Scan barcode
A review by tbauman
The Plague Year: America in the Time of COVID by Lawrence Wright
3.0
If you care enough to read this book, you probably already know most of the information in this book. You were there for it all. You remember first hearing about COVID and not being scared. You heard Dr. Fauci say we shouldn't use masks, then about-face a few weeks later. You saw Trump do an okay job once it became clear it was a real problem, then totally give up on doing a good job. You stayed inside for several months. You remember all the businesses shuttering. You remember hearing how horrible it was to be a frontline worker. You saw the video of George Floyd's murder, and marched. You saw Trump contract coronavirus, then freak out and reach the brink of death, then claim he wasn't scared even a little bit. You remember January 6, 2021. You might never forget it. There's even a section on the author's experience getting vaccinated. You got vaccinated. You remember how hard it was for anyone to get an appointment. You remember the relief when your family members could get vaccinated. None of this is news to you. And of course the story of coronavirus is in no way over, so you remember things the book doesn't know about.
I didn't even find it painful to remember last year. I just found it kind of boring and preachy.
There were a few things that I learned, though. I learned more about the lab leak theory. I learned about some of the internal dynamics of the White House. But unlike The Premonition, which was mostly new information to me, 90% of the story was not new.
And the book was well written. It just didn't really need to be written, at least not yet. Maybe in 50 years a historian will turn to this as a primary source for their research, but as someone living this today you don't need to read this book.
I didn't even find it painful to remember last year. I just found it kind of boring and preachy.
There were a few things that I learned, though. I learned more about the lab leak theory. I learned about some of the internal dynamics of the White House. But unlike The Premonition, which was mostly new information to me, 90% of the story was not new.
And the book was well written. It just didn't really need to be written, at least not yet. Maybe in 50 years a historian will turn to this as a primary source for their research, but as someone living this today you don't need to read this book.