A review by booksandbraids
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

3.0

I enjoyed what I learned from this book but by the end I was ready for it to be done.

Random thoughts while reading…
- So not only is this family responsible for the opioid crisis, they also basically destroyed the pharmaceutical industry in general! Arthur Sackler is part of the reason why medicine costs so much! Medicine would be so much better if it wasn’t a competition for profit and brand recognition. 
- BUT he and his brothers did great things for psychology… so maybe that makes up for the evil he did in pharmaceutical advertising?
-The information on the origin of the Temple of Dendar (the Egyptian temple in the Met in NYC) is super interesting because I had no idea of the history of how it came to be there. I saw it every year in high school when we would go on art trips and it was always my favorite part of the museum visits. Now I feel the need to go back… unfortunately The Met is no longer free so I can’t just pop in quickly only to see the temple during our upcoming Christmas visit…
- Along the same lines, I have had the Sackler gallery of art in DC on my list of things I want to see for years but I haven’t been able to visit yet. Now it will mean so much more because I will know the history behind it whenever I get the chance to visit. 
- The situation with Arthur’s family and dividing up his assets after he died is like something straight out of a TV drama.  
- this chemical plant incident makes me think of Chernobyl. It’s awful what risks people will take to satisfy greed