Mary Beth Keane

I haven't read a generational novel in quite a while, and I enjoyed this one. It starts out in the 1970s. Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are rookie NYC cops who partner for their first six weeks on the streets. Both have girlfriends they hope to marry soon. Francis was born in the US, taken back to Ireland, and returned to America at age 19. Brian's family came from Ireland "way back," but his girlfriend Anne is a more recent immigrant. Brian tells Francis that he hopes to buy a house in show more Gillam and raise his family away from the city. Fast forward: both are married and live next door to one another in Gillam. Francis and Lena have two girls and a third is on the way; Anne had a stillbirth and is expecting again. There's something not quite right about Anne. She rebuffs her neighbors' attempts to be friendly. After Lena drops off a baby swing and a loaf of bread that she baked, Anne bangs on the door and returns them, saying that if her baby needs anything, she can afford to buy it, and she can feed her family herself. After that, and after Brian is caught drinking on the job and is first demoted and then forced to retire early, the Gleesons pretty much ignore the family--except for their daughter Kate, who forms a strong bond with Peter Stanhope that never fades, even after a violent act separates the two families for years (and in the case of the parents, decades).

I don't want to give away too much. Suffice it to say that the rest of the book follows the effects of violence, mental illness, parenting, marriage, and parental models--both good and bad--on the two families. Kate and Peter become the main focus, and Keane does a fine job of portraying their lives both with and without one another. I whisked through this book in just a few days, which is a testament to how engaging it was. show less

One of those novels you just fall into immediately, this one centers around two families of NYPD officers who leave the city for the suburbs and end up as next door neighbors, with remarkable and disastrous consequences. Irish immigrant Francis Gleeson and his wife Lena have three daughters; Brian Stanhope and his wife Anne have a son, Peter. Peter and the youngest Gleeson daughter, Kate, are bound together from childhood - she, an outgoing and outspoken favorite of her father, and he, a show more prisoner of his mentally ill mother's struggles and his father’s neglect. When they are in high school, Anne precipitates a violent incident between the neighbors, and Peter is abruptly cut off from his ally Kate, his father, and his mother, but is rescued by his loving uncle George, the hero of the tale. Later, when Peter and Kate reunite and marry, they endure struggles of their own. There's nothing here that doesn't or couldn't happen on your own block, which is a great part of the novel's appeal. It is told in straightforward fashion, primarily by Peter, Lena, and Francis, and when Anne's missing voice enters, a circle is closed. show less

One of my favorite things about this book, was the author's ability to take someone who has often been sneered at in the press and completely humanize her. I have heard the term Typhoid Mary before, but I really was not familiar with the background story of Mary Mallon. This fictionalized version of the book was brilliant.
Mary Mallon is an Irish immigrant working as a cook in the early nineteen hundreds. Working in the upper class households of that time, she leaves behind a trail of show more disease. Unbeknownst to Mary, she is a asymptomatic carrier of typhoid. Unfortunately, she spreads sickness through her cooking, something that she makes her living at and loves to do.
In order to keep New York's citizens safe, Mary is forced into isolation for 3 years on North Brother Island. She eventually gains her freedom and is allowed to leave, but under the strict order that she is continually tested and is never to cook again. Mary eventually returns to the kitchens and later learns the dire consequences of her actions.
The book was such a great read, because the author did a wonderful job of capturing what may have been Mary's thoughts throughout this ordeal. Why would she stop cooking; something she loved and was great at, because some medical engineers said she spreads disease? Mary never once was sick. Many of her employers and friends that she cooked for never developed typhoid. The story perfectly captured the inner struggle that Mary most likely was experiencing at the time. Beautifully written and a very satisfying read. I highly recommend this book! I received this book as part of the Librarything Early Reviewers. show less

This is historical fiction about Mary Mallon - the infamous Typhoid Mary. It's full of historical events of the late 19th and early 20th century - the sinking of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the widespread, uncontrolled use of addictive drugs like heroin and morphine to control pain and then developing restrictions on them, and of course, the science that tormented a healthy woman who couldn't believe she was the source of a dangerous disease in others. This is my favorite kind show more of historical fiction, one that humanizes a woman we have been told to automatically disdain and emphasizes the misogyny of men who oppress her. And it's a good story, 5 stars from me. show less