Comment

Blood

the Stuff of Life
ksoles
Feb 01, 2014ksoles rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
It courses through the body of every human. It defines gender, ethnicity and family identity. In clichés, you can sweat it but you can't get it from a stone. Blood certainly offers fascinating possibilities for a book but, unfortunately, Lawrence Hill's "Blood: The Stuff of Life" becomes overwhelmed by these possibilities. Attempting to demonstrate the prevalence of his subject, Hill only achieves a superficial and repetitive examination of it. His obviously copious research too often reads like a top ten list of blood-related facts that lack both analysis and substance. He certainly displays his passion about the double standards that bestow respectability on "blood sports" (hockey, boxing) and he spotlights important topics such as the misuse of blood in justifying racial discrimination. However, he constantly turns his moral conclusions into philosophical meditations, weakening his points. The book's strength lies in its autobiographical threads, which bring it to a more human scale. The author humbly recounts his own struggle with diabetes and piercingly admits to growing up in the shadow of a famous sibling and father. But, though his perfunctory approach plays well orally on radio, it falters when used in an intellectual argument.