A review by smuds2
The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O'Rourke

emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

REVIEW RATING SYSTEM - [ 1 = FELT DECEIVED, 2 = NOT WHAT I EXPECTED IN A BAD WAY BUT WASN'T A WASTE OF TIME, 3 = WHAT I EXPECTED FELT LIKE MY TIME WAS USED AS EXPECTED, 4 = PLEASANTLY SURPRISED, 5 = THINKING ABOUT IT MONTHS LATER ]

RULES : (1) can not give anything a 5 outright, must either be a re-read or a update to score



For anyone that has had a love one go through a chronic illness as she's describing, in my case a partner with Long Covid - you will see the parallels right off the bat.

Here are the gists of what I think are the main takeaways, for me:

Illness narrative of one of "redemption" is a product of a society that can't tolerate sick people.

Body either as a thing that "attacks" you or "works" for you

The gray area being the real issue of chronic illness - names don't solve the issue, but they provide concrete descriptions, 'legitamizes' it, for better or worse.

her breadth and depth of reading on chronic illness through history is impressive.

I think that if you’re  have long covid, you should pass this book around your family as a description,

remarkable how similar it seems like these different cases are, despite having different underlying causes. "is it lyme" "maybe" "should I get alternative therapies" "maybe, yes? but not those", etc.