“The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus” is a chronicle first published in 1994 by Richard Preston. Preston first published an article two years before in The New Yorker entitled “Crisis in the Hot Zone” in which this particular book further expands.
Preston knows how to rattle the nerves with his accounts of the devastating effects the Ebola Virus wreaks on the body. He also delves into the personal lives of some of those researchers who faced this terrible affliction and does so quite effectively.
Preston not only comes off as a meticulous researcher and journalist, but he also is a pretty compelling writer without making the subject more complicated than necessary. There are times when it gets a little dry, but those pages are not too numerous.
I don’t read non-fiction on a regular basis, but I was glad to give this one a gander. Preston does a great job of presenting the horrors and the noble efforts of the scientists to study the Ebola Virus in a manner in which laypeople can follow fairly easily.
I will next be delving into an American classic about one of the darker periods of this US history. It’s going to be lengthy reading indulgence, but I am going to be taking on “Roots” by Alex Haley.
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