Review of a biography of Typhoid Mary.
How can we know what it was like to be a poor, immigrant, middle-aged, single woman trying to support herself while keeping one step ahead of public health officials and the police, taking jobs as a cook in private homes and always leaving when typhoid fever broke out, as it almost inevitably did? Anthony Bourdain, author of Typhoid Mary, An Urban Historical attempts to provide as clear a picture of Mary as the scant historical record, supplemented by his personal experience, allows.