Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America by Susan Campbell BartolettiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have so many thoughts running through my head after having finished this book. The first, is that my librarian soul wants to order every book I can find about this woman and read further.
When I was a little more than half way finished, I was somewhat skeptical and slightly annoyed with the Author. She painted this character as someone mistreated and abused by everyone of the time. She was exploited and her civil rights were violated. As I completed the book, I wasn't so sure that I hadn't also treated this woman very unfairly. Unquestionably her civil rights were violated, she was a victim of a time when woman were treated much very differently than men. It is true that she spread typhoid through her work as a cook, but there were many men at the time in the same city who also spread typhoid through cooking and they were not locked up and held prisoner for any time, and she spent the remainder of her life as a prisoner.
This is a very well researched book and I hope that some of my more advanced readers will choose to tackle this book. Approximately half of the actual page count is source material from the author's research. All in all a very interesting read, one I will recommend to others.
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