Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
By: Jennifer Wright / Narrated By: Gabra Zackman
Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
Maybe not very Academic, but WILDLY entertaining… Plus, the cover has the Creepy Beak-Doctor from my nightmares…!
Yup, after STRUGGling through Deadly Companions two times, I finally got to the audiobook that a reviewer said was the better of the two. And danged if, once I’d finished it, once I’d enjoyed the heck outta it, I looked and saw that reviewers of THIS audiobook didn’t ding the thing for not being Academic enough. One reviewer castigated author Jennifer Wright for inserting her opinions about history’s villains and such all.
I tell ya, if you go so far as to write an entire book, the least you should be able to do, esPECially if you’re shooting for jaunty and hilarious, is be able to express your own opinions. After all, at no point does Wright posit herself to be an Uber-doctor or anything.
So what have we here? Here in Get Well Soon is a look into some of the world’s most notorious plagues and diseases, and interspersed through it all is Wright’s cheeky tongue-in-cheek cheekiness (Yeh yeh yeh, I meant to use forms of “cheek” that many times!). I valued her opinion not as a doctor but as an historian. We start with some early plagues, then we go right through the ages. She has MUCH to say for leadership during pandemics, how it helps (Think Marcus Aurelius), how it hinders (And I googled her to see what she has to say about our current coronavirus pandemic… LOTS to say, very pointed). It was mind boggling to go through so much history and to see so many parallels between waaaaay back then all the way to NOW. For instance, Rome may’ve been writhing and rotting with Plague, but the masses had to have their entertainment, their bloodsport (Sorry, Christians—Aurelius doesn’t like you). Kinda brings to mind people getting all touchy about all being ready for NFL Football within the coming months. Do we reeeeally neeeeed to have entertainment to keep our minds off our woes? Think Netflix, think audiobooks, think YES….
My favorite opinion comes throughout Wright’s observations about the town of Strasbourg during the Dancing Plague. A woman danced and danced and danced, and everybody thought she was doing it to irk her stern husband. But then she danced till her feet bled, couldn’t stop dancing, wore her feet to the bone, and others picked up the ailment. But Wright commends the townsfolk rePEATedly in that they never looked at the woman as tho’ she were a witch, had bad hoodoo, and the townsfolk tried to cure the victims rather than burn them at the stake. AWESOME, Wright cries. And after a book devoted to how poorly societies usually do during plagues, it is indeed awesome.
Not to mention, hiLARious…!
One thing Get Well Soon also has going for it (Which Deadly Companions does not) is Gabra Zackman as narrator. I love the woman, so I was delighted to see that she was doing the honors for this audiobook. She has a warm, wry voice, hits the notes of dripping sarcasm just the right way, offers Wright’s observations in just the perfect manner so that we spend a good amount of time chuckling, even tho’ what’s being described might be toe-curling. Love Zackman, Brava!
Yes, now that I’ve been doing All Things Pandemic all this week, and several in the recent past, I can say that there’s quite a bit here that you can find elsewhere. But even tho’ I’d been listening to Justinian’s plague stuff all this week, I found it far more entertaining here. Okay, maybe not as moving as, say, when Kelly brings it up in The Great Mortality, but definitely funnier.
So many Plague audiobooks, so little time. Lemme help ya find the one that suits ya!
You’re welcome!
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