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A review by xcdo
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
4.0
An unfortunately excellent book. Sam Quinones does an masterful job of telling the story of the opioid epidemic through a series of narratives, which makes for an episodic scene-by-scene of the gradual takeover of heroin, but also shows how interconnected various factors/parties were (and continue to be). Being more aware of the end of the opioid epidemic as it hit middle-class America and being privy to high-schooler drug dealers, it was fascinating and eye-opening to get a more historical understanding of the connection between heroin and prescribed opioids, especially as the epidemic started in smaller-town America.
However, despite being well interviewed and researched, there were parts of the book that felt lengthy or like rehashings of an earlier chapter/content. I also wish that there was more focus besides a chapter on how communities were working together to come out of the opioid crisis, with perhaps more suggestions on what community-building entails and common-man solutions. I actually found the afterword to be really fascinating and wish that he had an actual chapter like it in the book (talking about heroin might be a metaphor for talking about America generally), though I didn’t love that it seems like Quinones connects the avoiding of pain/seeking of pleasure as a way to criticize trigger warnings and “decreased student resilience” (without also talking about how the scale of current events and the state of the world might be increasing “emotional crises over the problems of everyday life.”)
Overall an informative and gripping read, and definitely a great starting point to learning more about the opioid crisis.
However, despite being well interviewed and researched, there were parts of the book that felt lengthy or like rehashings of an earlier chapter/content. I also wish that there was more focus besides a chapter on how communities were working together to come out of the opioid crisis, with perhaps more suggestions on what community-building entails and common-man solutions. I actually found the afterword to be really fascinating and wish that he had an actual chapter like it in the book (talking about heroin might be a metaphor for talking about America generally), though I didn’t love that it seems like Quinones connects the avoiding of pain/seeking of pleasure as a way to criticize trigger warnings and “decreased student resilience” (without also talking about how the scale of current events and the state of the world might be increasing “emotional crises over the problems of everyday life.”)
Overall an informative and gripping read, and definitely a great starting point to learning more about the opioid crisis.