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| Author | MacDonald, Betty Bard |
| Title | The plague and I |
| Publish Date | 2003 |
| Publisher | George Mann |
| ISBN | 0704102544 |
| Type | Biography (Paper) |
| LC Call # | CT275.M43A4 2003 |
| Genre | Biographies |
| Subject | MacDonald, Betty Bard Authors, American--20th century--Biography Tuberculosis--Patients--United States--Biography |
| Synopsis |
Betty MacDonald's first book, The Egg and I, remains one of the most joyous best-sellers of the last fifty years. The Plague and I was its hilarious sequel at the top of the book-selling charts. It tells how Betty MacDonald learned that she had tuberculosis -- then just as much the terrifying killer that cancer is 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, for what was to become of her children whilst she was in hospital and supposing that she did not recover -- as many didn't -- what then? Such a story is hardly the basis for comedy, one would suppose. And one would be wrong. For Betty MacDonald always had the ability to face up to adversity -- and heaven knows she had enough in her life! So after the initial shock had passed, her natural buoyancy reasserted itself and from the day she entered the sanatorium to the day she left, cured, she proceeded to laugh at her illness, the other patients, the nurses, the doctors and -- chiefly -- herself. Of course she had her bad moments when the despair and tragedy underlying what she saw and heard refused to be pushed into the background, but she had the grit and wit to rise above it. The result is a lively, cheerful and most funny book. In fact, it's a tonic. |
