Empire of Pain

I have very specific nonfiction taste, and oh boy is Empire of Pain the pinnacle of it! Patrick Radden Keefe! This is a remarkably thorough tome that holds the Sackler family to account and traces their rise through generations—illuminating business practices that range from questionable to vile. It’s a comprehensive accounting of their part in the opioid epidemic, their contributions to the way we talk about addiction in America, their entire awful legacy of profiting off of pain, and their attempts to buy their way into respect and admiration.

At many points in the book, Radden Keefe emphasizes the magnitude of the paper mountain that Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers created in the Oxycontin years, that they then dumped on various prosecutors in an attempt to bury the most incriminating evidence. On top of it just being an important/interesting detail, it drew attention to the amount of time that Radden Keefe himself put into researching and writing this book. It’s detailed and impressive, but never boring. The writing is clear and straightforward and Radden Keefe’s eye for detail helps the characters come alive.

Empire of Pain will make you angry, but it will also make you feel like you understand something more about the opioid crisis on a massive scale. It is such an excellent book and I highly recommend it.