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mcmarg 's review for:
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe
challenging
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
I was determined to read this book because of my love for the book Say Nothing and my interest in the opioid epidemic. In my sophomore year of college, I went to West Virginia on a service trip and we learned and saw firsthand the devastating impact that the opioid crisis had in that state due to a large population of individuals with chronic pain from injuries and hard labor jobs.
I loved the way Patrick Radden Keefe wrote Say Nothing in such an action-packed, page-turning storytelling way despite the fact that the subject matter was super dense and fact-heavy. I do think that Empire of Pain was so well written but the subject matter was just never going to be as exciting or fascinating as the cutthroat epic tales of IRA heroes and villains. So for those reasons, I found it harder to get through this.
I did love some of the chapters that intertwine fringe stories like the chapter about the temple of Dendur - as a NY native that was so interesting to read. Also, the story of Calixto Rivera was so shocking, infuriating, and important to expose the level to which the Sackler's were never going to take responsibility for any of their actions.
One chapter I did not love was Turks. I thought at this point and some other points in the book were not totally essential and didn't add anything to the larger story for me. But then again, it does focus on the greed of the family which furthers the narrative, it just slowed me down in my energy to finish the book.
As the book got more into the many lawsuits filed against the Sacklers it was so frustrating to watch them evade all responsibility over and over. A lot of the specifics of the lawyer jargon went over my head but there was so much corruption. My overall takeaway is that this was a family who started from nothing and completely realized the American dream of the self-starting patriarch and family business dynasty. They were blinded by greed and ambition and over time became the most evil family in America.
I loved the way Patrick Radden Keefe wrote Say Nothing in such an action-packed, page-turning storytelling way despite the fact that the subject matter was super dense and fact-heavy. I do think that Empire of Pain was so well written but the subject matter was just never going to be as exciting or fascinating as the cutthroat epic tales of IRA heroes and villains. So for those reasons, I found it harder to get through this.
I did love some of the chapters that intertwine fringe stories like the chapter about the temple of Dendur - as a NY native that was so interesting to read. Also, the story of Calixto Rivera was so shocking, infuriating, and important to expose the level to which the Sackler's were never going to take responsibility for any of their actions.
One chapter I did not love was Turks. I thought at this point and some other points in the book were not totally essential and didn't add anything to the larger story for me. But then again, it does focus on the greed of the family which furthers the narrative, it just slowed me down in my energy to finish the book.
As the book got more into the many lawsuits filed against the Sacklers it was so frustrating to watch them evade all responsibility over and over. A lot of the specifics of the lawyer jargon went over my head but there was so much corruption. My overall takeaway is that this was a family who started from nothing and completely realized the American dream of the self-starting patriarch and family business dynasty. They were blinded by greed and ambition and over time became the most evil family in America.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide