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A review by bhargavir
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
4.0
Everyone should definitely read Empire of Pain if you want to be enraged, education, and engrossed.
Empire of Pain is an unrelenting look at the role the Sackler family has played in the growing opioid crisis in America. While the book is rife with facts and research, with separate sections detailing the Sackler's descent into power and wealth, it doesn't fail to pull emotion out of the reader as well. The writing is phenomenal, yes, but the emotion that resonated with me the most while reading this book was rage. If you want a light non-fiction read, or want something that will be easy, this is not the book for you. Keefe takes the reader through the heartbreaking history of the opioid crisis, and the blatant, cruel, and malicious actions on the part of the Sackler family. It's not enough to say they were compliant in creating the crisis, because without them, the crisis wouldn't have been possible to the level it was. While I believe everyone needs to read this book to be properly aware of their role in the worst epidemic the United States has seen in recent decades, I caution all readers that it did make me angry, rightfully so, many times over the course of the book.
Despite the Sackler family's abhorrant actions, however, Keefe never turns them into larger than life or cartoonishly evil characters. His writing is so comprehensive and detailed that we can see how incrementally the Sacklers built the empire that would allow them to take control of the opioid marketplace to such a massive degree with their release of OxyContin in the 1990s. Keefe's book starts decades prior, and slowly but effectively weaves the path the Sackler's built, making sure to spend time on famous places that bear the Sackler name, such as the Met. While such comprehensive writing may seem boring, Keefe masterfully treads the line between informative and inundation, allowing the reader to comprehend how each of the actions taken by the Sackler family fits into a larger plan.
Keefe's writing is nonfiction that reads like fiction, repeatedly harkening back to themes and concepts he touches on numerous times throughout his novel. Using this narrative approach, Keefe allows the reader to put together the pieces of understanding the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma's role in the opioid crisis without spelling it out to readers, making for a much more grim and satisfying understanding. The book jumps between the actions of individual Sackler family members (including the actions of their wives and children) and the repercussions their company has on the American public and their workers, with many employees at Purdue Pharma appearing to drive the point him. Through this cast of characters, Keefe shows not only how the Sacklers created a cult of personality within their company, amplifying the corporate culture that would allow them to manufacture and sell OxyContin to Americans the way they did, but he also shows how every decision regarding OxyContin was made by the Sacklers to benefit them. By expanding the scope of his investigation beyond the opioid crisis and the Sackler role primarily in pharma, and taking a more holistic approach, Keefe does something not yet done: he shows how only the Sacklers, really, could have created this crisis. The reader slowly comes to understand how monumental the role of the Sacklers was in creating the crisis, and thus, his book has done his job.
Along with heartbreaking stories of addicts who have lost their lives to the drug, the family they leave behind, and the "legacy" of the Sackler family, Keefe's book is a testament to the recent public reckoning that has been recurring in regards to the opioid crisis, and reminds us that the real villains are often hiding in plain sight.
Empire of Pain is an unrelenting look at the role the Sackler family has played in the growing opioid crisis in America. While the book is rife with facts and research, with separate sections detailing the Sackler's descent into power and wealth, it doesn't fail to pull emotion out of the reader as well. The writing is phenomenal, yes, but the emotion that resonated with me the most while reading this book was rage. If you want a light non-fiction read, or want something that will be easy, this is not the book for you. Keefe takes the reader through the heartbreaking history of the opioid crisis, and the blatant, cruel, and malicious actions on the part of the Sackler family. It's not enough to say they were compliant in creating the crisis, because without them, the crisis wouldn't have been possible to the level it was. While I believe everyone needs to read this book to be properly aware of their role in the worst epidemic the United States has seen in recent decades, I caution all readers that it did make me angry, rightfully so, many times over the course of the book.
Despite the Sackler family's abhorrant actions, however, Keefe never turns them into larger than life or cartoonishly evil characters. His writing is so comprehensive and detailed that we can see how incrementally the Sacklers built the empire that would allow them to take control of the opioid marketplace to such a massive degree with their release of OxyContin in the 1990s. Keefe's book starts decades prior, and slowly but effectively weaves the path the Sackler's built, making sure to spend time on famous places that bear the Sackler name, such as the Met. While such comprehensive writing may seem boring, Keefe masterfully treads the line between informative and inundation, allowing the reader to comprehend how each of the actions taken by the Sackler family fits into a larger plan.
Keefe's writing is nonfiction that reads like fiction, repeatedly harkening back to themes and concepts he touches on numerous times throughout his novel. Using this narrative approach, Keefe allows the reader to put together the pieces of understanding the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma's role in the opioid crisis without spelling it out to readers, making for a much more grim and satisfying understanding. The book jumps between the actions of individual Sackler family members (including the actions of their wives and children) and the repercussions their company has on the American public and their workers, with many employees at Purdue Pharma appearing to drive the point him. Through this cast of characters, Keefe shows not only how the Sacklers created a cult of personality within their company, amplifying the corporate culture that would allow them to manufacture and sell OxyContin to Americans the way they did, but he also shows how every decision regarding OxyContin was made by the Sacklers to benefit them. By expanding the scope of his investigation beyond the opioid crisis and the Sackler role primarily in pharma, and taking a more holistic approach, Keefe does something not yet done: he shows how only the Sacklers, really, could have created this crisis. The reader slowly comes to understand how monumental the role of the Sacklers was in creating the crisis, and thus, his book has done his job.
Along with heartbreaking stories of addicts who have lost their lives to the drug, the family they leave behind, and the "legacy" of the Sackler family, Keefe's book is a testament to the recent public reckoning that has been recurring in regards to the opioid crisis, and reminds us that the real villains are often hiding in plain sight.