This week’s reviews include Dr. Fauci’s esteemed career of service in “On Call” and Simon Van Booy’s story of friendship and second chances, “Sipsworth.”
Sunday Books & Culture is edited by Vanessa Sekinger
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ON CALL: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service
by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
Published by Viking (June 18, 2024)
Hardcover $22.52
Audiobook $14.99
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
This book reviewer is trying to figure out how to condense the life of a man who has done more in a single month than I have in decades. Most of us know Tony Fauci from his time in front of the camera during the COVID crisis, but his life as a physician and expert in infectious diseases began long before that outbreak.
Fauci recounts his childhood dream: playing basketball. But like his father, his growth spurt stopped at 5′ 7”, and he focused on academics, eventually graduating from Cornell University Medical College. In his fourth year, his mother came to him with symptoms which turned out to be cancer. Eight weeks later she was dead, and his inability to save her may have been part of his motivation to try and save others whenever and however he could.
Much of this book focuses on the AIDS epidemic and his leadership in various national agencies that dealt with this. Funding for research was a problem as AIDS was first believed to infect only gay men. As others became infected, through blood transfusions and mother-to-child transfers, Fauci and his team worked within their agencies but also invited AIDS activists to the table. His relationship with Larry Kramer, who died of AIDS in 2020, tells of a remarkable friendship despite constant attacks by Kramer that Fauci – and the US Government – were not doing enough. The search for a vaccine to prevent AIDS continues to this day. But various drugs have proven to be successful in treating the disease, and AIDS is no longer a death sentence.
Between AIDS and COVID, Fauci details episodes of influenza, SARS, Ebola, ZIKA, smallpox, and Anthrax. After September 11, 2001, there was a great fear about bioterrorism. Even Fauci once received an envelope full of white powder. To his relief, it was not poison.
He became the public face of COVID when it hit. His handling of the crisis was challenging from the start because of the rapid spread of the virus, even among those who had no symptoms. He covers working with both Trump and Biden in great detail, with their approaches being quite different. He also focuses on the COVID variants which continue to arise. Despite being vaccinated, he got COVID (the new Omicron variety) and missed walking his daughter down the aisle for her wedding.
This is a book of details, many names and significant research which Fauci does an admirable job of simplifying for a reader like me. I may not keep the specifics in my head, but I will always remember his self-described legacy: “I have done everything I possibly could in my many roles to promote sound public health practices aimed at saving lives.”
Well done, Dr. Fauci.
Penny A Parrish is a long-time book reviewer and artist. Learn more about her by visiting her page at Brush Strokes Gallery, which is in downtown Fredericksburg.
SIPSWORTH
by Simon Van Booy
Published by Godine (May 7, 2024)
Hardcover $22.13
Audiobook $14.99
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
I loved this book. Shortest review I’ve ever given, but I suppose readers (and my editor) will want more. So…
This is the story of a lonely old woman and a mouse in England. We don’t know much about Helen Cartwright at the beginning, but we do know she has moved back to the town where she was born. And that her one goal is to die.
As the story unfolds, we learn that she lived in Australia for more than six decades, that she has lost both her husband and son, and that she fills her days with boring routines like walking to the market, listening to the radio, watching old films on TV and taking warm relaxing baths. What she does NOT do is deliberately interact with anyone.
One rainy evening, she notices a neighbor putting out an old fish tank for trash pickup the next day. Peering out from her window, she sees that it holds various small boxes and toys. She pads out in her slippers in the dark and retrieves it, planning to spend three days with this: one to unpack items, one to wash them and see what she found, and one to dry them. It will be the most excitement she’s had for years. When she goes to sleep that night, looking forward to her future project, she hears small noises. Maybe the storm outside, branches on the house. Nothing to worry about.
Her world changes the next morning when she finds a wet box at the bottom of the tank, and in it a tiny mouse staring at her. Plan A is to get rid of it, and a visit to a local hardware store sends her home with glue traps. (They do get used, but gentle reader, fear not. The mouse never touches them.) Plans change however, as she begins to see the mouse as a friend, someone to talk to, someone to prepare meals for. The hope for a quick and painless death is no longer feasible. “What she has both wanted and feared for so long is now impossible. Squeezing both fists, she turns sharply…’It’s like having a baby! At eighty-three!’ ” Soon the mouse brings Helen out of her home and introduces both of them to a wonderful assortment of people. Relationships between rodents and humans can be life-altering.
This is a short book (I read it one afternoon). The writing is lovely, and often funny. It is about being old, about being alone, about losing and finding friends and family. Above all, it is about love.
Penny A Parrish is a long-time book reviewer and artist. Learn more about her by visiting her page at Brush Strokes Gallery, which is in downtown Fredericksburg.
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