The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

This book has just recently won the Pulitzer Prize for non fiction for 2010. The book, called a biography of cancer, tells the story of cancer. Treatment of the diesesase in early times through the methodologies used today. The author a phyician at Columbia Medical Center follows in the footsteps of Atul Gwande as medical professionals who write books about medical issues that are accessible to the layperson.

Reading the New Yorker each week I find the occassional articles by Gwande as well as Oliver Sacks to be some of the most interesting articles in the magazine.

So it was with very high hopes that I picked up this book. The books starts with a case history of a recent cancer patient diagnosed by the author with cancer of the blood, luekemia.

However the whole book in its entirety was dissapointing. The research into past treatments and the history are stilted and less than interesting. Perhaps writing a whole book about the subject rather than a magazine article predicates the need for an attempt at more a serious tome with historical weight. In anycase I was disapointed and at this point think perhaps the fault was mine as the book has surely been rewareded with acclaim.

Still compared with the articles I have read however the book was disappointing.