Published in 2014
220 pages
6 hours and 23 minutes
Eula Biss is the author of Notes from No Mans Land, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, and The Balloonists. Her essays have appeared in the Believer and Harpers. She teaches at Northwestern University and lives in Chicago, Illinois.
What is this book about?
“Eula Biss sanely takes on the anti-vaccine mob.” — Vanity Fair
“Biss, while making an unimpeachable case for childhood vaccination, delves into the metaphors that accompany notions of purity and invasion and recounts the medical history of vaccine development. It’s a touching personal story that seeks to understand why the antivax crowd exists and why it’s such a well-meaning, if misguided, movement.” — Publishers Weekly
Upon becoming a new mother, Eula Biss addresses a chronic condition of fear – fear of the government, the medical establishment, and what is in your child’s air, food, mattress, medicine, and vaccines. She finds that you cannot immunize your child, or yourself, from the world.
In this bold, fascinating book, Biss investigates the metaphors and myths surrounding our conception of immunity and its implications for the individual and the social body. As she hears more and more fears about vaccines, Biss researches what they mean for her own child, her immediate community, America, and the world, both historically and in the present moment. She extends a conversation with other mothers to meditations on Voltaire’s Candide, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Susan Sontag’s AIDS and Its Metaphors, and beyond. On Immunity is a moving account of how we are all interconnected – our bodies and our fates.
