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1.97k reviews for:
El Emperador de Todos Los Males / The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Siddharth Mukherjee
4.33 AVERAGE
1.97k reviews for:
El Emperador de Todos Los Males / The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Siddharth Mukherjee
4.33 AVERAGE
This book changes the way I see cancer. I knew cancer through the textbook, papers, and Wikipedia sometimes, as a student studying cancer. I am amazed at the way Mukherjee describes every scene of cancer's 'biography'. Mukherjee's work for 6 years successfully made this book very lively, natural, yet deeply researched. Though in the middle I was quiet 'lost', but most of the chapters were engaging. Read this book and we will realize how grateful we are to live in this era. Though cancer has not been completely diminished, we are progressing amazingly fast nowadays. And for any student who lives their life in the lab, this book shows that maybe every single of our data will have an impact, someday!
Mukherjee's book is a brilliant and meticulous account of the journey of research to understand and defeat cancer. It also carefully balances detailed scientific explanation with numerous personal anecdotes from his own oncology career. Moreover, his efforts to examine not just history, but bringing in economic, social, cultural consequences along with emphasis at individual level were admirable to say the least.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I thoroughly enjoyed this text and found it engaging throughout - The Emperor of All Maladies succeeds in all measures of science communication.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I thoroughly enjoyed this text and found it engaging throughout - The Emperor of All Maladies succeeds in all measures of science communication.
this is a tough one to rate because parts of it i felt were done really well but i wish it had had a rather ruthless editor to alter and reorder sections.
right out of the gate i had a bit of punch to the gut as the first cancer discussed was AML (acute myeloid leukaemia) which is what nearly killed my mum when i was a kid so that was a bit of a baptism by fire.
the specific case studies and the story behind the jimmy fund as well as the historical context of cancer were all really interesting. i also found the insights into cancer research and treatment really enlightening and accessibly delivered. reading about the history of medicine is often horrifying and this was no different (radical mastectomies… yikes).
however, the pacing was completely off and the chronology was wildly hard to follow at points. there were also sections towards to the end of the book that were really quite dense for the layman and left me personally a bit lost. i do feel like some of the inclusions were potentially self indulgent and overplayed (the extended section on the link between smoking and cancer could have been a book all on its own).
overall i’m glad i read it and i did enjoy large swathes of it but some of the negatives for me were a bit too glaring to not leave it sat at a middle of the road: 3 stars.
right out of the gate i had a bit of punch to the gut as the first cancer discussed was AML (acute myeloid leukaemia) which is what nearly killed my mum when i was a kid so that was a bit of a baptism by fire.
the specific case studies and the story behind the jimmy fund as well as the historical context of cancer were all really interesting. i also found the insights into cancer research and treatment really enlightening and accessibly delivered. reading about the history of medicine is often horrifying and this was no different (radical mastectomies… yikes).
however, the pacing was completely off and the chronology was wildly hard to follow at points. there were also sections towards to the end of the book that were really quite dense for the layman and left me personally a bit lost. i do feel like some of the inclusions were potentially self indulgent and overplayed (the extended section on the link between smoking and cancer could have been a book all on its own).
overall i’m glad i read it and i did enjoy large swathes of it but some of the negatives for me were a bit too glaring to not leave it sat at a middle of the road: 3 stars.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
very dense, but Mukherjee brings back enough personal threads to keep you going. A bit of a bummer though
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced
The Emperor of All Maladies is an expert balancing act. Mukherjee jumps from tightrope to tightrope: technical versus intelligible, celebratory versus scolding, and -- perhaps most crucially for the reader -- hopeful versus despondent. The history of cancer is undeniably complex, evolving, and impossible to predict. What Mukherjee sets out to do is to provide context, lay out the information we do have (and how we got it), and reframe the question most of us have regarding cancer: when will we find a cure?
The answer to that question is "we don't know", but Mukherjee importantly redirects the reader's curiosity to instead explore what cancer truly is. This is the distinction he makes between a history and a biography, as used in the subtitle. Personally I don't agree with the distinction: cancer itself isn't often personified in his book, and biographies refer to distinct people or characters which, the author is quick to point out, cancer is not. It is an evolving classification of disease so elusive that even two cases of the same type of cancer can be incredibly different. But this does not lessen the effect of Mukherjee's reframing of the typical questions around cancer. More interesting, he supposes, is how cancer is reflective of its era, and even of the organisms it affects. His depiction is beautiful and haunting, without needless personification.
"Emperor" is as much a celebration of our progress to date as it is a condemnation of many of the steps toward it. Several chapters explore the reckless, sometimes barbaric, measures researchers resorted to in the name of progress. Ego and legacy pervade as a pernicious, corrupting force cloaked behind the vaneer of saving lives and the greater good. But judging is easy in retrospect, and many of the most aggressive experiments were the biggest breakthroughs. War metaphors abound, and in research as in combat, sacrifices must be made. Mukherjee navigates this excellently, advocating for compassion toward patients and saving his condemnation for those who obviously prioritized their own legacy (sometimes even in the short-term) over their patients' health.
Ultimately "Emperor" pulls off this balancing act. Some pieces feel needlessly detailed or technical, and it can read more as a textbook than most popular nonfiction, but it's well-written on an intriguing subject. Mukherjee does not shy away from how much work remains to be done: while some cancers have been rendered curable or manageable, others remain as mysterious to us as they were to our ancestors. Ultimately, the author explains, there is plenty of reason for hope.
The answer to that question is "we don't know", but Mukherjee importantly redirects the reader's curiosity to instead explore what cancer truly is. This is the distinction he makes between a history and a biography, as used in the subtitle. Personally I don't agree with the distinction: cancer itself isn't often personified in his book, and biographies refer to distinct people or characters which, the author is quick to point out, cancer is not. It is an evolving classification of disease so elusive that even two cases of the same type of cancer can be incredibly different. But this does not lessen the effect of Mukherjee's reframing of the typical questions around cancer. More interesting, he supposes, is how cancer is reflective of its era, and even of the organisms it affects. His depiction is beautiful and haunting, without needless personification.
"Emperor" is as much a celebration of our progress to date as it is a condemnation of many of the steps toward it. Several chapters explore the reckless, sometimes barbaric, measures researchers resorted to in the name of progress. Ego and legacy pervade as a pernicious, corrupting force cloaked behind the vaneer of saving lives and the greater good. But judging is easy in retrospect, and many of the most aggressive experiments were the biggest breakthroughs. War metaphors abound, and in research as in combat, sacrifices must be made. Mukherjee navigates this excellently, advocating for compassion toward patients and saving his condemnation for those who obviously prioritized their own legacy (sometimes even in the short-term) over their patients' health.
Ultimately "Emperor" pulls off this balancing act. Some pieces feel needlessly detailed or technical, and it can read more as a textbook than most popular nonfiction, but it's well-written on an intriguing subject. Mukherjee does not shy away from how much work remains to be done: while some cancers have been rendered curable or manageable, others remain as mysterious to us as they were to our ancestors. Ultimately, the author explains, there is plenty of reason for hope.
Large portions of this were compelling, especially when it focused on patients' experiences with cancer and its early treatments, which included poisoning children and deforming women. Unfortunately, this book was weighed down by pages and pages of medical/scientific minutia leading to certain chemical-based cancer treatments. The author is a research Oncologist, and I often wished this had been written by a medical journalist better able to parse out the story from the research.