More Books! The Emperor of All Miseries

I read the Emperor of All Maladies over the course of a few weeks. It is excellent, and I think that it is one of those books that everyone should read. Over the course of your life you and/or someone you know will get cancer, and this is a good primer on what that means. It may be that you have already had that experience, and in that case you can probably give it a hard pass, because you don't want to live it again. If not, then consider it a primer on a future problem. You can learn it now, at your leisure, or later, under duress.

My issue with the book is that it does not do enough to describe the miseries of the people afflicted. It would be impossible to read if it did, but the consequences of a cancer diagnosis, and the subsequent treatments, and the relapse, are profound. 

This is a book where everyone dies. Sometimes that gets lost in the clinical language and the 'successes' offered by the treatments. Mukherjee does good work to address the challenges of the treatments, and they toll they take on the body, but I think a more critical assessment is necessary. 

If you suffer terribly to extend your life another six, twelve, or 18 months and then your cancer returns (as it often does), then was that really a 'success'? I do not think so. The brutal truth is that at some point most people in the United States will have to make a decision, either for themselves or for someone they love. That was the hardest fact about the book, and that is why you should read it.