REVIEW:

Empire of Pain will easily make my list of the best books I read in 2021. My guess is if you read it, it will end up on yours too.

Journalist Patrick Radden Keefe chronicles three generations of the Sackler family, the people behind Purdue Pharma, also known as the makers of OxyContin, better known as the creators of the current opioid epidemic. Their story is one of philanthropy and philandering, of pioneering and pilfering, and of grandeur and greed. It begins back in 1904 when Isaac Sackler immigrated to America, had three sons, and encouraged them to dream big and become doctors. Though the Great Depression hit him hard, he told his sons, “What I have given you is the most important thing a father can give… a good name.”

Two generations later, that good name is being removed from museums and educational institutions. The 21st century Sacklers pushed their wonder drug OxyContin so hard and so recklessly that millions have become addicted and died. I personally know at least three people who have died from opioid overdoses, and I bet you do too.

The marvel of PRK’s reportage though is that a book that could be so dry is utterly fascinating. While I sadly lost interest in his prior work, Say Nothing, about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, I flew through Empire of Pain in two days.

For those with HBO, the two-part documentary series “The Crime of the Century” makes an excellent companion piece for this book, as does the fictional drama “Succession.” Both further showcase how greed is so intoxicating that right is indistinguishable from wrong. The pull of power and money can be so strong that the most important thing - a good name - becomes collateral damage. In the case of the Sacklers, unfortunately that collateral damage includes millions of lives lost to a crisis they helped to create by recklessly pushing sales of their pain medication.

The Sacklers continue to try to hide behind the Purdue Pharma corporate name, but thanks to journalism like Empire of Pain they’re becoming increasingly exposed. Kudos to Patrick Radden Keefe for bringing this story to light.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

The highly anticipated portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, by the prize-winning, bestselling author of Say Nothing.

The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions: Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing OxyContin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis.

Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling.