#43
Title: The Plague and I
Author: Betty MacDonald
Genre: Memoir
Category: Non-Fiction
Rating: B
Published: 1948
Dates: 7/22/16 – 7/30/16
The Pines where Betty
MacDonald spent her nine months recuperating from tuberculosis (TB) is actually
Firland, a sanatorium located in Seattle, Washington. Betty wrote about how she learned that she
had TB – then just as much the terrifying killer that cancer can be now – and that
she must enter a sanatorium for treatment.
It meant such an upheaval in her life that she could not help but be
dismayed. What would become of her two
daughters while she was recovering?
Such a story is hardly the
basis for comedy, yet in this case with Betty MacDonald at the helm we find
that after the initial shock had passed, her natural buoyancy reasserted itself
and from the day she entered the hospital until the day she left, she proceeded
to laugh at her illness, the other patients, the nurses, the doctors and –
mostly – at herself.
She, of course, had her bad
moments when the despair and tragedy underlying what she saw and heard refused
to be pushed astern, but she gritted her teeth and rode the waves with cheer
and her funny bone intact.
Since this book is set near
where I grew up and I’d always wanted to read more of MacDonald’s stories this
fit the bill. If you decide to read this
book and like it you may be interested in another memoir by her, The Egg and
I. Enjoy!
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