A Fierce Radiance

by Lauren Belfer

 

While eating a most delicious island chicken salad over at Mayberry's this afternoon, I finished the glorious new book.  I was lost in the world of 1940's New York and engulfed in the incredibly complicated pursuit for penicillin and other antibiotics (developed firstly and mainly to help the troops dying from infections in the war, but also for the general population eventually.)  The smaller story of Claire Shipley, renowned Life Magazine photographer, and her newfound wealthy father, and her son and her dog and her fiancee, Jamie, is just as compelling.  The characters are all believable and real and hard to forget.  The scientists at the labs at Rockefeller Institute (today called University) were working overtime to find a way to cure infections and stop people dying from minor things.  The government stepped in to say no patents could be had, so the drug companies developed other antibiotics in addition to penicillin, so they could make a profit.  Claire's own son develops pneunomia and gets teated by a new antibiotic - this whole book was fascinating from start to finish - I loved it!