The Emperor of All Maladies

I had one or two exceptional professors at the university I went to, and one of them taught physiology. She'd introduce us to a mystery of the body and got us thinking about possible solutions before she told us what an organ/other part of the body did--and it was such an engaging way to learn.Mukherjee uses the same method, and as I was reading, I'd wonder about different ways to solve for a problem, before reading what scientists actually did. A book of this size could have been very heavy, but it was easy to stay interested, and I really enjoyed the literary analogies that were sprinkled throughout.It's astonishing to learn how relatively new much of cancer knowledge is. I knew some things in the book, of course, but it covers many decades and many aspects (social and political, as well as scientific). I can't imagine how much work went into writing this book, and it's well worth reading. Don't let the length scare you--because of the way it's written, it's easy to put down and pick up again later. Well worth reading!

Popular science (or nonfiction) has become a genre, probably the most popular these days. See the best-sellers newspaper lists or the desks of any major bookshop and those will be plagued with the new form of nonfiction. Where before we were offered "how to guides" (how to get rich, thin, a better lover or parent) now we have perhaps better choices in the form of studies on almost everything: types of personalities, control of habits, approaches to group sociology, etc. etc. This is a healthy field, but marred recently by superficial books.This "Emperor of all Maladies", most thankfully, stays at a safe distance of this recent trend of simple and/or rushed books and is already a canonical and exemplary nonfiction treaty of one of the fiercest and more devastating of maladies. It is superb.Everything works in this volume, because the author is an eminency in his field, but he is never patronizing or condescending. He never writes as from a pulpit nor tries to impress the reader with his obviously vast knowledge of the matter at hand. Importantly, Mr Mukherjee never (not once) falls for easy sentimentalism or tries to engage through pity - and falling for this would be easy in a book about cancer. The reader feels at all times that the author is a mere guide with an authoritative voice. And yet some moments do provoke the reader to cringe, almost to suffer: the patient that consols the doctor when all the options for a cure are exhausted; the process of dealing with the empty beds in a children's ward, among others, are parts hard to finish.The prose is at all times pitch-perfect and never falters, even in a 400-plus science book. The voice of the author, and its language, are always clear, personal and sober.The book works also at another level, that of the politics of tackling such a disease. The right way to fight the malady or how to fund the enormous efforts to do so, become long and vapid discussions between bureaucrats and, at points, decades are lost because of lack of focus, pure greed or pettiness. The science is there - since the Egyptians, who spotted the malady yet reached, in 2600 BC !, a shocking conclusion: "Cure? None".This is a very good book that has already raised the bar of nonfiction.

I first read "The Gene" that I liked very much. This one is also very good. It is long, but never boring. It also gives some moderate hope that one day we "will not die of cancer, but just die with cancer."

I was looking for some scientific information about cancer, and I stumbled upon this book. I was expecting a somewhat boring chronology of cancer research; I couldn't have been more wrong.The author makes a wonderful job in selecting stories and "storylines", and telling them in an enjoyable style (a well-deserved Pulitzer). You will travel through history and follow the fall of the humoral theory, the rise (and fall) of radical surgery, the rise (and fall) of radical chemotherapy, and the rise of the genetic theory of cancer.It turns out that following the evolution of the scientific understanding of cancer is the best way to learn about it. In addition to cancer itself, the book teaches much about science going wrong: scientific communities following dogmas and being blind to evidence against them; a premature all in battle against cancer (lacking mechanistic understandings); fabrication of data; politics and corporations hampering scientific research; the loss of connection between doctors and patients.A highly suggested read, although the book is slightly outdated now.

I liked this book very much. Despite the very tough and sensible subject, it is a compelling narration. Of course it shows the point of view of the author, but it is extremely convincing and made me understand much. For example, it makes it very clear that the real heroes of the war against cancer are the patients, men, women, children, all the suffering people. Every single little step forward defeat of the malady is their victory. The science is simplified, but accurate; at the end, one gets the feeling that cancer is a complicate monster, much more complicate than expected, and will require still more skill and struggle.Quite demanding read, but necessary, I recommend this book, it can, and should, be read by many.