Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical

Book Description

From the best-selling author of Kitchen Confidential comes this true, thrilling tale of pursuit through the kitchens of New York City at the turn of the century.

By the late nineteenth century, it seemed that New York City had put an end to the outbreaks of typhoid fever that had so frequently decimated the city's population. That is until 1904, when the disease broke out in a household in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Authorities suspected the family cook, Mary Mallon, of being a carrier. But before she could be tested, the woman, soon to be known as Typhoid Mary, had disappeared. Over the course of the next three years, Mary worked at several residences, spreading her pestilence as she went. In 1907, she was traced to a home on Park Avenue, and taken into custody. Institutionalized at Riverside Hospital for three years, she was released only when she promised never to work as a cook again. She promptly disappeared.

For the next five years Mary worked in homes and institutions in and around New York, often under assumed names. In February 1915, a devastating outbreak of typhoid at the Sloane Hospital for Women was traced to her. She was finally apprehended and reinstitutionalized at Riverside Hospital, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

Typhoid Mary is the story of her infamous life. Anthony Bourdain reveals the seedier side of the early 1900s, and writes with his renowned panache about life in the kitchen, uncovering the horrifying conditions that allowed the deadly spread of typhoid over a decade. Typhoid Mary is a true feast for history lovers and Bourdain lovers alike.

Customer Reviews:

ANTHONY BOURDAIN DELIVERS.......2007-08-11

Anthony Bourdain provides a good, solid story, written in his fluid, irreverent prose. Too bad he says he'll not revisit this genre (non-fiction, historical), because he makes history fun to read. He puts Typhoid Mary in an historical and culinary context, as only he can do.

Entertaining, But Lightweight.......2006-12-04

An entertaining urban historical of the infamous Typhoid Mary Mallon - the Irish cook with pestilence coursing through her ... um... bum. This one is a bit different because it's written by a chef who looks at Mary's life from the perspective of what it must have been like for a hard-working immigrant cook at the turn of the century, and he throws in a lot of details regarding the lack of cleanliness of the time which makes it a bit more understandable why Mary didn't tend to wash her hands after relieving herself, and thus prevent the spread of Typhoid Fever. Bourdain is decidedly sympathetic of Mary, when it's pretty obvious that Mary had a whole lot to do with bringing her misfortune upon herself... which makes you wonder: if Bourdain were offered some of Mary's trademark peach ice cream, would he have eaten it?

Love Bourdain!.......2006-07-13

I really like Anthony Bourdain's writing style. It's conversational and unpretentious. This is a great book if you don't know the story of Typhoid Mary; however, if you are already familiar with it and are looking for something in depth with lots of details, this might not be perfect.

I'm looking forward to reading more from Bourdain.

The Best History Books are NOT Written by Historians.......2005-03-10

It just goes to show what someone with some desire to learn and a talent for writing can do. Tony Bourdain proves it yet again with his interesting and well-researched look at Typhoid Mary. Who knew she was a cook? I bet most people think she was a prostitute (I did). Bravo to Tony for having the ingenuity and the humility to do some top notch historical research here and produce a useful work of historical scholarship.

Tasty morsel.......2005-01-30

This slender volume is a lot like the sumptuous meals that were popular among the wealthy turn-of-the-last-century New Yorkers: it's rich and overstuffed. "Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical" by Anthony Bourdain is loaded with references to that milieu's passion for all things fancy, especially food, and how one woman, without intent or malice, sent a panic throughout it.

Mr. Boudain, a very successful chef in his own right, is the perfect chronicler of this saga. His sympathy/empathy for Mary (Typhoid Mary) Mallon is evident throughout the text. (His final gesture of burying a gift at her grave was very moving.) He understands Mary's territorial sprayings in the kitchen, and how she felt that no one had the right to prevent her from working in it. And although he feels for her, he is not callous to the havoc and tragedy she created.

There is also a little bit of a detective story here. And I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the first time Mary was tracked down and the last time. The limited range of the book is the only drawback. I felt as though I had read something that was part of a larger work. In gustatory terms, I felt I had eaten a tasty main course with some side dishes, but was denied the appetizer and dessert. Again, Mr. Bourdain's final farewell to Mary at the gravesite was moving, but sort of abruptly ended the story. But I'm nitpicking. "Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical" is a wonderful diversion.

Average customer rating:

Thought-provoking
Yes
As the world turns ...
A challenging novel that explores themes of conservation and survival, death and compromise
entire premise of book is made up science

Get a Life
Nadine Gordimer
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0143037927

Book Description

Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer follows the inner lives of characters confronted by unforeseen circumstances. Paul Bannerman, an ecologist in South Africa, believes he understands the trajectory of his life, with the usual markers of vocation and marriage. But when he's diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, after surgery, prescribed treatment that will leave him radioactive—and for a period a danger to others—he begins to question, as Auden wrote, “what Authority gives / existence its surprise.” As Paul recuperates in the garden of his childhood home, he enters an unthinkable existence and another kind of illumination—a process that will irrevocably change not only his life but the lives of his wife and parents. BACKCOVER: “More profound, more searching, more accomplished than what she was writing earlier in her long and distinguished career.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Nadine Gordimer's work is endowed with an emotional genius so palpable one experiences it like a finger pressing steadily upon the prose.”
—The Village Voice

“A timely novel and a provocative one: a novel to enjoy and ponder, as its characters all do, the dizzying complications inherent in human choice.”
—The Washington Times

“I will always be grateful for the presence in the world of Nadine Gordimer, who has delivered in literature a South Africa most of us could not have known without her.”
—Gail Caldwell, The Boston Globe

Customer Reviews:

Thought-provoking.......2006-08-15

Gordimer is a very demanding writer and this book is no exception.
It's almost like a film that has to be viewed twice in order to understand it more fully and to appreciate its nuances. This book is about important topics facing individuals living in contemporary South Africa - illness, fidelity, career choices, the family, the environment. Gordimer ties these together in her inimitable way - the reader must pay attention and let the prose and the images resonate. Gordimer is one of world's great writers and I always feel richer after reading one of her works.

