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| Author: Darin Strauss
Publisher: Dutton Adult
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $2.76
You Save: $22.19 (89%)
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Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 122856
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.7
ISBN: 0525950702
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780525950707
ASIN: 0525950702
Publication Date: June 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 19
 How much blindness does a happy life require? July 16, 2008
Jackie Blem (Denver, CO)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is an absorbing psychological study of what people do to motivate themselves and others as well as what secrets and lies they tell themselves to do so. At one point a main character asks himself "How much blindness does a happy life require?" On the surface, this is a story about a family dealing with allegations of Munchausen by Proxy (where a parent makes a child ill or hurts it to get the attention for themselves). But that is only one layer of the deep and varied textures of this story. Fidelity, racism, abandonment, love, hate, and status all come into play throughout the book, with a constant strong current of redemption at any cost running under it all.
A Real Page Turner June 29, 2008
Sarah Banks (Chicago)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I haven't read his other books but I picked this up because of the great cover. Turns out it's a really riveting novel about a sick baby, a heartless doctor (well, she SEEMS heartless) and a husband and wife who don't know each other as well as they think. Definitely pick this up. It will break your heart a little but you'll be better for it. I'm off to buy his book about the original Siamese twins.
 BEST BOOK EVER July 5, 2008
Susannah Meadows (brooklyn, NY)
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
stop. do not bother looking for any other book on this site. "more than it hurts you" is one of the best books i've ever read. it's incredibly page-turn-y and at the same time the language is amazing. in fact, i've never read a book that was as beautifully written as it was suspenseful. and it's perfect for any book club because there's so much to talk about when you're done. and you won't want it to end.
'Rage, that devoted propagandist, airbrushes memory whenever it can.' August 21, 2008
Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Darin Strauss in this, his third novel ('Chang and Eng', 'The Real McCoy'), permanently secures his position as one of America's finest novelists. The sheer variety of his choices of stories, his elegant ability as a wordsmith, and the fervor with which he approaches difficult issues within the context of creating a fascinating story are only a few of the reasons for his success. Strauss has the gift to create unique characters, develop them thoroughly and gradually throughout the weaving of his tale, and leave the reader with a high degree of concern about the future of these people long after the lat page of his novels are complete.
Always electing to introduce rarely known information as a key to his works, MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU explores the definition and significance of the mysterious phenomenon Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy (or MSP - the 'DSM-4 factitious disorder by proxy'). It is important to the author that the reader understand this complex entity: according to the dictionary it is defined as follows: 'Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP), a type of factitious disorder, is a mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick. People with MSP assume the role of a sick person indirectly by producing or lying about illness in another person under their care, usually a child under 6 years of age. (The term "by proxy" means "through a substitute.") People with MSP have an inner need for the other person (often his or her child) to be seen as ill or injured. It is not done to achieve a concrete benefit, such as financial gain. People with MSP are even willing to have the child or other patient undergo painful or risky tests and operations in order to get the sympathy and special attention given to people who are truly ill and their families. Factitious disorders are considered mental illnesses because they are associated with severe emotional difficulties'.
Strauss very subtly investigates this syndrome through his creation of a happy family - Josh and Dori Goldin and their infant son Zack. Josh is a well-liked, creative salesman for the television network Sparkplug, while Dori is a trained nurse/phlebotomist whose devotion to her family is exemplary. As Josh's attention to new work developments strays from his family focus, Dori rushes Zack to the hospital for gastric pain and subsequently for hematemesis and there is 'treated' the Pediatric ER doctor Darlene Stokes and her intern. Dr. Stokes fails to do certain blood screening tests and Dori accuses her of mismanagement. Zack of course recovers (we later learn that Dori has placed blood in Zack's emesis to begin the Munchhausen Syndrome by Proxy process) and the race between patient/parents and physician/hospital is on.
Each of the characters reflects backgrounds that make them 'persons of interest': Darlene was the illegitimate child of a young African American woman, impregnated by one Charles Stokes, a drug dealer who is imprisoned where he changes his religion to Muslim and his name to Intelligent Muhammad. From this rather lowly background Darlene rises above her white classmates, elects to affiliate with her black brethren in housing and activities, becomes a physician, has a brief affair with the first man who pays attention to her (a Caucasian Jew), becomes pregnant, marries, has a child she names James, and when her husband dies, centers her life on her career, her son, and her single mother Alice. Josh Goldin is Jewish as is Dori, a girl of Turkish descent. As the accusation of Munchausen's Syndrome is made against Dori, the Goldin's seek advice from a haughty Jewish lawyer who manufactures concepts that Darlene has vindictive feelings against the Jewish Goldins (racism) and causes the Goldin's to believe his case against 'the poor black woman' Darlene (racism). When Darlene engages Child Protective Services to investigate the Goldins, the investigator is perceived as a gay male (homophobia) who couldn't possibly understand a straight family. And as if these summed prejudices weren't enough, Darlene's father is released from prison and seeks out the daughter he never knew: Darlene softens and allows him to move in - a convicted felon to care for her young son and to work as a janitor in her hospital (prejudice against outsiders/felons becomes an issue with the hospital and lawyers as the case moves towards hearings).
Strauss weaves this complex cast of characters into a drama that is not only fascinating as it unfolds, but is also cause for serious contemplation of the state of our society's views of human rights, social injustices, racism, homophobia, paparazzi, yellow journalism, medical malpractice, and parenting. But one of the reasons this story works so well is the fact that Strauss knows how to manipulate all of this information while keeping his dramatic story moving along at breakneck speed. No one in this novel is free of flaws and no one is completely 'beyond redemption'. The reader is brought most closely into Josh's response: he is the affected one by all of the circumstances and it is his resolution that brings this story to an end. 'A greater sin than emotional blindness is to play at love without purpose, to be caught just visiting the high points of your own existence. Josh loved Dori honestly, faithfully, and blindly. And that was the reason he failed to avoid this strange shipwreck of his family life.'
Though this novel flows rapidly, Darin Strauss allows breathing spaces for contemplative painting with words: it is rare to turn a page without finding at least some brief eloquent and poetic thoughts and sentences that stay with the reader throughout the book. He is a gifted, dependable, and eloquent artist and while watching his first book become a film, we can eagerly anticipate his next intelligent and fascinating novel. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 08
 One of the most boring books I have ever read! September 4, 2008
Ann Mac (Chicago, IL United States)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I picked up this book thinking it would be a great book but all i found was a boring book that I had to force myself to finish hoping it would get better. The author was all over with this book. He wrote of characters that you could careless about and had zilch to do with the story. Don't waste your time with this one. I would have enjoyed a harlequin romance better!
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