The first think that I will say is that while it is a bit more up to date on current events, that this book would be second to Dreamland for me in recommendations for books to read to understand the current opiate crisis.
There are a couple of things that it does a better job at explaining when compared to Dreamland. The fist is that there is a brief but convincing history of opiate abuse as it pertains to the United States at the front of the novel. It doesn't delineate the power of opiates across time to have a devastating effect on mankind, but it does alert the reader that while the Sackler family lied, cheated, and profited from criminal activity, they did not create man's love of opiates and it's ability to cripple people is nothing new. Just the means have changed.
The other is that it does address the problem of young men in rural America not working. Idle hands are the Devil's playground, and disability is more rampant in red counties than in blue, so in addition to being susceptible to drug abuse, they are also in danger of losing their barest hold on life, because another Republican administration is going to be the death of safety nets. It is a freight train that they have set in motion heading straight at them.
No comments:
Post a Comment