Yes.......2006-03-17

If you like Gordimer - and I do - you will love this book. It is timely, broad, thoughtful, and it humanizes some of the most important global issues of our times.

As the world turns ..........2006-03-03

As the world turns, so does Nadine Gordimer. If she had written novels like this one throughout her career she would not have been awarded the Nobel Prize. There is an apartheid, and a post-apartheid Nadine Gordimer. The former was the combative writer who, with her brilliant prose, greatly contributed to showcasing the horror of life under the old regime; the latter is still up for definition. One thing is for sure: she ended her activism when her party took power. The old problems, compounded by the new -corruption on the rise, crime, the health crisis, and the government's indifference or unwillingness to face them- apparently do not merit scrutiny or criticism from Mrs. Gordimer. And ... has she forgotten how to write sentences? Her boring characters and their boring lives make for cumbersome reading.

I'm sure Nadine Gordimer set out to write a good novel, in her usual vein; what she has published is a mediocrity.

A challenging novel that explores themes of conservation and survival, death and compromise.......2006-01-25

Don't let the slangy title of this Nobel Prize winner's 14th novel mislead you --- light is one thing GET A LIFE is not. But like many challenging works of art, this one is worthwhile.

Nadine Gordimer tackles large-scale themes of conservation and survival, death and compromise, through the vehicle of a privileged, white South African family navigating several crises. The first is the necessity of Paul Bannerman, a thirty-something ecologist, to be physically isolated due to radiation treatments for an aggressive form of thyroid cancer. His parents, Lyndsay and Adrian, take him in for several weeks, while his wife Benni and their son Nickie must settle for distant waves from outside the garden fence. During this unnatural time, Paul drifts back out to the garden of his childhood, and contemplates the tension between his own career as a conservationist and his wife's executive position at an advertising agency for firms that would pollute and degrade the very environments he fights to protect. Small wonder that when he returns home, old patterns fray and everyone treads lightly.

Although they do not fight, Paul bluntly rejects Benni's suggestion that they try to conceive another child, and the reader wonders whether or not the marriage can survive. But part two of the novel switches focus to the relationship of Paul's parents. It begins with 59-year-old Lyndsay's reminiscences of the affair she had while in her 40s. The affair lasted for four years, at the end of which she informed her husband Adrian that it had been, and that it was, over. At first jarring, this revelation gives meaning to later developments as Paul's retired father Adrian pursues his avocation of archeology in Mexico.

As usual with Gordimer, her symbols sparkle, functioning on many levels. A trip to a wildlife preserve to view a breeding pair of Black Eagles becomes a meditation on both beauty and the cruel realities of survival. "The first egg laid hatches and is followed about a week later by a second. The two chicks, known as Cain and Abel. The first-born, Cain has already grown when Abel comes out of his shell. Cain and Abel fight and generally Abel is killed by Cain and thrown from the nest." Later Paul thinks of this in relation to the dams he opposes, recognizing that the dams could end poverty for thousands of people. "And if Abel has to be thrown from the nest by Cain; isn't that for a greater survival. The eagle allows this to happen, its all-powerful wings cannot prevail against it."

Gordimer eschews quotation marks entirely, and question marks mostly, using dashes to set off dialogue. Careful reading is required at times to distinguish between the characters' internal thoughts and their spoken dialogue. She also is not hampered by conventional grammar. Sentences with no predicate clause abound, and reading this book is often like trying to listen to four conversations at once, about four different topics. This is how we think, and the technique serves to pull us closer in to the character's point of view, if we take the time to follow the threads.

The Kirkus review of this book refers to the "exfoliation" of the plot, and after I rolled my eyes, I looked up the word and found it an apt description. The plot really does come off in layers, and the reader must simply sign on for the ride and let the multiple meanings come through.

--- Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman Nicol

entire premise of book is made up science.......2006-01-10

I was very disappointed in a much-celebrated, Nobel prize winning author who didn't do her homework. First of all, the main character, Paul, has 'papillary carcinoma, the worst kind of thyroid cancer.' Except that papillary thyroid cancer is actually the LEAST deadly kind of cancer, of all the cancers out there. It has a nearly 100% cure rate is people under age 60. I had this type of cancer 13 years ago, and have never even required a hospital stay after one of my radiation treatments. So to build the entire premise of the novel around his needed isolation is based on made up science. And if he's such a danger to his family, why is he out of the hospital and living with his parents and the housekeeper? I couldn't get past the first chapter of this book because the complete lack of accuracy was too infurriating to me.

Quarantine!: East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892

Average customer rating:

Oy....
I loved this book!
A Wonderful Book! The American "Hot Zone" of the 1890s
THE best book I have read on epidemics!
Brilliant! A compelling and beautifully told story.

