Plague and I

A pre-WW2 American humorist contracts TB and 'writes about her seclusion in a way that is painfully, barkingly funny' (Lissa Evans, The Guardian).'Getting tuberculosis in the middle of your life is like starting downtown to do a lot of urgent errands and being hit by a bus. When you regain consciousness you remember nothing about the urgent errands. You can't even remember where you were going.'Thus begins Betty MacDonald's memoir of her year in a sanatorium just outside Seattle battling the 'White Plague.' MacDonald uses her offbeat humor to make the most of her time in the TB sanatorium-making all of us laugh in the process.'Improbably funny. . . equally remarkable.' -Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly'Can you imagine writing a whole book about being forbidden to do anything other than lie in bed? But Betty does, and she somehow makes it a riveting chronicle.' -Lory Widmer Hess, Emerald City Book Review'An appetizing, well-seasoned feast. MacDonald's sharp, witty observations as she spends almost a year in The Pines Clinic, outside of Seattle, are perfectly pitched . . . with a huge dollop of idiosyncratic humour . . . MacDonald is an impressive and engaging storyteller.' -Jules Morgan, The Lancet