simplymegy 's review for:

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

5.0

informative sad medium-paced

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If I was a librarian, this would be on the Horror section. Horror and disgust are the emotions you would feel about the obscenely greedy Sackler family.

This is my second book from Keefe, and again I feel awe at how he manages to draw the readers in with his narrative fiction. He writes in a way that is compulsively readable.

The book has 3 parts- book 1 is Arthur Sackler and the rise of the Sackler empire that started with Valium and Librium, book 2 is about the next generation headed by Richard Sackler and the birth of Oxycontin, and book 3 is basically the reckoning that in all honesty, is a lot less than what they deserve.

Throughout the book, the family continued to profit massively from their drugs. And yet the lack of accountability and empathy for drug abuse and drug related overdoses has been jarring. I found myself constantly shaking my head in revulsion. The recurring theme is that the problem isn’t the drug, but the abusers with poor moral character. 🤮

Keefe has managed to turn a sprawling saga of greed, corruption, and denial into a highly engrossing narrative that reads like a horror novel—except it’s all real. The meticulous research and sharp storytelling is top tier.