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.

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FEVER is a fictional portrayal of Mary Mallon, the cook who became known as "Typhoid Mary" when it was found that she was a carrier of the dreaded Typhoid Fever even though she had no symptoms herself.

The novel starts with Mallon being arrested in 1907 after a Dr. Soper determines that she is a carrier of the disease but is asymptomatic. She worked as a cook for several prominent families whose family members all contracted Typhoid and some died including the children in the families. Soper quarantines Mary first in a hospital where she is forced to provide urine and stool samples and then later she is sent to North Brother Island in the East River where she stays for two years before being released upon the condition that she would not cook as a profession. The novel dips back into Mallon's arrival in New York in 1883 and tells of her work ethic and ambition to rise from laundress to cook. As part of the storyline, it also tells of her loyalty to her boyfriend, Alfred Briehof, an alcoholic who refused to marry her and who later becomes addicted to heroin and morphine after being burned in an accident. After she is liberated from North Brother Island, Mary returns to laundry work in the city. However, she becomes exhausted by the laundry and yearns to cook. She becomes a baker thinking this is not really the same as cooking for people but she is discovered by Dr. Soper. She manages to escape from him and later starts cooking at Sloane Maternity Hospital until ultimately she realizes that she is a Typhoid carrier and she then ends up spending the rest of her life back on the island.

This was really a sad story. Mary was indeed a carrier of Typhoid but she seemed to be targeted by Dr. Soper who wanted to use her as a study case. It was later found that there were many other asymptomatic carriers of the disease but Mary was the only one who was abducted and quarantined for years. I did find this story to be compelling and it kept me interested. The side story about Alfred was also interesting but I'm not sure how much of it was true. I thought this may have been added to the novel to give a more humanized story. But overall, I would recommend this. It does provide some interesting history that I knew little about.

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I thought that reading about Typhoid Mary would be especially interesting during our shelter-in-place for the corona virus. I found myself immediately caught up with Mary's sad and difficult life. She works as a cook in different upper class homes and unknowingly passes typhoid on to the family members through the meals that she prepares for them. Mary falls for Alfred and they live together unmarried, a shocking thing at the time. Alfred has a tough time keeping a job and has an alcoholic addiction. After many of Mary's employers' family members die, doctors force her to live isolated in a cottage on North Brother Island. When she finally gains her release from isolation, she has to promise not to cook for anyone again. This proves to be a difficult thing for her. I really enjoyed reading this and could strongly identify with the isolation sections of the novel.

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