I am not the human interest kind of reader. Apparently, before the book-writing gig, her newspaper job was 'human interest' stories. Issue 1: Macy does not feel like a competent researcher or investigative journalist. But I honestly think the awards go to the fact that Macy made Oxycontin and heroin part of a national conversation, not because this book was exemplary journalism or quality writing.

But in a country unable to provide basic healthcare for all, Macy still finds reason to hope-and signs of the spirit and tenacity necessary in those facing addiction to build a better future for themselves and their families.Ī problematic read for me. In these politically fragmented times, Beth Macy shows, astonishingly, that the only thing that unites Americans across geographic and class lines is opioid drug abuse. Through unsparing, yet deeply human portraits of the families and first responders struggling to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus. In some of the same distressed communities featured in her bestselling book Factory Man, the unemployed use painkillers both to numb the pain of joblessness and pay their bills, while privileged teens trade pills in cul-de-sacs, and even high school standouts fall prey to prostitution, jail, and death. From the introduction of Ox圜ontin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. From distressed small communities in Central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs from disparate cities to once-idyllic farm towns it's a heartbreaking trajectory that illustrates how this national crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.īeginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother's question-why her only son died-and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of America's twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction.

Dope sick book