Death and Mayhem for Halloween

Happy Halloween! I am celebrating by responding to a review of The Cure by Sonia Levitin, a story of the plague outbreak of 1348 in Europe.

 Title:The Cure
Author: Sonia Levitin
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2000
Interests: Plague/ Jewish History/ Science Fiction
Summary: Kirkus Review



 The Cure by Sonia Levitin.
A young man from the year 2407 travels back to 1348 - the height of the Great Plague.

 Juxtaposing the past and the future, this potent story explores the societal consequences of diversity and individuality. It’s 2407 and the almost 16-year-old Gemm 16884 lives in a serene Orwellian society where the denizens are trained to believe that “diversity begets hostility,” and that psychological troubles can be banished by sipping on a serotonin shake. But Gemm is not like his kinsmen; he’s afflicted with ungovernable emotions and a “deviant” passion for music. To avoid being “recycled,” he agrees to undergo a frightening cure, a mind-adventure that will make the association of music and the emotions it engenders unbearable. He wakes up in 1348 Strasbourg, Germany, where he’s known as Johannes the Jew. Unlike the fairly standard rendering of the future, this part of the story, opening just as the Black Death begins to sweep through the population, fairly pulsates with energy and freshness; it is based on a real event and packed with spine-tingling historical detail. Johannes has to cope with virulent anti-Semitism in a society that is anything but tranquil. Levitin (Yesterday’s Child, 1997, etc.) cheats a little to give the future world an upbeat ending, but even so pulls off an unusual mix of science and historical fiction that is as suspenseful and as it is unsettling. (bibliography) (Fiction. 10-14)
Source of review: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sonia-levitin/the-cure/ 

 Okay, let me start by saying I don't generally like science fiction. I mean, I rarely like science fiction. Having said that, the one feature of science fiction that bothers me the most is time travel. (Although my love for A Wrinkle in Time out weights all the tessering that takes place in that novel.) Seriously, I don't want to think about people jumping back and forth in time and mucking things up. Although for all I know it is already happening - now there is a little meta-fiction you to contemplate. The Kirkus review is accurate, and presents the conflict of the book well. In The Cure, Gemm is one half of a couple, created to be together from "birth." Sex and families don't really happen in the year 2407 - messy, complicated, and too emotional. As punishment for being an individual with too much emotion, Gemm is sent back to the year 1348 as a Jew. Historically, 1348 in Europe is known as the First Holocaust. The spread of Bubonic Plague wipes out nearly half of Europe and the Jews are blamed for spreading the disease.
(What is science fiction?
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson927/SciFiDefinition.pdf)
(What is historical fiction?http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson404/HistoricalFictionDefn.pdf)

I like the historical portion of the book, but didn't care for the science fiction. Although to be honest, what bothered me the most about the book is it is presented as science fiction, but most of it is historical fiction. Chapters 1-4 and 19-20 are science fiction, but chapters 5 - 18 are historical fiction. I didn't think the mix worked in this case. I will say the book was very well researched. Levitin successful wove many facts into the story without lossing the plot.  Overall, I would give chapters 5 - 18 a Good rating, but the mix of generes (for me) knocks it down to an Average rating.

For more information about this time period, see
http://www.sixmillioncrucifixions.com/Blaming_the_Jews_for_the_Black_Death_plague.html

 Next week: a children's book and Those Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb, a story of the Dust Bowl.


Thank you for the pics!
Image sources:
Book cover: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sonia-levitin/the-cure/
Plaque: https://www.flickr.com/photos/leshaines123/4523973656