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Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
Mud, Microbes & Medicine by Elizabeth Reed Aden is a memoir that is definitely a study in two parts. As a young PhD anthropology student in the 1970s, the author sought a topic for her doctoral thesis. Searching the world for a suitable environment, she dismissed Alaska as too cold, the Middle East and Africa as too hot, and eyed the South Pacific as a suitable venue. Ultimately, she chose what was then known as the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), a joint British and French colony. With little knowledge of what she would be facing and an overbearing and manipulative PhD mentor back in the States, she had an enormous culture shock. Her project of documenting the population of the small island of Malo, and testing their blood for malaria and Hepatitis B, both endemic diseases, would see her devote many years to the health and well-being of the islanders, whom she grew to love. From a wide-eyed PhD student, she would ultimately reinvent herself and enter the fast-paced and results-driven world of Big Pharma, where she would again excel.
Mud, Microbes & Medicine is a wonderfully charming read. Elizabeth Reed Aden has had an amazingly diverse life. I loved her attitude to authority and her willingness to stand up to the intensely patriarchal and misogynistic world of academia. What readers will appreciate is the author’s summing up at the end of each chapter or adventure in her life. Her “Lessons Learned” was a reflection of the thoughtful and methodical way she organized her research and her life. These lessons learned will resonate with many readers, as they did with me, and form a valuable part of the story. I admit to losing myself in the more technical aspects of her research, and later, when she was at the forefront of drug companies’ research into new life-saving drugs. I also greatly appreciated the details of Vanuatu’s struggle for independence and nation-building. The transition to a new independent government, despite differing factions, was achieved without significant bloodshed, and the author was there to witness it. Ultimately, this book is about connectedness and humanity. It is powerful, motivational, and fascinating. I recommend it.
