Book Review: Typhoid Mary

Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical by Anthony Bourdain is more of a snapshot of a disease and time than a biographical account of Mary Mallon, the first known non-symptomatic carrier of typhoid. The interplay of classism, sexism, and disease is clearly defined in Bourdain’s account. Personally, I couldn’t help noticing similarities between the social climate of the late 1800s and the early days of the AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s.

New York and the country as a whole were in the middle of a foodie frenzy. Cooks for New York’s society families were expected to be well versed in a variety of cuisines. According to Bourdain, “cookbooks and fad diets and manuals on housekeeping and proper deployment and use of domestic help were all the rage.” Given the caliber of family that employed Mary, she would have been an accomplished cook. These families kept Mary in their employ even after she was suspected of carrying typhoid.

In addition to a food revolution occurring among the wealthiest Americans, a new wave of feminism was taking place, especially within the ranks of middle and working class women. “Quiet, demure, compliant women-whose sole purpose in life had previously been to get married and raise kids and run a household for their husbands, however brutish those husbands might have been, were being replaced by brainy, assertive, cigarette-smoking, self-indulgent “new women”, for whom the twentieth century promised new pleasures and real choices”, noted Bourdain. Mary Mallon was one of these “new women” whom was financially independent and appeared to be the sole support of her live-in boyfriend. When Mary was arrested the first time, it required five New York City policeman and the famed Dr. Josephine Baker to take her into custody.

After her arrest, Mary lived in quarantine for three years on North Brother Island. When she was released, Mary had agreed to never work as a cook. She was employed as a laundress, a much lower paying and less fulfilling position. In 1915, she was arrested again for working as a cook under the name Mary Brown. This time, defeated by years of bad publicity, low paying work, and life circumstances, she went without a fight. There were few traces of the new woman she had once been. Mary lived the last portion of her life in state ordered quarantine until she died of pneumonia in 1938, six years after a debilitating stoke.

Bourdain writes from the perspective of fellow chef, at times empathic to the plight of Mary. His portrait of her life opens a window into a time and place that has much in common with our own. His writing style is engaging and enjoyable to read. I give it three and a half out of five bucks.

Check in on Monday for my next book selection.

Picture of Anthony Bourdain from Wikipedia.