Quarantine!: East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892
Howard Markel
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0801855128

Book Description

" Quarantine! unites the best of the two worlds of social history and clinical history in a narrative style so personal and at times gripping that a reader forgets that the book is meant primarily to be a scholarly text... Markel is as much spinning a complex yarn as he is writing a scrupulously researched chronicle."--Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., New Republic

"Markel does the best job I have seen of depicting the experience of the quarantined--as well as explaining something of the political and etiological/prophylactic debates that framed and legitimated the quarantine itself. Along the way he makes substantive contributions to Jewish history, urban history, and public health history."--Charles E. Rosenberg, University of Pennsylvania

In Quarantine! Howard Markel traces the course of the typhus and cholera epidemics that swept through New York City in 1892. The story is told from the point of view of those involved -- the public health doctors who diagnosed and treated the victims, the newspaper reporters who covered the stories, the government officials who established and enforced policy, and, most importantly, the immigrants themselves. Drawing on rarely cited stories from the Yiddish American press, immigrant diaries and letters, and official accounts, Markel follows the immigrants on their journey from a squalid and precarious existence in Russia's Pale of Settlement, to their passage in steerage, to New York's Lower East Side, to the city's quarantine islands. At a time of renewed anti-immigrant sentiment and newly emerging infectious diseases, Quarantine! provides a historical context for considering some of the significant problems that face American society today.

"Beautifully written and thoroughly researched... This is a fine piece of history with a timely and thoughtful message; it deserves a wide readership among both health care professionals and professional historians."--Nancy Tomes, New England Journal of Medicine

"One of the major strengths of the book is the balance between the social construction of disease and the biological realities of illness... Quarantine! therefore provides an important cautionary tale not only for historians, but also for medical professionals who need to deal with modern epidemics in a rational and humane manner."--Heather Munro Prescott, New York History

"With vivid brush strokes Markel sketches in many of the colorful personalities who figured in his tale... Quarantine! is a fascinating and moving account."--Betty Falkenberg, Pakn Treger

Customer Reviews:

Oy...........2007-03-02

I couldn't even get past the first 50 pages.. dull...

I need some chicken soup after this one.

I loved this book!.......2001-06-28

I was assigned to read this book for a history course I took at the University of California at Los Angeles. Like most students, I thought, great, one more book to read. But unlike all the other texts my professor assigned that term--this one blew my socks off! It was great! Well-written, with a pulsating plot, great historical "characters", neat descriptions of diseases of another time. I am recommending it to all my friends and now to all of you on Amazon. Read "Quarantine!"

Ellen F., Los Angeles

A Wonderful Book! The American "Hot Zone" of the 1890s.......2000-07-05

Quarantine is a wonderful book! Dr. Markel has written an excellent history of epidemics in New York City during the 1890s--which was a true-life Hot Zone for cholera and typhus. Richly illustrated and beautifully written!

THE best book I have read on epidemics!.......2000-02-10

I have read a lot of books on epidemics and american history and I must say this is the best I have read. Markel does a superb job of bringing the reader right into the hearts and minds of those involved in the epidemics in New York of 1892. He also manages to tell a hell of a good story. No boring historical monograph--this is a scholarly thriller--well documented and well told. I loved it!

Brilliant! A compelling and beautifully told story........1999-10-22

I just finished reading Quarantine! and found it to be the best book I have read in years. A compelling story of two epidemics imported into the United States by Russian Jewish immigrants, the author recounts day by day the events with a vibrancy that is so often missing from historical books. Markel is to be congratulated on telling his story without the crutches of jargon or bias. Each perspective, those of the immigrants themselves, the physicians treating them, New Yorkers, government officials and so on, is handled with brilliance, sensitivity and meticulous research. One really gets a sense of the horrors of "the quarantine" from Dr. Markel's book and I want to thank him profusely for a wonderful reading experience. Bravo!

Book Description

BradyGames' .hack Part 4: Quarantine Official Strategy Guide features comprehensive coverage of every sidequest and a detailed walkthrough. The Phantom event is also revealed, with tips to find the characters from the anime and get the rare items. Detailed maps point out every portal, treasure, and Gott Statue. Updated bestiary plus secret keyword dungeons are uncovered! Complete equipment, item, and skills lists. Root town maps, item trading list, books of Ryu and much more!

This product is available for sale in North America only.

Customer Reviews:

Awesome game!! ^_^.......2007-01-06

Another really awesome game!!! I love how the whole thing works and just everything about it. The guide has its idiosyncrasies. ^_^;;; However, its great to have around! I know I would be lost without it. ^_^

"Walkthrough" not "Strategy Guild".......2006-06-15

All the .hack games are short -- very short. So why get the strategy guide? Because "The World", where most of the plot in the game comes from, is vast. So vast that a strategy guide 4 time this size might be able to hold all the maps, items and everything. So why is it missing so much? Because it focuses on only the plot related zones and boasts that it has a "secret" zone. The fact is the combination of servers and keywords is unfathomable! And after the end of the game, every last one should be available. You might as the question, why would I want to go back to level 3 zones? Well, for completionists, that is very important because the Ryu Books of 1000 log so very much, and most importantly, how many zones you have completed (unlocked all the monster portals).

Perhaps I have just been spoiled by books like Star Ocean's strategy guide, but I find this guide to be a joke, because much more "complete" information about .hack is available online for FREE!

Never Mess With An A:rd*a Fe/th&r.......2004-02-21

This isn't the first time, and I doubt it will be the last, where I point out that an excellent strategy guide is wasted on the game. In this case it depends on whether you entered the series at Part 4, or if you have been playing all along and started right out with a very high or maxxed out level. For high ranking characters, .hack//QUARANTINE is something of a cakewalk and play will be pretty linear. In that case, the guide will help you find some of the secrets, but there is nothing difficult enough to merit the guide's blow by blow support.

If you are new to the game the reverse is true. Each time you play the main story line you are going to find yourself facing some pretty fierce opposition. In this case, the guide is a game-saver. There arfe maps, combatant suggestions, and very detailed discussions of each of the bosses. And some other valuable tidbits as well. In this case the guide is well worth the price.

