sharonfalduto's review against another edition
3.0
Fun quick read about a man who saved thousands of babies in incubators...which he was able to do because they were a sideshow display at World's Fairs and Coney Island. It was the early to mid-century, and eugenics was a thing; why would anyone want to save premature or "weakling"babies? But this man did. Told in a conversational, showman type style.
jackienelli's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like I’m left with more questions than answers. However, a good story of when science and medicine don’t do what under represented society member need. I can’t imagine anyone doing this today, and that part of the story is great.
kdavis's review against another edition
4.0
I was a premie born 8 weeks early in the '70s. I had a whole team of doctors who saved me with the help of an incubator. If I had been born in the early 1900s, my parents might have carried me in a box to a Coney Island sideshow operated by Dr. Couney, because most doctors would have left me for dead. At a time when it was still an accepted practice to use whiskey as an anesthetic, Dr. Couney (who isn't an actual doctor) was saving 2-3 lb infants in his fairgrounds sideshow using an incubator set up that was on display for the public. In doing so, he also brought awareness to the fact that premies could actually be saved. During the course of his career, he had a survival rate of 6,800 out of nearly 9,000 premies, and many of his techniques are still in use today (not the drops of whiskey, though). As other reviewers mention, the timeline is almost nonexistent, which makes the story feel somewhat disjointed. However, the author did a nice job of juxtaposing Dr. Couney's story with the eugenics movement that was becoming a big deal at the time. I listened to this as an audiobook, but I might check out the book some time to see the pictures of the incubators.
juliamat's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
3.75
This book is written in an interesting fragmented sort of way just by nature of the subject. You will either jive with it or you won't. The unknown history of this era is certainly fascinating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
mohawkm's review against another edition
3.0
As others have said, it's clear that there IS an interesting story here - treating preemies in incubators in a very clean environment with frequent nurse care works; even if it took a long time for U.S. hospitals to get it and bizarrely, it worked well as a sideshow for 25 cents a view! But the story is chopped up into various parts and timelines, as if the author felt guilt about not including each side story shared during her research, or wanted to create a book like the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which I can understand. But this one doesn't get there. It left me wishing that someone else would write a book about the incubator side shows, since it does seem so interesting - but with this book's format, I can't retain anything to share with others.
emonroe26's review against another edition
2.0
I think the story itself was more interesting than this book.
cgreenstein's review against another edition
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
erinlovescats's review against another edition
3.0
There is some interesting information in the book but the style of writing is not very compelling.
rowan_'s review
3.0
Interesting topic and definitely thoroughly researched, but fairly hard to follow due to the very short chapters switching between the historical topic and modern-day.