... gripping first-person accounts and medical oddities ... Preston brings nuance and humanity to this story in a way few can, explaining that the volatile virus is often transmitted during rituals, celebrations and burial ceremonies ... There have been more than 30,000 cases of Ebola, but it still seems like a disease of a far-away land, something that ravages small villages on the other side of the world. Preston’s reporting challenges that perception, explaining how the virus – and other emerging pathogens like it – touches us all. By the end of this exhilarating book, you’ll agree with his ominous conclusion: There is no such thing as one case of Ebola.
...[a] harrowing, horrifying new book ... Knowing, as we do, that the 2014 Ebola outbreak did reach the United States and infected health-care workers here, and nearly spread to Lagos, Nigeria, a city of 20 million, before it was snuffed out, does nothing to diminish the power of Crisis in the Red Zone. A major flaw of the work, in fact, is that Preston barely mentions the world beyond Kenema ... Nor do we see the delayed response by the World Health Organization and parts of the U.S. government ... The book ends on a hopeful note, citing the research that, at the time, was leading to the development of cures and vaccines. Now those advances are being put to work: More than 100,000 people have been given an experimental vaccine to protect them from the virus in the Congo outbreak.
Richard Preston has a penchant for the cinematic, even when his subject matter could not be more depressing and dire ... His new book...seems written with a singular intent: inspiring the movie version. However one feels generally about the dramatic tone that Preston favors, it feels especially inappropriate in this book ... Much like the clichés that are a regular feature of Hollywood films, the stereotypes that pile up in this book quickly become painful ... But it’s Preston’s portrayal of the nonwhite characters that feels especially egregious ... Preston does try to wrestle with the unequal medical treatment received by Africans who contracted the disease versus treatment received by foreign white aid workers ... But this examination comes too late, during the book’s final quarter, after Preston has spent chapters mired in caricature and overdramatization. What’s more, the book also falters on a deeper, structural level ... Crisis in the Red Zone also recounts an important story about the risks of emerging diseases and a global medical system ill equipped to handle them. But it’s lost between fevered descriptions designed, seemingly, to provoke the kind of hysteria about Ebola that might work well for the film thriller Preston seems to have in mind.
...[a] gripping and frequently excruciating story ... He provides vivid portraits of the brave medical personnel without whom the disease’s human cost would have been even higher ... Preston’s after the detail that snaps a person into focus, and he often finds it ... Preston also writes, for the most part, at the level of an airport thriller, which is fine when he’s writing airport thrillers ... It’s irksome in his nonfiction ... There are passages that seem drawn from a melodramatic press release[.]
Preston poignantly details the human drama of a place on the precipice of devastation. The suffering portrayed is staggering. Descriptions of Ebola hospital wards and quarantine tents are often nightmarish. Yet acts of heroism and the high prevalence of altruism (especially among local nurses) are astounding ... Preston addresses issues of medical ethics and justice throughout, and the clash between superstition and science, duty and self-preservation are constantly in play. Medical thriller, cautionary tale, and a public health call-to-arms are all bundled together in this powerful read.
... richly detailed ... Preston tells engrossing human stories of doctors and patients while providing a clear understanding of Ebola, from its genetic code and mutations to its terrible impacts on victims ... In scene after scene, the author vividly re-creates the drama ... An exhaustive and terrifying story of viral mayhem that will rivet readers.
[Preston] leavens the subject’s essential grimness with inspiring portrayals of men and women who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives battling the virus’s resurgence in West Africa in 2013 and 2014 ... Along with character sketches, Preston delves into the moral complexities that can arise in disease research ... concluding sections establish why this story remains relevant, as the Ebola outbreak is a cautionary tale of what could happen if a similar mutated supervirus reached cities. This nonfiction page-turner will both educate and scare readers.
