Quarantine

September 17, 2012
Smolens (The Schoolmaster’s Daughter) delivers an intriguing but somewhat flat story of late 18th-century sea-faring suffering. In June 1796, the ship Miranda pulls into the harbor of Newburyport, Mass., her crew all-but-destroyed by a terrible illness (faces “grossly swollen,” tongues “thick and black”). Dr. Giles Wiggins is forced to quarantine the ship in the harbor, angering the ship’s owner, the doctor’s wealthy, elder half-brother, but this precaution doesn’t stop the illness from spreading into the thriving port town. The doctor’s mother, who lives unhappily with the doctor’s half-brother and has been looking to rid herself of him, sees a possible solution in the growing lawlessness around her. Though the narrative is complex to the point of becoming baffling, Smolens’s research puts the reader right in the moment, and his keen understanding of human nature during turmoil makes for a fascinating read. Though light on action, the relationship between the characters, and in particular Mrs. Sumner herself, will satisfy.

December 1, 2012
The Miranda arrives in the bustling port of Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1796, with half its crew either suffering or dead from a mysterious illness. Dr. Giles Wiggins, who learned his trade on the battlefield, orders the ship to be placed under quarantine, but a few unruly sailors refuse to be confined and slip into town. Within days, many of the town's residents sicken and die, and Wiggins orders the construction of a pesthouse for the afflicted in an effort to stop the spread of the disease. Then the town's apothecaries are raided, and the medicine stolen sold on the black market at enormous profit, while the sick go untreated. Wiggins finds himself at odds with his colleagues, with one claiming the disease is divine retribution, while the other asserts that the fever can be treated through bloodletting. With a fascinating cast of characters, including Wiggins' obnoxious half brother and fearsome mother; a vividly rendered depiction of the era; and a stark look at the primitive state of medicine at the time, Quarantine is an intense read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)