"On Immunity is a book I've recommended too many times to count--a
searching, empathetic, ultimately unassailable argument, not just for
vaccination but for thoroughly acknowledging our interdependence, and
for all that becomes necessary and possible once we do. Written before
COVID, it nonetheless speaks directly to the concerns of the pandemic
era--to the fact that we are dangerous as well as vulnerable, to the way
collective well-being and individual self-interest are configured at
odds to one another when they are fundamentally intertwined."--Jia
Tolentino
In this bold, fascinating book, Eula Biss addresses our fear of the
government, the medical establishment, and what may be in our children's
air, food, mattresses, medicines, and vaccines. Reflecting on her own
experience as a new mother, she suggests that we cannot immunize our
children, or ourselves, against the world. As she explores the metaphors
surrounding immunity, Biss extends her conversations with other mothers
to meditations on the myth of Achilles, Voltaire's Candide, Bram
Stoker's Dracula, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Susan Sontag's
AIDS and Its Metaphors, and beyond. On Immunity is an inoculation
against our fear and a moving account of how we are all
interconnected-our bodies and our fates.