This guide is in exactly the same format as the previous guides in this series. Well made and illustrated, it will stand up to the frantic pawing which is the usual approach when you are in the middle of battle and out of your depth. It won't make the struggle any easier, but you will at least understand why you are getting pummeled. There are a couple of errors, but nothing that will interfere your progress.

Good, but a little incomplete........2004-01-22

Being a big fan of the .hack games, and wanting to make sure I got everything, I bought the guide. While the walkthrough is superb, and information pretty decent, there are a few flaws that bring down the book.
There are quite a few typos and misspellings throughout the guide, and I found a few pages were information wasn't all correct. Also, this guide only covers aspects from this game, so if you need detailed information for Grunty Races, Bestiary, etc for other games, you'll probably end up getting the other guide.
Probably the biggest flaw is the E-mail combos. They are correct, but Elk and Mia's combos are missing. In addition to the combos for all of the extra characters that you earn after beating the game. There is also errors with the new Grunties, as they misplaced information on one of them.
Despite the fact that you'll have to go online to look up some information, the guide is still worth the buy. It is still useful and informative. And it certainly helped me when I played through the game.

Average customer rating:

Finally Liz develops somewhat of a backbone ...
No stars: Quarantine -- this book
WRITE A REVIEW IF YOU WANT THIS BOOK REPRINTED/RELEASED
good roswell book

Quarantine (Roswell)
Laura J. Burns
Manufacturer: Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0689855192

Book Description

No One Is Safe.

There's a new corporation in town -- Meta-chem -- and Liz is psyched to land a scholarship program working in the lab. But when the giant pharmaceutical company creates a disease that accidentally infects the town, Liz is among the first to fall ill -- and, despite his powers, Max is unable to heal her.

There's also a new girl in town, Sadie, who's come to Roswell searching for her half sister, who she believes is Maria. Maria doesn't know how to feel: what if she and Sadie do share a father? Maria hasn't seen him since she was seven years old, and she's not sure she wants to see him now. but when news of the quarantine breaks, Maria has no choice but to keep Sadie with her in town, all while trying to find out who is sick and whether anyone can be saved in time....

Customer Reviews:

Finally Liz develops somewhat of a backbone ..........2006-01-10

I liked this book overall, sure the scientific facts weren't exact and the whole Sadie and Maria story line was way too short. This story wasan't about the actual scientific facts or Maria, but just where does Liz fit into Max's life and is the relationship worth saving, does Max still love her and just how deep that love goes. I liked the fact that Liz decided to put herself first for a change even if for a little while. And I felt that Max's actions in this book mimic the second and third seasons of the tv series where Max is selfish, self-absorbed, unreasonable but is also loving,caring and compassionate. In this book Liz tells Max about future Max, but in a later book Liz tells Max about it again..Obviously the author of the later book never took this book into account....But it's worth the read.

No stars: Quarantine -- this book.......2005-12-01

I've read several of the books in this series, and was a real fan of the show, but I feel it's only fair to give warning about this one. It was so out of touch with the show and its viewers, it offended. The only way it *was* in keeping with the show, was that the 'science' was laughable--below the level of a grade-school child. The story dealt with curbing an epidemic, yet the author couldn't be bothered to check out basic facts about, say, DNA. And Maria is chided because a total stranger shows up with a claim on her, pushes his way into her home (in the absence of her mother) and stays, and she doesn't bow and show him hospitality. This was so appalling, I actually tossed it in the trash after I read it, instead of donating it to the library. Didn't want the infection to spread.

WRITE A REVIEW IF YOU WANT THIS BOOK REPRINTED/RELEASED .......2005-03-27

i am making a plea to the author/authors/publishers of this book to re-release or issue a reprint of this CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT book as like i many people only need this book to complete their roswell book collection and because it's out of print the only way to get/buy it is to pay stupidly high prices for it which no sane person can afford!!!
so i'm asking you to issue a reprint of this book, and i can assure you there are plenty of us that would buy this book if you did, which would bring in high revenues for you!!!
SO HEAR MY PLEAS AND REPUBLISH THIS BOOK

good roswell book.......2003-04-13

when a new chemial company comes to town, they offer a scholarship and a summer job to one lucky applicant. liz parker
wins. but from the beginning she senses that things are not quite
right here. the scientist she is assigned to work with is down right rude and nasty to her. little does she know that they are covering up a bigger plot that will cause a townwide disease that causes the whole town to be quarantined.

as a subplot a little girl starts following maria around town. upon further investigation she finds out that the girl is her half sister. this brings up a bunch of complicated issues that maria thought long buried with her father who left her so many years ago.

the story has a good plot but i think the writer missed the best
parts of the michael and maria relationship. the writer has them
getting along a little too well. when did that ever happen on the show? the plot does come to a peak about 12 pages from the end and hurries with a solution. i did not like that part too much. it reminded me of the last4 episodes of roswell when they hurried up and tied up loose ends instead of drawing them out into a better story.

Amazon.com

The story of Jesus's 40 days in the wilderness is surely among the most celebrated and widely diffused narratives in Western culture. Why, then, would Jim Crace choose to retell it in strictly naturalistic, non-miraculous terms? The obvious answer would be that the godless novelist is trying to debunk divinity--to take the entire New Testament down a notch. And at first, this does seem to be the case. Crace's Jesus first got religion as an adolescent, and "was transformed by god like other boys his age were changed by girls." His peers view his spiritual fervor as a youthful eccentricity. Even now, as the thirtysomething Jesus heads out to the Judean desert for his 40-day retreat, he's perceived by his fellow anchorites as a flighty and impractical Galilean. They even call him "Gally" for short--and what sort of deity answers to a nickname?

