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A review by joelogsliterature
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.5
I’m generally against preordering on principle, but I had enough faith in the author and concept here to give in. Beyond genuinely having some of that elusive mixture of talent and care, I’m simply disposed to liking John’s writing and, with sample size now of two, even more so when it’s not angsty teen fiction, although I’ve been known to indulge in that too.
I’ll try to write more tomorrow, but Everything is TB works on three levels: 1.) It informs you of the necessary technical prerequisites to understanding the status quo; 2.) it paints the social history of disease and TB in particular; 3.) it relates poignant human stories. That John’s measures in freeing the world of TB have seemingly had such an outsized effect may unduly credit him for the efforts of true experts and aid workers, but it is also true that his newfound personal mission has been effective and adds something more to this book. True to his style, fun facts and frequent morsels of levity are interspersed, all culminating in hope following compassion and action.
It's a very strong book, arguably John Green's best. From the discovery of early treatments after Koch and Pasteur to the post-RIPE protocols of today, from ancient origins through to romanticizing consumption to stigmatizing it as a disease of the immoral and poor, Everything is TB sketches the whole human story of this terrible disease. It also tells the story of one young man in particular, Henry, who suffered unjustly from it. His suffering is unjust not just because all human suffering is, and not just because there is no such thing as a natural death, that every such death is an accident, an unjustifiable violation (de Beauvoir), but because the treatment was available for him from the beginning, if only the clinics in his home country of Sierra Leone had the resources.
I’ll try to write more tomorrow, but Everything is TB works on three levels: 1.) It informs you of the necessary technical prerequisites to understanding the status quo; 2.) it paints the social history of disease and TB in particular; 3.) it relates poignant human stories. That John’s measures in freeing the world of TB have seemingly had such an outsized effect may unduly credit him for the efforts of true experts and aid workers, but it is also true that his newfound personal mission has been effective and adds something more to this book. True to his style, fun facts and frequent morsels of levity are interspersed, all culminating in hope following compassion and action.
It's a very strong book, arguably John Green's best. From the discovery of early treatments after Koch and Pasteur to the post-RIPE protocols of today, from ancient origins through to romanticizing consumption to stigmatizing it as a disease of the immoral and poor, Everything is TB sketches the whole human story of this terrible disease. It also tells the story of one young man in particular, Henry, who suffered unjustly from it. His suffering is unjust not just because all human suffering is, and not just because there is no such thing as a natural death, that every such death is an accident, an unjustifiable violation (de Beauvoir), but because the treatment was available for him from the beginning, if only the clinics in his home country of Sierra Leone had the resources.