![]() ![]() Ideas from Keane are taken from a recording of her visit to a UVA class on historical fiction. I did find the setting convincing, however, and did not have the feeling of being strung along that D’Agata’s nonfiction provides within the context of his views on the essay. ![]() This story certainly has the “emotional truth” that is considered to make good fiction, but provides an interesting example of a questionable opinion on historic accuracy. ![]() To Keane’s credit, she mentions that the heart of the book was produced from trying to understand the historical Mary Mallon, and whether or not she truly believed she was to blame for the typhoid deaths around her. ![]() Maybe an author can never do more than that, but I am hesitant to believe that I feel like a certain removal of self and replacement with character is present in good fiction. Mary Beth Keane has written a spectacularly bold and intriguing novel about the woman known as Typhoid Mary, the first person in America identified as a healthy carrier of Typhoid Fever. It does a considerable amount to explain how Mary Mallon is presented as such a modern woman, however and maybe this book is simply an exercise in projecting the self into a historical context. One wonders how much of it is real, which takes away from the emotional effect of the book. This book takes on an interesting color in the light of Keane’s view of historical fiction, which is that documentation and fact must be subject to character and plot, and especially so after hearing about her process for writing this book, which involved much research although no note-taking. ![]()
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