Asleep

The Forgotten Epidemic That Became Medicine’s Greatest Mystery

By: Molly Caldwell Crosby

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A fascinating look at a bizarre, forgotten epidemic from the national best-selling author of The American Plague.

In 1918, a world war raged, and a lethal strain of influenza circled the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it spread worldwide, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then, in 1927, it disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and asylums as they try to solve this epidemic and treat its victims - who learned the worst fate was not dying of it, but surviving it.

©2011 Molly Caldwell Crosby (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Fantastic book

What made the experience of listening to Asleep the most enjoyable?

The details and the fascinating history that is given

What other book might you compare Asleep to and why?

The Great Pearl

Which scene was your favorite?

Current times compared to previous history of flu

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

all of it

Any additional comments?

Great non-fiction with fascinating case history of the illness

great book! learned alot!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Asleep?

it was griping to listen too.. a fast listen if you will. such an interesting history, something that more people should remember!

More than a medical story

Any additional comments?

This book is far more than a medical book about a mysterious disease that happened years ago. It is also a very interesting take on the socioeconomic conditions of those times up to today. I was completely absorbed throughout.

The narrator, Christian Rummel, was absolutely perfect for this book. Just enough emotion and intonation. Will be looking at more books this gentleman has participated in.

Would definately recommend!

Where does Asleep rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best

What other book might you compare Asleep to and why?

Rabies, ties to epidemiology

What about Christian Rummel’s performance did you like?

I thought it was fine.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Chilling

Any additional comments?

A fascinating book. Definitely worth the read time. It taught me a lot of the history of disease and started me on a journey to a fascination with epidemiology. This is one of the most interesting diseases I have ever read about and this book did a great job of break that down. The stories meandered a little bit at some point but not book is perfect and a tiny bit a patience got me through certain books. I would recommend to anyone!

Interesting, but not excellent

This book is a description of the outbreak of epidemic encephalitis in the 1920s. I knew very little about it before reading the book and it was a fascinating story. It really is a forgotten disease that should be remembered like polio or pandemic flu, considering the severe effects its survivors lived with for the rest of their lives - Parkinson’s disease, psychosis, paralysis, etc. - but it is not. And I do feel that the book did a good job conveying the importance of the disease and the effects it had on people’s lives. It also made sure the story was relatable and human, not just dry, impersonal facts, by including detailed descriptions of the personalities and backgrounds of important characters such as researchers, case studies, and family members.

However, the book’s style was a little strange. It strayed from its otherwise historical and medically accurate tone to make up weird, unnecessarily flowery descriptions about, say, the path a particular researcher took to work. Other personal details of major characters were drawn from correspondence and other real documentation, which made those completely fictional passages stick out even more. It also talked a lot about the city of New York without always having a really clear reason why that was relevant to the narrative, such as a long and detailed description of the overhauling of Central Park in the 1930s. Those parts seemed like filler and rather than enhancing the book, they were just a distraction from what I really wanted to find out: what we know about the disease today. That answer, however, was bizarrely rushed and lacked detail, which was a letdown compared to the slow, tangent-laden pace of the rest of the book.

The narration was good, if not outstanding. I gave it four stars.

Overall, I gave this book three stars. The content when it was on-topic was very interesting and the subject was presented with a good balance of sympathetic humanity and scrupulously accurate facts. However, the author’s style of long, loosely-connected tangents detracted from the overall impact. I wouldn’t listen to it again because by the end I was finding that part of the book very irritating - and then the ending wasn’t even satisfying or worth the wait.

Not what I was hoping for...

The primary problem with this book is just how little of it is actually about encephalitis lethargica. Do not get me wrong, I understand that the social and political climate of the time have a lot to do with the health of both the individual and the society but there is easily two hours of this book that could be shaved off as irrelevant to the topic. For instance, that the Great Depression happened and had an influence on health is not really disputable but a discussion of the economic and social factors that caused it are not really relevant to the topic. This lack of focus is surprising given that the author claims that no less than several thousand medical journal articles exist on the disease. In short, I found myself frequently spacing out as the author covered in paragraphs, and sometimes even the majority of chapters, history of tangential importance to her subject that could have been summarized in a few sentences.

The narration is another story. Christian Rummel does an excellent job with the material.

Overall, this is not a bad book. It just bunny trails all over the place and will often go wandering into the weeds of historical facts that are of minimal importance to the subject. My advice is to wait for a sale if you intend to pick it up.

A great mixture of mystery and fact

Fascinating look at a devastating illness I knew very little about. Beyond Oliver Sacks book and the movie based on the book, Awakenings, I knew nothing about the disease Encephalitis Lethargica, or sleepy sickness. After reading this book, I find it frightening that we don't know what causes it, how the epidemic started, what ended it, and that I didn't realize it still occurs today. The author did a great job of trying to explain the fascinating mysteries behind the disease, the steps that were taken to try and understand it and the devastating results it had, especially on the young. It is rare that a book keeps me up at night worrying. This one did. If you like medical mysteries, this one will fascinate you.

Christian Rummel is quickly moving up my favorite narrator list. He is great.

Incredible!

This book kept me engaged and wanting more. I work in medicine, and there is so much wonder and things left unknown to this disease. It's mesmerizing! Must read.

Very interesting

Very interesting book. A lot of historical information including people that may have been affected by that the public didn’t know about.

Scary, and still unsolved, medical mystery

This book about encephalitis lethargica is well researched and well written by a woman whose grandmother survived this disease, but wasmentally damaged. The book examines several case histories, including hers, in detail, to show the wide range of physical and behavioral symptoms that made this disease so baffling for doctors and difficult for families. Its victims, mostly young people, sickened suddenly and fell asleep, for weeks or months. Some woke eventually, some died. Some could function normally again; many suffered degrees of mental/emotional impairment; some displayed uncontrollable anger or became psychotic, suicidal, homicidal (this included small children), others remained 'frozen' like the ones Dr. Oliver Sacks found in a hospital decades after the last outbreak and wrote about in "Awakenings". During two early 20th century pandemic waves of this disease, medical researchers tried to figure out agent was causing it, how it was transmitted, how it might be cured. No luck. Was it linked to pandemic flu?
Rare, sporadic cases still occur. The author makes the point that we may be in terrible trouble if there is another pandemic flu, and another pandemic of encephalitis lethargica.