The
Trembling Mountain: A Personal Account of Kuru, Cannibals, and Mad Cow
Disease by Robert Klitzman
The key word here is personal. Physician Robert Klitzman tells us his
life story and humanizes what could easily have been a tabloid-size horror
story of Stone Age cannibals and rotten-brained cows. Vivid portraits of
the men and women he helped and worked with lift this book above mere sensationalism,
showing one people's tragedy in the hopes that others can be averted.
Kuru is a fatal disease formerly epidemic among the Fore people of New
Guinea, with symptoms including involuntary laughing, dementia, and loss
of motor control. Traced to their ritual cannibalism, it was found to be
caused by nonliving crystal-like proteins in the brain. Klitzman traveled
to New Guinea before attending medical school to work with these people
and quickly learned how little Western medicine could do for the afflicted--he
could only make their deaths as comfortable as possible. His despair is
palpable.
Fortunately, most Fore have been convinced to give up the most dangerous
of their ancestral practices, and the disease has largely abated. But mad
cow disease (and others like it), caused by the same class of protein as
kuru, remains a threat to Westerners--a threat Klitzman would rather we
not face. His very personal story forces us as readers to examine our own
lives and our own ancestral practices, perhaps to make some changes ourselves.
--Rob Lightner - Amazon.com
Paperback from Perseus Publishing
Book Published: 07 August, 2001
