Plague perils
With Bodmin, 1349, Roberta Kalechofsky has undertaken to present a valuable, comprehensive picture of the life of the common person during an virulent outbreak of bubonic plague. Minutely detailed, meticulously researched, this narrative forcefully conveys a vivid sense of what it must have been like to try to survive such catastophe. Told through the experiences first, of Will, married man turned novice monk, and later of his wife, Miriam, who is not certain whether or not she is Jewish or Christian (a perilous enough state without a plague to contend with), problems such as who is to to perform the risky task of burying the dead, how to avoid contamination, who will do the work of the departed, or where to find enough food, their stories force the reader to ponder the fact that anyone managed to live through such perilous times.
The problem with this book, which is categorized as a work of fiction, is that between the tales of Will or Miriam’s struggles are inserted lengthy factual and philosophical treatises on the issues of the day: religion, persecution, poverty, the feudal system, social inequality. The information is worthwhile, but these passages are jarring, coming as they do in the midst of the action, leading to conjecture about whether the manuscript, which was evidently a scholastic fellowship project, would have been better served by publishing as two separate titles, one fiction and the other nonfiction. A second problem is the book’s physical format; it appears to have been typed on an old fashioned typewriter, the clunky font disagreeable to read and conveying an absence of professionalism. True, it was originally self published, but the reissue should have been reformatted by the current publisher.
Thanks for the great reveiw! I think I’ll give this book a pass.