MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewIn many ways, the new book represents Macy, one of the pre-eminent chroniclers of the nation’s opioid epidemic, at her full-bore fearless best. Heartsick and determined, she grills drug policy scholars and former drug czars alike ... With her big heart affixed conspicuously to her sleeve, Macy introduces readers to people mired in addiction and to those who seek to help them. (The two are often not mutually exclusive) ... even more overstuffed than Dopesick: There are so many programs, each with acronyms and angels, that they tend to bleed together. In her zeal to be comprehensive, Macy sacrifices a measure of reader-friendly momentum and focus, even as she acknowledges that the crisis is ;an elephant,\' difficult to get one’s arms around neatly...But the opioid epidemic, which touches on race, economics, health, politics, crime and stigma, is not just an elephant. It is a herd of elephants ... these chapters feel like a misfire, particularly since much of the material is not new, including her re-creation of the well-documented crusade of the artist Nan Goldin, who emerged from an addiction to painkillers to lead very public shamings of the Sacklers. Macy gives extensive credit to lawyers whom those familiar with the Purdue litigation might view as minor players. As she grapples dutifully with the Gordian knot of the case, which is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the tortuous demands of the yearslong litigation flatten Macy’s more typically lively, evocative prose.
