On March 27, 1915 Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, where she would remain for the rest of her life. Her life is reimagined and retold by National Book Foundation-recognized author, Mary Beth Keane. Keane breathes life again to early-twentieth-century New York within her book, Fever. She follows Mallon who could not or would not understand why or how she sickened others despite being in good health herself. She could point to racism. She was Irish. It was sexism. She was a woman. Maybe it was chance and in the early 20th century people certainly died for unknown reasons. Keane draws up an image of Mallon who was morally blind and possible, eventually remorseful.
Book Title: Fever
Book Author: Mary Beth Keane
ISBN Number: 1451693419 (ISBN13: 9781451693416)
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