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A review by zosiablue
Fever by Mary Beth Keane
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Lots of thoughts:
1. I wanted more gruesome typhoid but this was a literary character study and I love story. It wasn't exploitive and it was gentle but didn't know what it wanted to be - was it about Manhattan in the early 1900s? The medical and political confusion of the time? Was it about a rough multi-decade marriage where two co-dependent traumatized people kept finding their way back to each other? A polemic on false imprisonment and shady medical practices? No clear line.
2. The author got addiction right. Damn.
3. There was a brief interlude in Minnesota and she also got that right. Authors not from the Midwest rarely do.
4. I rooted for Mary even when I was frustrated with her but I never felt like I knew her. Which was part of the character, I think - a tough broad trying her best.
5. So did she or didn't she pass typhoid along?!
1. I wanted more gruesome typhoid but this was a literary character study and I love story. It wasn't exploitive and it was gentle but didn't know what it wanted to be - was it about Manhattan in the early 1900s? The medical and political confusion of the time? Was it about a rough multi-decade marriage where two co-dependent traumatized people kept finding their way back to each other? A polemic on false imprisonment and shady medical practices? No clear line.
2. The author got addiction right. Damn.
3. There was a brief interlude in Minnesota and she also got that right. Authors not from the Midwest rarely do.
4. I rooted for Mary even when I was frustrated with her but I never felt like I knew her. Which was part of the character, I think - a tough broad trying her best.
5. So did she or didn't she pass typhoid along?!