February 21, 2023
Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe
A collection of articles about modern crooks and con men that the author research and interviewed in his work as an investigative journalist. As in any such collection, some were fascinating, others not so much.
December 15, 2022
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
A history and expose of the pharmaceutical company that was largely responsible for the opioid epidemic, Purdue Pharma, and the Sackler family, the family that owned the company. Although the Sacklers didn't discover or invent oxycodone, they were responsible for marketing OxyContin, their own brand of oxycodone, as a safe, non-addictive pain reliever. The company's sales force continued to push doctors to over-prescribe oxy through sales incentives and marketing campaigns for everything from back pain to menstrual cramps to toothache. The drug decimated rural and low-income areas in particular, and when the government began limiting the drug's availability, many users resorted to hard drugs like heroin.
First, let me say that oxycodone is a wonderful drug. I was prescribed oxy following surgery (which is how it is intended to be used) and it helped tremendously with post-operative pain. At that point, in 2021, oxy's addictive properties were well known, and even though I was prescribed enough oxy for seven days, I was encouraged to use it only when I really needed it (I stopped taking it after three days). It was criminal the way the Sacklers continued to push drug sales, long after they knew that people were dying from overdoses or moving on to stronger street drugs. It was unconscionable and indicative of a family that was morally deficit.
November 2, 2022
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
In Belfast in December 1972, a woman named Jean McConville was taken from her flat by a group of people with the IRA. Nine of her ten children waited at home for her to return but they never saw her again. In 1999, the IRA admitted to killing Mrs. McConville because they believed she had been passing information to the British Army stationed in the city. No evidence was ever found to back up their claim about Jean, and in fact, when she was abducted, her oldest son was serving time in prison for being an IRA member. Her body was not found until 2003. Dolours and Marian Price and Brendan Hughes, all infamous IRA members, are believed to have taken part in her murder. It is believed that Marian was the one who actually shot Jean. Dolours later claimed not to have known that Jean was the mother of ten children, although she was one of the people who removed Jean from her home.
The story of Jean's abduction and murder is set against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, including the London bombings, the Price sisters' hunger strike in prison, the death of Bobby Sands, and the founding of Sinn Fein, which lobbied for a unified Ireland. It also explores the dissatisfaction of old IRA members who believed that violence was the only way to get their message across to the British, with the new philosophy of compromise and working through legal political channels. The impact of the Boston College oral history project about the Troubles is also discussed at length in this very readable piece of narrative nonfiction.
