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Phil Rambles, Phil Price blog.

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pnprice@creekcats.com

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Nonfiction: In the Wake of the Plague---The Black Death and the World it Made, by Norman Cantor
This repetitive and narrow book discusses the effects, and to some extent the causes, of the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 14th century and recurred many times over the succeeding centuries. At its best, the book discusses some noteworthy effects of the plague: examples include the creation of a labor shortage in some areas and the social changes that this led to, and the alteration of the ratio of men to women (since the plague killed both sexes about equally, while the other main cause of mortality, death during childbirth, took only women). At its worst, the book is repetitious on some main points while failing to delve into others.

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Fiction: Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks.
This very readable novel tells the story of a woman living in a plague-ridden village in central England in 1666. The village in the novel, like the real-life village of Eyam, voluntarily quarantined itself to avoid endangering its neighbors, a heroic act that was apparently unprecedented and unrepeated. The novel follows the spread of the epidemic, the townspeople's fear, anger, and search for scapegoats, and the trials and loves of the protagonist. The protagonist is perhaps unrealistically liberal and sophisticated for her era, but the book is still entertaining and, given the reasonably good research on which it appears to be based, also provides a good look at life in those times.

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