This book is very readable for the most part - but there are major problems an editor should have found, in my opinion, and fixed. Repetition, meandering and dry patches could easily have been tweaked, because this is a REALLY interesting story. It's too bad that the author couldn't have his best sections be his writing style 100% of the time - there were chapters were I couldn't put the book down and stayed up late into the night page-turning. But then there were chapters that really dragged and musings that seemed more like those of an excited student dancing around a point in an essay because they feel very strongly about it, but haven't quite decided where to go with it.
However, I think it's worth a read despite these issues. The information itself is fascinating - I'd never heard of Dr. John Snow before, and this makes me want to learn more. The contrast between the science being born, and the social barriers to progress is as relevant today as it was then - something a lot of people seem to object being explored in the epilogue, but which I think makes a perfectly valid point.
The vivid picture of life in Victorian London, specifically in terms of access to water and waste disposal, was absolutely riveting in my opinion. This book really opens your eyes to how near us in history absolute squalor can be found in cities that are now gleaming and modern. It's hard to conceive of how people lived this way, but the author gets you there.
Overall I'd recommend this book strongly, but I'd also warn you to be ready to have to sigh you way through certain parts where it's a bit like listening to your nephew explain something to you that you already know, three or four times, because they're sure they discovered this whole idea and can't wait to share it. The thing that saves these sections is that I believe it comes from a place of genuine enthusiasm and passion rather than a conscious desire to beat you over the head with the information.
This book, whatever it's editing flaws may be, has some genuine gasp-worthy moments - it has drama, human interest, nobility, stupidity and all the other things that make people so compelling to get to know through words on a page. It's rekindled my interesting in epidemiology and anthropology of medicine, so for that I have to thank the author big-time.
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