Review: Fever

Fever

By Mary Beth Keane

Scribner March 2013

306 pages

From the library

In 1907, a cook is dragged away from her place of employment. She is a young Irish immigrant working in the kitchen of a wealthy family. A doctor has determined that she may be the cause of an outbreak of typhoid fever that has claimed the lives of several of her employers. Mary Mallon can't believe that she can be the cause - she has never had typhoid fever. But Mary is forcibly removed and made to live in quarantine on an island of tuberculosis patients. She finally finds a lawyer who will fight her case. Can she be cut off from society forever because of a disease that has never made her sick?

While Keane's book is a novelization, Typhoid Mary was a real person who lived in New York City in the early part of the twentieth century. She was isolated for years by the Department of Health who identified her as the first healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Historically, she has been remembered as a crazy woman who fought the health officials every step of the way. When she was finally released, it was with the condition that she never cook again....an edict which she flagrantly ignored. Keane imagines what Mary might have been like, creating a woman who doesn't understand the way disease is spread and can't imagine a life where she does not pursue her passion to cook. 

The story jumps around a bit in order to give us a really full picture of Mary's life. While moving around in time can sometimes be confusing, it works very well in this case. The first chapter begins with Mary being removed from the house where she works and quarantined. We observe her anguish in quarantine as she misses her boyfriend and wonders when she will be released. When she begins working with her lawyer, she recalls the events that brought her to this point. It is here that we learn of her long journey from Ireland to America and the way in which she worked her way up to become a cook, as she had always dreamed of doing.

Fever is an engaging read. Keane has provided a new angle to the story of a woman who had no power over her own life. In our modern age, this type of treatment would create huge outrage. But because Mallon was an immigrant, an unmarried woman, and a servant, few people were willing to fight for her. Mary is a fascinating character, in part because of her stubborn nature and fierce temper. Reading this book will give you new insight into New York of long ago, the history and evolution of medicine, and one woman who was vilified for all of time.