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The Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Narrator: Stephen Hoye
Source: Audible
Finished: 4/8/12
Rating: 9 out of 10
Publisher: Tantor Media
Length: 20 hours, 49 minutes
Pages: 608 (print version)
Published: 2010
Challenges: 2012 Audio Book Challenge
Synopsis (from Amazon): In 2010, about six hundred thousand Americans, and more than 7 million humans around the world, will die of cancer.” With this sobering statistic, physician and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee begins his comprehensive and eloquent “biography” of one of the most virulent diseases of our time. An exhaustive account of cancer’s origins, The Emperor of All Maladies illustrates how modern treatments — multi-pronged chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, as well as preventative care — came into existence thanks to a century’s worth of research, trials, and small, essential breakthroughs around the globe. Mukherjee’s profound compassion — for cancer patients, their families, as well as the oncologists who, all too often, can offer little hope — makes this book a very human history of an elusive and complicated disease
Overall Impression: I’m not sure what made me pick up this “biography of cancer.” I know few people with cancer, none of whom are very close to me. As far as I know, I’ve never lost anyone close to me from cancer. But something made me put this on my TBR shelf a few months ago, and I’m glad I did. Mukherjee’s history of cancer is absolutely fascinating. He leaves no stone unturned in his history, covering the appearance of cancer in ancient times, through medical breakthroughs and setbacks, all while maintaining a compassion toward both the patients and the doctors. While some of it gets a little technical (it doesn’t help that cancers, drugs, genes, and proteins are an array of acronyms and numbers), Mukherjee generally keeps his research very readable, interspersing the more difficult clinical parts of his book with real stories of patients and their doctors. Mukherjee is a wonderful writer — some of his descriptions of cancer and care are downright poetic. The book is quite long, but there wasn’t a time when I wasn’t fully invested in what he was talking about. The Emperor of all Maladies is one that I’d recommend to anyone looking for a engaging nonfiction read.
Positives: I love, love, love learning new things. I learned a lot in this book!
Negatives: I think my negatives came in the narration — some of it got a little clinical and the dry, one-note narration made it harder to listen to.
Narration: While I didn’t think that Hoye was a bad narrator, he wasn’t able to convey the compassion, humility, and depth of Mukherjee’s writing. His narration was very clinical. While this worked okay during the more research-y bits of the book, but didn’t work well when Mukherjee was telling stories.
Other books I’ve read by Siddhartha Mukherjee: none
Other books I’ve listened to narrated by Stephen Hoye: none
Other blogger opinions:
The Book Lady’s Blog: “Mukherjee’s humility and gratitude, and his empathy for and connection to his patients—and cancer patients in general—make this already remarkable book a must-read.”
S. Krishna’s Books: “This book is long, yet never for a second did it lose my interest.”
Devourer of Books: “ I cannot think of a single section of “The Emperor of All Maladies” that failed to excite my interest and curiosity.”
My Books. My Life.: “Although the book is obviously full of loss, it ends with hope.”
