Re-post: 'On Immunity' by Eula Biss

I posted about this terrific non-fiction meditation on vaccinations back in December, but it feels as relevant as ever with the national discussions about Measles and the anti-vaccine movement playing out in the media. It is a very slim, beautiful book and you owe it to yourself to read it. It is good and it is important.

Describing On Immunity will be very difficult, but I will endeavor to express how fantastic it is, all the same. A book about vaccinations did not exactly sound thrilling to me, and I can't remember where I read a very concise review that sparked my interest, but it was serendipitous because I heard about it, read said brief but tantalizing review, and then found it on the shelf at the library, so here we are.

Greek mythology, smallpox, Jenny McCarthy, vampires, H1N1, blood, childbirth, feminism -- all elements of Biss' approach to the concept of immunity, and all given equal weight in her meditations. I adore her structure, which is so much more literary than i expected -- short chapters without titles or numbers, as she moves seamlessly from thought to thought and topic to topic, returning constantly to her personal experiences as a new mother. (A word of warning here-- I think if I were pregnant or had a toddler I would find this book impossible to read. Biss addresses and embraces the paranoia of childhood diseases and vaccinations but it might push you over the edge if you're already in that frame of mind).

It is the best kind of non-fiction in that the author establishes authority as a researcher and as a mother with constant integration of personal experiences and impressively detailed facts. Those who enjoy really detailed and foot-noted non-fiction will be frustrated by this, but those who prefer essays and novels will find it utterly readable.

There are so many interesting points she raises and incredible stories about the human body that I wish I could share, but I don't want to ruin the experience of discovery for anyone who reads it, which I highly encourage everyone to do.

What I'm Reading: 'The Empathy Exams' by Leslie Jamison

The Empathy Exams made a big splash in 2014, appearing on many of the different "Best of" lists for non-fiction and essays. It didn't really catch my attention until I started noticing this pattern; up to that point I had thought it was something in the self-help/New Age genre, based solely on the title. 

I'm very glad I read it in the end, because it was not even remotely what I expected, even after I saw all the critical attention it was receiving. Mary Karr's blurb on the front cover threw me off a bit as well..."This riveting book will make you a better human." I know it's coming from Mary Karr, but come on. But don't let any of that hold you back; title and blurbs aside, it's a really well-crafted book of essays that I enjoyed as much as any other nonfiction I read this year, and I would put it up with Eula Biss' On Immunity and Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me as examples of incredibly strong essay-writing from young women. I read an article on a kind of Golden Age of woman essayists, and as much as I hate that kind of generalization. I did read a lot of excellent essays by women this year, The Empathy Exams chief among them. Jamison's topics range as widely as the West Memphis Three and Ultramarathoners, but her voice is so pervasive and effective that she somehow manages to pull it all together in a way that feels earned and never convenient. She also pays thoughtful homage to her predecessors like Susan Sontag and Joan Didion, which I never tire of seeing in essays.

Perhaps the most exciting part of discovering new women essayists this past year is that so many of them have plenty of older books/pieces that I can't wait to read now.

Bookhive's Best of 2014

So many bloggers and writers and editors will tell you how much they positively despise putting together "Best of' lists at the end of the year. Those people are lying. Making lists is incredibly fun and frankly not all that difficult. Yes, there are tons of movies and books and albums that are made each and every year, but only a small fraction of them are worth consideration for a "Best of" list and it is quite literally their job to figure out which ones. So they can get over it. 

A few caveats regarding my own list: I am not a professional literary editor or reviewer; I have a full-time job so anything I read that was published in 2014 had to be squeezed into an already busy schedule, and additionally, had to be available to me at the library or interesting enough to warrant a purchase, which is rare for new titles. I'm still not enough of a mover and shaker to warrant advance review copies, so I do my best to keep up and I have the library fines to prove it. Thus, my favorite titles published in 2014:

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore -- Smart, well-researched, incredibly interesting and so much more than a history of a comic book character. 

On Immunity by Eula Biss -- Really hard to describe but brief and wonderful all the same. Her meditations on the nature of disease and vaccination are poetic and troubling.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples -- This comic started a few years ago but the latest issues and an omnibus edition were published this year, so it's fair game. I am not a comic book expert, so when I say it's my favorite comic book, that probably means very little, but it's really terrific; funny, challenging, and beautiful.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson -- Just ignore the YA-genre buzz around this short prose-poem memoir. Adults should read it, kids should read it.

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast -- A really warm and honest and insightful graphic memoir on the aging and death of Chast's parents. I cried less than I expected.

Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, and Leanne Shapton -- I was surprised by how many "Best of" lists forgot about this one, because it made a huge impression on me. I still haven't removed it from the pile next to my bed because I keep going back to it. It is endlessly entertaining and makes the smallest minutiae of women's lives fascinating.

#ReadWomen2014 Non-Fiction: 'On Immunity' by Eula Biss

Describing On Immunity will be very difficult, but I will endeavor to express how fantastic it is, all the same. A book about vaccinations did not exactly sound thrilling to me, and I can't remember where I read a very concise review that sparked my interest, but it was serendipitous because I heard about it, read said brief but tantalizing review, and then found it on the shelf at the library, so here we are.

Greek mythology, smallpox, Jenny McCarthy, vampires, H1N1, blood, childbirth, feminism -- all elements of Biss' approach to the concept of immunity, and all given equal weight in her meditations. I adore her structure, which is so much more literary than i expected -- short chapters without titles or numbers, as she moves seamlessly from thought to thought and topic to topic, returning constantly to her personal experiences as a new mother. (A word of warning here-- I think if I were pregnant or had a toddler I would find this book impossible to read. Biss addresses and embraces the paranoia of childhood diseases and vaccinations but it might push you over the edge if you're already in that frame of mind).

It is the best kind of non-fiction in that the author establishes authority as a researcher and as a mother with constant integration of personal experiences and impressively detailed facts. Those who enjoy really detailed and foot-noted non-fiction will be frustrated by this, but those who prefer essays and novels will find it utterly readable.

There are so many interesting points she raises and incredible stories about the human body that I wish I could share, but I don't want to ruin the experience of discovery for anyone who reads it, which I highly encourage everyone to do.