Yet Crace is hardly the jeering materialist we might expect. As Jesus takes to his cliff-top cave, the author renders his religious transports without a hint of irony, and with a linguistic elegance that can hardly be called disrespectful: "The prayers were in command of him. He shouted out across the valley, happy with the noise he made. The common words lost hold of sound. The consonants collapsed. He called on god to join him in the cave with all the noises that his lips could make. He called with all the voices in his throat." And while most of the temptations of Christ are visited upon him by humans--by the motley crew of his cave-dwelling neighbors--he resists them with what we can only call superhuman will. Quarantine does, of course, operate on a fairly realistic plane. Jesus dies of starvation long before his 40-day fast is complete, and his fellow retreatants, who take center stage throughout much of the novel, are much too confused and brutal ever to figure in any Sunday school pageant. Still, Crace leaves at least the possibility of resurrection intact at the end, which should ensure that his brilliant book will rattle both believers and non-believers alike.

Book Description

Winner of the Whitbread Novel of the Year and a Booker finalist: a controversial novel of faith and mystery about a group of desert travellers and their encounter with Jesus

Quarantine is Jim Crace's imaginative and powerful retelling of Christ's fabled 40-day fast in the desert. In Crace's account, Jesus travels to a cluster of arid caves where he crosses paths with a small group of exiles who are on a pilgrimage to find redemption. One wealthy and manipulative quarantiner recognizes characteristics in Christ that he believes are divine. Evoking the strangeness and beauty of the desert landscape, Crace provocatively interprets one of our most important stories.

Download Description

An extraoridnary re-imagining of the forty days Christ spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil." - John Walsh,The Independent

Customer Reviews:

it's not really a story about Jesus.......2006-08-24

What happened during Christ's 40 days out in the desert when he was tempted by Satan? What exactly compelled him to fast in the desert? Jim Crace's Quarantine answers these questions as well as tells a very different story of those forty days than one might expect. The idea of Jim Crace (Arcadia, Being Dead) writing a novel about Christ's forty days in the desert was an appealing one to me. Crace is a talented, creative writer. His perspective would be worth reading. It is. He does something with Quarantine that I didn't expect: Jesus is not the point of the story. Instead we have a woman named Miri out in the barren wilderness waiting for her husband Musa to die. Musa is a merchant and he has beaten her and mistreated her for years and now he is on death's doorstep. She is six months pregnant and she will soon be free. She sees five people walking towards the series of caves which she has taken shelter. One woman and four men. The fourth man is a gaunt young man: Jesus from Nazareth. He is young and pious and thoughtful. He feels called to take his quarantine in the desert, the others do it for personal reasons. But he takes quarantine one step farther: no food or water at all, not just after darkness. With Miri hiding Jesus stops at her cave looking for a dab of water before he begins the forty day quarantine. He blesses Musa and tells him to "be well", a common phrase. The next day it is clear that Musa will live and Miri will not be free.

Most of Quarantine deals with Musa and Miri's encounters with the other four pilgrims (as this is something of a pilgrimage) and Musa's mercantile behavior. There are periodic chapters told from the viewpoint of Jesus, but Jesus is only in a third of the novel. The treatment of Jesus is interesting in that it becomes clear that he isn't just a man (as evidenced by his unforeseen healing of Musa) and what the form of his temptations and belief is. He dreams of being a Messiah, a healer. He thinks he is just a man. When the quarantine is over everyone is changed, the pilgrims and Miri no less than Jesus.

Readers looking for a focused novel form treatment of Jesus's forty days of temptation and exile in the desert should probably look elsewhere because Christ is not the point of this book. Jesus seems to be more a framing device than anything else. Jim Crace has an impressive imagination and this is a fine story about how the quarantine might change a man and about humane nature in extreme situations, and the time spent on the pre-Messianic Christ is worth the price of admission.

-Joe Sherry

Intelligent........2006-04-03

An amazing explanation of Jesus's 40 days in the desert. Crace imaginatively and cleverly tells a most plausible tale of Christ's suffering. I was unable to really feel for any of the characters who were not as brilliantly molded as the plot of the book nonetheless, I was unable to put the book down to see when Jesus Christ would come back into the picture. This book is not about Jesus but merely, the interactions of other fasters with him.

Utterly pointless drivel!.......2005-11-20

Not quite an everyday story in the lives of ordinary first century AD Jewish folk - but, as we are led to believe that quarantine is not unusual for the times - not far off! With only slightly more characters than you can count on the fingers of one hand and 250 or so pages in which to do it you'd think that it would be reasonable to expect rounded portraits instead of the two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs presented before us. In the few pages devoted to Him, even Christ is personified as little more than a confused and, possibly, deluded youth with nothing more ambitious on his mind than impressing his parents and the village elders! The whole thing is just a soap opera in loincloths and sandals with a hint of Thelma and Louise - but with far less character development and much less interesting! The fact that this book was the Whitbread Novel of the Year says more about, either the scandalously narrow-minded judges or the shocking paucity of truly worthy writing than anything about the quality of this tawdry and mean-spirited little affair.

Desert Values.......2005-08-14

In the Judean desert, four people arrive to start 40 days of quarantine - to fast, to expiate their sins and move closer to God. Unfortunately the manipulative merchant Musa and his unhappy wife Miri have been abandoned there before the arrival of the four. Significantly, Jesus of Nazareth is also in the desert, also starting 40 days of isolation and fasting.

