Empire of Pain in Review

Summary: This well-researched, detailed peek into the Sackler’s lives lived up to all my expectations!

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I have very much been looking forward to getting Patrick Radden Keefe’s take on the Sacklers. I loved his book on the Troubles and I also knew that this new book was written post-internal Purdue documents being released in recent court cases. As a book, this delivered everything I wanted. I’ll tell you more about that in a minute, but first, I have to sadly report that our court system did not deliver the kind of justice I was hoping for, so 1 out of 5 stars for them. Sometimes reality is just less satisfying than fiction!

Despite my feeling that the Sackler’s weren’t ever punished for their role in the opioid crisis, I thought this was a fantastic insider look at their operations. It seemed like the people at Purdue Pharma must have had a real disregard for human life. Seeing that spelled out in their emails really brought it home. If I’m honest, I was partly in this for the gossip. By all means, spill the rich people’s dirty laundry! There are some more wholesome ways in which this is a worthwhile story though. Seeing the Sackler family’s culpability spelled out so clearly feels like a small amount of justice. They may not have received the court sentence I believe is appropriate, but at least they can’t distance themselves from the tragedies they caused. It’s also interesting and informative to see how the family developed the norms that allowed this to happen. Founder Arthur Sackler believed that doctors could do no wrong and wouldn’t be persuaded by false advertising (convenient for his bottom line!). That ethos powered Purdue Pharma’s deceptive marketing practices.

Like Keefe’s previous book, this story was vividly and meticulously told. I loved the level of research that had clearly gone into this work. It wasn’t the most emotional or the most thoughtful analysis of my opioid crisis reads (on both of those points, I’d go with In Pain). But it was one of the most engrossing, detailed stories I’ve read about how the opioid crisis came to be. I’d put it in my top three recommendations, along with Death in Mud Lick and In Pain.

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