Book Review: Point Source -- Thriller involving Multiple Sclerosis

By John M. Williams

I love reading thrilling novels packed with international intrigue, suspense, action, conundrums, arrogance, murder, ambition, character development, independence, subliminal messages and contemporary political history. In Point Source by Dr. Richard G. Pellegrino, readers are treated to a unique medical thriller with the qualities that I love in a novel. Readers are swiftly carried from day-to-day and event-to-event over three months in the lives of people who accidentally stumble unto an international terrorist plot by North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, one of President George W. Bush’s three Axis of Evil leaders, to assassinate South Korean statesman and candidate for the presidency of South Korea Bo Li Yeung. The weapon of choice is a biological weapon of mass destruction.The author has two missions in the novel. One is to awaken the readers to the symptoms and the daily physical and mental challenges accompanying MS, and to illustrate the courage it takes to adapt to the progressive limitations of the disease. The second mission is to entertain the reader with a who-done-it mystery that operates on several levels. He succeeds with both missions.
Unlike any other book I have read that covers MS, Point Source provides personal insights into the disease, and celebrates the courage; struggles, determination, and sense of humor people require to deal with it. The characters with MS are convincingly human, and when I finished the book I did not have the impression that MS individuals are supermen and women performing Herculean feats. Instead I learned that MS affects 3-4 million people worldwide. Through the sometimes contentious relationship between Dr. Angela Donatelli and her mother Marie, who has MS, the reader discovers that this progressive disorder of the nervous system is far from well understood. The deterioration of motor control is a central symptom of the disease, but there is a mental dimension as well; one that affects a patient's cognitive functions, from memory to the ability to complete complex tasks. Not everyone with MS experiences such cognitive impairment, and for those who do, the effects are usually very subtle. While I know there is no cure for MS, I learned the cause of MS is equally unknown.
The book educates the reader on the evolving struggles that people with MS face daily. It exposes the imperative of finding a cure. Knowing what I do about the promise of stem cell research, then I believe stem cell research should be funded, not only because it might help with finding a cure for MS, but also for its potential in curing or alleviating a host of other immune-system and degenerative diseases. The book also shows the hope that people with MS have in the medical profession’s efforts to discover, treat and eventually cure the disease.
Dr. Pellegrino is one of the country’s top neurologists, and he specializes in working with MS patients.