly visceral vision of everyday life in early-1900s New York City, a rich and detailed working-class backdrop filled with the sights, sounds and smells of tenement squalor, overcrowded apartments, unsanitary conditions, sweatshops, and streets teaming with people trying to survive…If you have an appetite for historical fiction, this novel could be infectious.
Fans of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will find stirring parallels in Fever. Ultimately, this is a story that provokes a deeper understanding of the tenuous relationship between love, personal liberty and the common good.
[An] excellent novel…Keane takes the facts and spins a probable life in such a way that one cannot help but cheer Mary on despite the knowledge that she carried potential death with her at all times. Looking back on Typhoid Mary a century later, Keane has given her the justice that eluded her during her lifetime.
[Keane] constructs a vivid and compelling backstory for her heroine, and a wonderfully complete picture of life of New York City in the early 20th century.
[Keane] paints a more sympathetic portrait than ever before…[A] fascinating story.
In Keane’s assured hands, [Mary Mallon] becomes a sympathetic, complex and even inspiring character…Not only is Fever a compelling read for anyone who gets drawn into medical mystery shows, it will also send shivers through anyone who’s ever felt the ill effects of gossip or hypocrisy.
[Fever] is fluent and confident…Even if you aren’t interested in the medical detective story, you’ll enjoy the rich portrayal of work and class divisions at the turn of the 20th century.
"Like the silent carrier who is its heroine, this novel is so quietly assured that you won’t suspect it capable of transmitting such violence. It will seize you with its breathtaking intensity, its authority, and its beating heart."
I read [Fever] in a fever—the fever of emotional suspense that makes all the best books so essential…Mary Mallon is a show-stopping, strong-willed, heartbreaking heroine, and the New York in which she lived a hundred years ago comes stunningly alive as the backdrop for the story of her long and rich but star-crossed life.
In Mary Beth Keane’s wholly absorbing, deeply moving new novel, Mallon emerges as a woman of fierce intelligence and wrongheaded conviction…Transforming a lived past into riveting fiction, Keane gives us a novel that thrums with life, and a heroine whose regrets, though entirely specific, feel utterly familiar.
Keane continues to impress with Fever, her historical novel about Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary…Keane resurrects New York City in all its teeming, sometimes seamy splendor.
In this compelling historical novel, the infamous Typhoid Mary is given great depth and humanity by the gifted Keane…A fascinating, often heartbreaking novel.
[A] gripping historical novel…Mary Beth Keane gives Mary her own voice, creating a richly sympathetic and provocative portrait of the very real person behind the pariah.
Mary Beth Keane inhabits Typhoid Mary in the infectiously readable Fever.
A novel as rich in drama and the turn-of-the-20th-century atmosphere of New York as Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City is of Chicago…[Fever] is part science mystery, part love story, part legal thriller—but, finally, just a damn good novel.
Fever manages to rescue a demonized woman from history and humanize her brilliantly. Mary Beth Keane brings to light a moving love story behind the headlines, and she carries the reader forward with such efficiency, you will hardly notice how graceful are her sentences and how entwined you have become with this fascinating, heart-breaking story.
In Mary Beth Keane’s wholly absorbing, deeply moving new novel, Mallon emerges as a woman of fierce intelligence and wrongheaded conviction…Transforming a lived past into riveting fiction, Keane gives us a novel that thrums with life, and a heroine whose regrets, though entirely specific, feel utterly familiar.”
“Mary Beth Keane inhabits Typhoid Mary in the infectiously readable Fever.”
“[Fever] is fluent and confident…Even if you aren’t interested in the medical detective story, you’ll enjoy the rich portrayal of work and class divisions at the turn of the 20th century.”
“[Keane] paints a more sympathetic portrait than ever before…[A] fascinating story.”
“[Keane] constructs a vivid and compelling backstory for her heroine, and a wonderfully complete picture of life of New York City in the early 20th century.”
“[An] excellent novel…Keane takes the facts and spins a probable life in such a way that one cannot help but cheer Mary on despite the knowledge that she carried potential death with her at all times. Looking back on Typhoid Mary a century later, Keane has given her the justice that eluded her during her lifetime.”
“Fans of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will find stirring parallels in Fever. Ultimately, this is a story that provokes a deeper understanding of the tenuous relationship between love, personal liberty and the common good.”
“In this compelling historical novel, the infamous Typhoid Mary is given great depth and humanity by the gifted Keane…A fascinating, often heartbreaking novel.”
“Keane has replaced the ‘Typhoid Mary’ cliché with a memorable and emotional human story.”
“Keane’s Mallon is a fiercely independent woman grappling with work, love, pride and guilt…A memorable biofiction that turns a malign figure of legend into a perplexing, compelling survivor.
In the early 20th century in bustling and grimy New York City, Mary Mallon (1869–1938) became a medical first when she was identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Unknowingly, the house cook was passing the disease to families around the city. Eventually, typhoid outbreaks were traced to Mary, and she was placed in isolation. She was released three years later on the condition she would never cook again, but that promise proved hard for her to keep. Keane’s second novel (after The Walking People ) tells the tragic tale of “Typhoid Mary” and the dangerous decisions she made while following her passion for cooking. The award-winning writer mixes literary imagination with historical fact to humanize the notorious Mary. Readers will question Mary’s final choices but scrutinize the injustices committed against her and sympathize when she suffers. VERDICT Even for those who know the outcome, fiction fans will eagerly anticipate each new page where disease lurks behind every compassionate corner. Keane has replaced the “Typhoid Mary” cliché with a memorable and emotional human story. [Four-city author tour.] —Andrea Brooks, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib.., Highland Heights
(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
The fact that we still know names like Mrs. O’Leary and Lizzie Borden, dramatic figures from the late nineteenth century, speaks loudly of their collective influence. FEVER takes on the story of Mary Mallon, who was known to the media of her time as Typhoid Mary. This novelization of the life of a hardworking Irish immigrant is tough to resist, largely due to the professionalism of Candace Thaxton’s narration. Thaxton transitions fluidly between Mallon’s brogue and the rest of the narrative, presenting a clear-eyed view of the time period and its people. Details of life in New York City and its environs are fascinating, and Mary herself is a complex character. At times, the story slows, but Thaxton gets it going again with her steady delivery. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
A fictional portrait of Typhoid Mary, the Irish immigrant cook who spread disease and death among the cramped, unsanitary streets of turn-of-the-century New York. Opening with the arrest of Mary Mallon in 1907, Keane (The Walking People, 2009) moves back and forth across several decades to flesh out the famous plague carrier's character against a detailed social panorama. Mallon's arrival in 1883; her work ethic and ambition to rise from laundress to cook; her peculiar loyalty to work-shy Alfred Briehof, the alcoholic who refused to marry her--all these provide context as Keane explores Mary's treatment at the hands of the Department of Health. Quarantined first in a hospital and later on North Brother Island for two years, the "Germ Woman" eventually finds a sympathetic lawyer who works for her release on condition she never cooks for others. Liberated, Mary returns to laundry work in the city. Plague carrier she may be, but Keane's Mallon is a fiercely independent woman grappling with work, love, pride and guilt. Exhausted by the laundry and yearning to cook, Mary becomes a baker but is discovered by her nemesis, Dr. Soper. On the run, reunited with now morphine-addicted Alfred, she starts cooking at Sloane Maternity Hospital until realization and responsibility become unavoidable. A memorable biofiction that turns a malign figure of legend into a perplexing, compelling survivor.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170975259 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date: | 03/12/2013 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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