this is an extremely powerful book that addresses the language used to describe “illness” and “disease.” i’m incredibly impressed by sontag’s deconstruction of the military metaphors (“fight the disease,” “kill the germs,” “virual invasion”) and how that affects the way people understand illness (“s/he was weak and got infected”) and so on. the book is remarkable compassionate and personal and i truly think it is a must-read for everybody so that we can change our perceptions of illness.