"Quarantine" is an interesting novel, examining the nature of penitence, religious faith and evil. The main plot hinges on how Musa tries to exploit the penitents, how their weaknesses are preyed upon by him. One could suppose that the nature of evil is most often manifested in human form - the devil is not a creature of evil incarnate, rather the devil is in all of us by dint of the bad side of our nature. Alternatively, there's lots to be said that Crace's novel is an allegory on the clash of certain value systems, Musa being the amoral merchant incarnate, caring about nothing but money and self-satisfaction whereas the others do strive in their own way for a more value-filled and rounded existence.

Either way, an interesting and absorbing novel.

G Rodgers

Being A Dead Christ.......2005-02-08

All through this book, I was rooting for Jesus to get up from his fast and heal again. Instead, he slips into a coma and dies, but not before he establishes himself as a pitiful, scared little do-gooder with a medieval penchant for masochism.

What a let-down.

I could have lived with this, I suppose. But to elevate the man whom he healed (a snake oil salesman) to the position of having started the whole Christian movement was a bit much, even for me.

This book is obviously an experiment, in the same vein of The Last Temptation of Christ (much more rewarding, and more blasphemous). I've read many such works, even Matthew Lewis' The Monk. Ironically, both Kazantzakis and Lewis wrote novels that passionately railed against the institution of organized religion.

Crace's work is different. He writes exclusively in the naturalist tradition, pure and true enough to make Isak Dinesen proud. There is a kind of scientific detachment to the narrative, almost clinical in its design. And the premise is shockingly simple: What better way to debunk the whole mystery of Christianity than by killing off Jesus before his career as a rabbi ever began?

The approach is certainly original, but there are limits to what one can endure. Crace weaves a fantastically mundane tale with thousands of different shades, from gray to black, but there is very little in the way of color. Charles Darwin put more humor and spontaniety into his Origin of Species.

After reading Quarantine, I felt as if I, myself, had been left for dead, out in the desert. Ironically, the book did have an afterlife, though. I think perhaps what gave it a haunting quality after I set it down, was the subtlety with which Crace undermines Jesus' legacy.

Normally, this kind of afterlife is a good thing. It means the novel is "alive," at least enough to linger in one's consciousness. However, in this case, it stuck around like a glass of curdled milk on the night table.

If Satan were real, he would certainly applaud Quarantine as a tour de force of human intellect that has the power to lead people away from the love and healing power of God and his most beloved messenger/rabbi.

In this sense, it is, perhaps, one of the greatest trimphs to come out of the anti-christ tradition. Its strength lies in its subtlety, forcing the reader to creep along through the hot sand, page by page.

True to form, the plot speaks with a forked tongue. I found myself not believing, but hoping in vain that Jesus the teenager would pass his test of quarantine and emerge into manhood, as the fullfillment of prophecy.

Instead, our relunctant hero dies in a mass of undignified blisters and puss, only to be dragged out of his cave and buried in some unmarked cairn, where no one will ever find him again.

And that's the way it was, at least according to Quarantine. Two thousand years of Christian faith . . . over before it even began . . . not with a bang but a whimper.

In this light, I suppose you could say that Crace's novel is a kind of false prophet, itself, leading people away from the outstretched arms of a Divine Comforter into the frigid embrace of naturalism, where things are--ho-hum, yawn--exactly as they seem.

Average customer rating:

difficult, yet stimulating & challanging read
Australian SF Reader
Great story
existential angst disguised as a novel
links with another story I've read...

Quarantine
Greg Egan
Manufacturer: Eos
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0061054232

Book Description

It causes riots and religions. It has people dancing in the streets and leaping off skyscrapers. And it's all because of the impenetrable gray shield that slid into place around the solar system on the night of November 15, 2034.

Some see the bubble as the revenge of an insane God. Some see it as justice. Some even see it as protection. But one thing is for certain -- now there is the universe, and the earth. And never the twain shall meet.

Or so it seems. Until a bio-enhanced PI named Nick Stavrianos takes on a job for an anonymous client: find a girl named Laura who disappeared from a mental institution by the most direct possible method -- walking through the walls.

Customer Reviews:

difficult, yet stimulating & challanging read.......2007-08-23

It's all to often that one becomes entertained by a novel. It's all too often when one hates a a pathetically poor book. But it's ever so rare to be intellectually challanged, mono-y-mono, with a character in a book. Nick's experiences through detective work, cyberpunking and ultimatly turning into a loyal slave for a "greater cause." This all leads us into a surprisingly rich and diverse discussion into metaphyics.

What is consciousness and sentience?
How does quantum mechanics govern the universe?
Is there a connection between consciousness and quantum mechanics?
Does human consciousness collapse quantum symmetry?
What is reality?
Who am I?

All the possibilites brought up through the conversation about metaphysics sends one into a wonderful sea of self-discovery. Furthurmore, the technology of mental "mods" shines light on human perception of common day reality is a variety of different ways. Mods help us with attention, boredom, grief and order-of-importance. The variety of mods in the character Nick gives him a special diverse depth, which would normally be impossiblt to create in a main character.

Fabulous.

Australian SF Reader.......2007-08-01

Egan takes a slight change of pace here, as the setting is Earth, but an Earth that has been shut off from everywhere else by your good old bigarse forcefield bubble type idea.

A few weirdos don't cope with this too well, of course. However, there is a good old fashioned cop story involved here, as a detective has to solve a mystery, in this case, that of a disappearance.

That's not to say Egan doesn't quantum mechanic you, as usual, because he does.

