A review by mohawkm
The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies, by Dawn Raffel

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.