Keynote
A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year, now in paperback
Book Title
On Immunity
Subtitle
An Inoculation
Cover Image
- A New York Times Bestseller
Finalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism
One of The New York Times Book Review's Top 10 Books of 2014
Body
In this bold, fascinating book, Eula Biss addresses our fear of the government, the medical establishment, and what may be in our children’s air, food, mattresses, medicines, and vaccines. Reflecting on her own experience as a new mother, she suggests that we cannot immunize our children, or ourselves, against the world. As she explores the metaphors surrounding immunity, Biss extends her conversations with other mothers to meditations on the myth of Achilles, Voltaire’s Candide, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Susan Sontag’s AIDS and Its Metaphors, and beyond. On Immunity is an inoculation against our fear and a moving account of how we are all interconnected—our bodies and our fates.
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About the Author
Praise
- “[Eula Biss] digs honestly into her own psyche and into those of ‘people like me,’ and she reveals herself as believer and apostate, moth and flame.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
- “Subtle, spellbinding. . . . [Biss] advances from all sides, like a chess player, drawing on science, myth, literature to herd us to the only logical end, to vaccinate.”—The New York Times Book Review
- “If you are yourself a nonfiction author, your initial response to this book might be to decide immediately on another line of work; Biss is that intimidatingly talented. . . . This is cultural commentary at its highest level.”—The Washington Post
- “Eula Biss sanely takes on the anti-vaccine mob.”—Vanity Fair
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
This book is made possible through a partnership with the College of Saint Benedict, and honors the legacy of S. Mariella Gable, a distinguished teacher at the College. Support has been provided by the Manitou Fund as part of the Warner Reading Program.
