[.ca] Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic (ISBN 0743203984)

From Amazon.com:
Feeling tired, achy, and congested? You'll hope not after reading science writer Gina Kolata's engrossing Flu, a fascinating look at the 1918 epidemic that wiped out around 40 million people in less than a year and afflicted more than one of every four Americans. This tragedy, just on the heels of World War I and far more deadly, so traumatized the survivors that few would talk about it afterward. Kolata reports on the scientific investigation of this bizarre outbreak, in particular the attempts to sequence the virus' DNA from tissue samples of victims. She also looks at the social and personal effects of the disease, from improved public health awareness to the loss of productivity. (The disease affected 20- to 40-year-olds disproportionately.) How could this disease, now almost trivial to healthy young people, have become so virulent? The answer is complex, invoking epidemiology, immunology, and even psychology, but Kolata cuts a swath through medical papers and statistical reports to tell a story of an out-of-control virus exploiting an exhausted world on the brink of transition into modern society. Through letters, interviews, and news reports, she pieces together a cautionary tale that captures the horror of a devastating illness. Research marches onward, but we're still at the mercy of something as simple as the flu. --Rob Lightner

about right for the armchair crowd:
If you're looking for a highly detailed and relatively technical discussion you might find this book a little light. However, if you, like me, have just the general exposure to the subject of epidemics, their causes and consequences, you are likely to have a good read here. A couple times Ms. Kolata's prose and approach get a little dramatic but it doesn't get in her way as far as telling the story and a little honest feeling for the subject is hardly a bad thing. Comparisons to 'The Hot Zone' are inevitable but not quite accurate. 'The Hot Zone' deals with diseases still very much a threat and almost supernaturally spooky in their virulence and mystery. 'Flu' is more a forensic look at a disease that is familiar and whose flirtation with serious mortality has, so far, been a one-time thing. Say 'Ebola' to someone and they react: where is it? how bad is it? is this the time it will get loose? Say 'flu' and most people shrug. We've all been there, done that. Influenza is a familiar, if unwelcome, guest every year. Reading Ms. Kolata's book won't exactly have you hiding under your bed come next flu season, but you might not be quite so inclined to cavalierly skip the innoculation campaign either.

Science Thriller:
From cover to cover, I found this book absolutely riveting. Reads more like a piece of investigative journalism than a typical science book. Kolata weaves together the periodic outbreaks of flu into a fascinating pattern that reveals a terrifying potential. The mixed reviews are not indicative of a mediocre book. Readers looking for a science textbook or a detailed historical account of 1918 may be disappointed. However, readers looking for a gripping, non-fictional explanation of one the most important ongoing stories affecting the planet will have a memorable experience. I read this book many years ago, but few books have stuck in my mind or affected my thinking more.

Important History:
I could not put this book down. Gina Kolata does a fantastic job of telling the history of the flu. She presented stories within the story of the flu. One of the most fascinating parts of the book was about Johan Hultin who came to America from Sweden to attend Iowa University and how life's twists and turns brought him to a destiny of studying the flu virus. The 1918 flu pandemic was of personal interest also, because our family history contains a victim of the 1918 flu. Kolata's book opens up a understanding of what it must have been like to have lived in that time. I would highly recommend to anyone in genealogy who has an ancestor that passed away at an early age due to this influenza. Definiely a important history to think about for years past and years to come, especially in light of the SARS outbreak originating in the Guangdong provice in China. I was especially intrigued when I read the section about the 1968 Hong Kong flu. It too originated in the same province that supplies 80% of Hong Kong's chickens.

Great historical overview, rather weak storytelling:
First, whoever designed the cover and spine of this book should be fired. While sitting on your bookshelf the neon green spine jumps out and the lettering makes it look like some cheesy sci-fi tripe. Which is unfortunate, because it's a very informative book and full of excellent research. It's odd that the great flu epidemic got relegated to an historical footnote, because it's scale was devastating and frightening. It's also likely that sometime in the future a similar outbreak will jump from animal to man in south China or somewhere similar. And the results today would dwarf the original flu epidemic and make SARS seem like a mild fever. This book makes for fascinating reading on these counts and it's very interesting to follow how the scientists went back to uncover the flu's origins. Like many psuedo-historical books of this nature, however, the author is much less skilled as a writer than she is as a researcher. She tries too hard to inject the book with drama when the subject matter itself is sufficiently dramatic. Thus reading it becomes irritating at times because the prose and bad melodrama gets to you, but you nonetheless don't want to stop reading and not get all of the information.

Frightening but an excellent read:
Highly readable though this book I'm sure was not written to make you an expert on the subject. If you know nothing about the Flu epidemic of 1918 nor other quasi flu epidemics and near misses that have occured since, this book will effectively acquaint you with all of them. I would say that Ms Kolata's style is somewhat journalistic breezy and and her presentation of the material to some no-nonsense type readers might be off putting. But to my mind she very carefully builds her story so that by the conclusion we have surveyed many of the players, including the various viruses, and then she let's us all down softly as no real satisfying conclusion seems available at this time. I particularly liked the details of the virus hunters and scientists and felt that these characterizations were absolutely necessary to the premise of the book. In fact I was quite inspired by their stories.