Great story.......2007-07-03

Greg Egan always manages to make me sit back and go "whew" from sheer amazement at least once in every novel. I guess the fact that he has such a strong scientific background helps - truth is stranger than fiction!

existential angst disguised as a novel.......2007-05-03

It was OK. Lots of nice ideas I wish had been explored more. A procedural or detective story that actually remained a detective story, and still focused on the primed state, the mods, etc. could have been really good. The doublethink of the loyalty mod, and the choice of Karen were good. But it was dragged down for me by pages and pages of existential angst over quantum philosophy. Which seemed unnecessary, since there was already so much room for self-examination in the rest of the set-up, that there was no need to drag in infinite improbability drives to move the story.

links with another story I've read..........2006-07-08

I had to re-read the Schroedinger's Cat explaination twice but i think I got it. And one paragraph was resonant with me from another book I had read previously. "We're not just the Universe knowing itself- we're the universe decimating itself."

Yes, I fully expect novels to influence one-another. But it always comes as pleasant surprise to have that 'EUREKA' MOMENT.
I just wish I couls recall the title of the other book (or was it a short story)? In the story, minds are copied into a virtual reality where they can create their own reality or interact as communities or live a thousand lifetimes. To make this interesting 'another world' is created for 'exploration', but the bee-like inhabitants' observations and theories as to their own existence expand and begin to destroy the 'other', 'real' virtual reality that created it...

Oh yeah, that's crystal clear. E-mail me i you know the story title- its driving me nuts.

Of course those cyber-inhabitants packed up and left to found a new 'reality' while Quarantine's inhabitants (universal, that is) enclosed the earth in a bubble to protect themselves.
Good move. Except if we all limit our realities, then aren't we all in our own little self created reality with no one touching another's?

I'm confused again...

Average customer rating:

Very acceptable
Wow!
My favorite book of the series... so far!

Vital Signs (The Baxter Series #3)
Kathy Herman
Manufacturer: Multnomah
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1590520408
Release Date: 2002-10-07

Book Description

Furious that his girlfriend chose to bring twin babies to term, Dennis walks out of Jennifer's life. And now the Centers for Disease Control have quarantined Jennifer, along with 200 others who attended the reception for a missionary couple bearing a deadly virus. Is Jennifer at risk? Does Dennis even care what will happen to the twins, separated from their mother at birth? Fear takes hold in the town as violence erupts, and Baxter experiences an outbreak deadlier than any virus. Still, woven through the tale of violence and victims is another story: one of divine love and purpose.

Customer Reviews:

Very acceptable.......2006-07-21

I was very pleased with the speed of and order and the method it was sent. Will no doubt order from Amazon again.

Wow!.......2006-04-20

I agree with other reviewers that the books have too many minor characters to keep up with, but the books are worth reading anyway. This was the best so far. I loved "seeing" Dennis change! I also enjoyed "visiting" with Rhonda and Jed from the first book. I can't wait to read the next two books in this series. I love the way Ms. Herman shows how faith works in the lives of her characters and how the Holy Spirit deals with lost souls.

My favorite book of the series... so far!.......2003-10-01

This is the third book in the Baxter series and I've read all of them right in a row. I enjoy medical fiction, so I think this one is my favorite. I love the suspense, and the medical details were fascinating. I like watching the changes in the characters' personalities as the book progresses. Especially interesting is the heart and mind of Dennis, as he cares for two newborns.

Kathy Herman does an excellent job of depicting the human condition - both with and without God.

I agree with Harriet Klausner, who reviewed "Day of Reckoning" - she said that the books are overpopulated with minor characters. I find all these people confusing, but I certainly wouldn't let that keep me from reading the rest of the series! I have one more to read "High Stakes" and then a couple months' wait til #5 comes out!

Book Description

Newlyweds Cheney Duvall and Shiloh Irons-Winslow are enjoying an idyllic honeymoon aboard a ship in the West Indies. But when a fierce storm interrupts their carefree days, Cheney and Shiloh find themselves on a small island facing a mysterious illness. Quarantining the island and the ship's crew, Cheney and Shiloh work themselves to exhaustion as they care for those infected with the highly contagious disease. When Cheney collapses, Shiloh fears the worst. Has their love overcome all odds only to be tragically cut short? Since his plot to ruin Cheney was exposed, Bain Winslow has fled New York and is now the owner of a large spice plantation-on the same island where Cheney and Shiloh are caring for the plague victims! Discovering the island has been quarantined, Bain rages against Cheney and Shiloh, refusing any attempt at reconciliation. Will Bain ever accept Shiloh as the legitimate heir to the Winslow fortune?

Customer Reviews:

Where two seas met.......2006-01-30

To be honest, I didn't like this book at all, and im not ever planning to read the other series. i found it really boring because all they did is tried to help sickoes on the island......not to critisize anything, but i didnt like it, and just about few weeks ago i hold in my hands their 5th book, and it started out with the word "ghosts" i mean i like fiction books, but not fantasies. so if ya like to read 'bout islands it might be good for you, but i wouldnt recomend it.

Where Two Seas Met.......2004-05-19

I obviously did not look at the description of this book as thoroughly as I should have. I felt the characters attitudes and speech were not of the time period of the book's setting. It seems to me to be badly written and unbelievable. Perhaps I should have read more reviews and realized this is truly a work of fiction with no basis of factual events, real or imagined. I feel I have wasted my time and money.

Encouragement by the best.......2004-04-17

I have read all of the Cheney Duvall series up until now, following each one with late nights as I can't put the book down. As we start the new series with the Irons-Winslow family, I'm excited about the new marriage and the new family that has been begun. I have read other of Gilbert Morris' books, and have loved each one. For those not interested in history, this is a great way to learn while enjoying the lesson. As a doctor, I find the medicine of the time well researched and the struggles of a female physican that I identify with closely. I recommend this series to many people.

from the BestWeddingSites.com editor.......2004-03-06

This is one book you won't want to put down. Where Two Seas Met is a beautifully written historical romance novel by a father/daughter writing team (Gilbert and Lynn Morris). The authors' descriptive and intriguing writing style will capture your heart and make you believe that no matter what obstacles you may come across, there is always a "happily ever after". While reading Where Two Seas Met, you will feel like you stepped back into history and are right there with the characters. And you will fall in love with the strong-willed Cheney and ever-supporting Shiloh.

Look for the "Continuing Saga of the Much-Loved Cheney and Shiloh Series" to be released in April 2004. This is one novel I am eagerly awaiting.

Wasn't what I had hoped..........2003-04-24

After avidely reading the first 8 books of the Cheney series and discussing every plot detail with my best friend, I was sorely dissapointed in reading this novel. Gone was the wit and banter that made Shiloh and Cheney the characters I had grown to love... their dialog seemed contrived and their actions predictable. I was sure a major plot would be in this book, as book 8 of the series wrapped up the wedding so quickly. Unfortunatly, I agree with another review posted, that this story could have been summed up in one more chapter at the end of the previous book.

Average customer rating:

A COMMUNITY HEALTH PROBLEM IN THE PREANTIBIOTIC ERA
In Depth Read
Correction of error in Publisher's Weekly review
Worthwhile Read
Painstaking research into a historical personality

Typhoid Mary
Judith Walzer Leavitt
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Public Health | Administration & Policy | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

History | Special Topics | Medicine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0807021032

Book Description

She was an Irish immigrant cook. Between 1900 and 1907, she infected twenty-two New Yorkers with typhoid fever through her puddings and cakes; one of them died. Tracked down through epidemiological detective work, she was finally apprehended as she hid behind a barricade of trashcans. To protect the public's health, authorities isolated her on Manhattan's North Brother Island, where she died some thirty years later. This book tells the remarkable story of Mary Mallon--the real Typhoid Mary. Combining social history with biography, historian Judith Leavitt re-creates early-twentieth-century New York City, a world of strict class divisions and prejudice against immigrants and women. Leavitt engages the reader with the excitement of the early days of microbiology and brings to life the conflicting perspectives of journalists, public health officials, the law, and Mary Mallon herself. Leavitt's readable account illuminates dilemmas that continue to haunt us. To what degree are we willing to sacrifice individual liberty to protect the public's health? How far should we go in the age of AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and other diseases? For anyone who is concerned about the threats and quandaries posed by new epidemics, Typhoid Mary is a vivid reminder of the human side of disease and disease control.

Customer Reviews:

A COMMUNITY HEALTH PROBLEM IN THE PREANTIBIOTIC ERA.......2007-08-05

I found this book very interesting and the multiple aspects of the story are perfectly analyzed by the author. Is a good example of the social implications of a infectious disease and has strong relations with the present AIDS era we are living in. A lot of very important lessons can be learned to understand the present times. Very recomendable.

In Depth Read.......2007-01-29

Leavitt thoroughly explores Mary Mallon's story from a number of angles - social, historical, medical, etc. and the relevance of what we can learn from her situation to modern day issues. The subject was fascinating, but the book tended to be dry and redundant in places. If you are looking to understand the issues at hand, this is for you. If you're just interested in the story of Typhoid Mary, I would recommend a slightly lighter version.

Correction of error in Publisher's Weekly review.......2004-10-14

There is a significant error in the review by Publisher's Weekly. They refer to the microbe as the "typhus bacillus."
It should be the "typhoid bacillus." Typhoid and typhus are two entirely different diseases caused by different microorganisms.

Worthwhile Read.......2002-07-22

Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health by Judith Walzer Leavitt could be shorter. Not much shorter, just a bit shorter. The beginning of the book is surprisingly dull and a great deal of information is repeated unnecessarily.

That said, Typhoid Mary is very well-written, even the dull bits. The research is well-documented and complete. And the subject matter is more than a little engrossing. Who was the woman behind the label "Typhoid Mary"?

Leavitt is making the link between typhoid and AIDS, in particular the problem of finding the balance between protecting individual rights and protecting the community. She spends time on this subject towards the end of the book and has some compassionate and reasonable things to say. The strongest part of the book, however, is in the history and in Leavitt's appreciation of Mary Mallon as an individual. The most interesting parts of the book (and where the writing picks up considerably) are the chapters on the public perception of Typhoid Mary throughout the 20th century.

Recommendation: Buy it if it's a subject that already interests you. Otherwise, check it out of the library.

Painstaking research into a historical personality.......2001-02-20

Leavitt's book, Typhoid Mary, attempts to reconstruct the life and times of Mary Mallon, the first identified typhoid carrier in the United States. Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant, and worked as a cook among the elite families of New York city. She is also the centerpiece of one of the scientific advances of the twentieth century: the understanding that some illnesses are caused by germs, rather than vague miasmas, and that apparently healthy individuals can spread these germs to others. An understanding of this scientific truth, however, raises an even more puzzling question: how can the public address these individuals who, through no bad acts on their part, are able to risk the public's health? Leavitt analyzes Mary's story with the use of seven different perspectives: that of medicine, public policy, the law, social expectations, newspaper accounts, her own, and the story's modern retelling. These seven accounts combine to provide the reader a full account of the medical and social conditions of the day, and how they combined to account for Mary's lifelong isolation. The research on this book is well-done and the writing interesting. My biggest complaint was that some of the material is repetitive, as the different perspectives do overlap at times.

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