Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood

by Bill Hayes

“This beguiling brew of fascinating scientific facts and illuminating, poignant anecdotes makes Five Quarts something like blood vital and pulsing with energy.”
–Entertainment Weekly

From ancient Rome, where gladiators drank the blood of vanquished foes to gain strength and courage, to modern-day laboratories, where machines test blood for diseases and scientists search for elusive cures, Bill Hayes takes us on a whirlwind journey through history, literature, mythology, and science by way of the great red river that runs five quarts strong through our bodies. Hayes also recounts the impact of the vital fluid in his daily life, from growing up in a household of five sisters and their monthly cycles to his enduring partnership with an HIV-positive man. As much a biography of blood as it is a memoir of how this rich substance has shaped one man’s life, Five Quarts is by turns whimsical and provocative, informative and moving.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Medicine, Memoir, Medical, Biology

305 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, Bill Hayes is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the author of several books.

A photographer as well as a writer, his photos have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Granta, New York Times, and on CBS Evening News. His portraits of his partner, the late Oliver Sacks, appear in the recent collection of Dr. Sacks’s suite of final essays Gratitude.

Hayes has been a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, the recipient of a Leon Levy Foundation grant, and a Resident Writer at Blue Mountain Center. He has also served as a guest lecturer at Stanford, NYU, UCSF, University of Virginia, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is an excellent book, a perfect combination of what its subtitle promises: "a personal and natural history of blood." I was riveted by the stories in the book, from the author's own past to the Ancient Greek and Roman beliefs to the examination of AIDS research to the chapter on vampirism. It's very well-written with a unique voice, and it's as educational as it is entertaining.
My only critique of this book is that I wish it were longer. I wish Hayes added more natural history without removing any of his personal stories. I wanted to know MORE about vampirism and bloodletting and hemophilia and ancient philosophies about blood and what it contains. But that's an odd critique because it means that Hayes did his job so well, he left me wanting more.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. Just be prepared for the personal history, and don't criticize Hayes for including it since the subtitle guarantees as much!

[Julene · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Five Quarts" is a creative nonfiction book that covers nearly every aspect of blood! After reading "Insomniac City," I wanted to read more writing by Bill Hayes. "Five Quarts" is part memoir in that it is related to his relationship with his partner who is living with AIDS, and his relationship with his sister. However, in thirteen chapters he covers: mythology, the history of medicine including bloodletting, menstruation and preeclampsia, the court trial of Elaine Giorgi who worked for SmithKline lab—a phlebotomist she reused a butterfly to draw blood causing HIV or Hep C infections, Count Dracula and vampire tales, the literary world of such writings including Mary Godwin (later to become Mary Shelley) who wrote Frankenstein, comic book figures such as the Hulk and Batman, a close look at a woman with hemophilia, and a tour of a lab where his partner's blood is sent and of a blood bank that has a 30 million dollar annual budget. There is much to learn in this book.

I especially loved the thread with his sister, close friends from childhood in a Catholic family, she had a history of painful menstruation, and was in process to become a nun. But when she learned the church's stance against gay people she withdrew because of her love for her brother. She takes a firm stand later in the book that I also applaud.

This quote was a surprise considering most people believe the 1981 report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) was the beginning of AIDS in the US:
"Under current FDA rules, all potential male blood donors must be asked verbally during the screening interview if they've had sex, "even once," with another man since 1977, the year identified as the start of America's AIDS epidemic."
Also, I was surprised that, "About 95 percent of qualified blood donors do not give...." This book was published in 2005 so perhaps this has changed.

I gave it a four instead of a five because it is so broad. It's a totally engaging book with something for everyone, especially if you're not squeamish about blood. Anyone who wants to work in the medical field should read this book! It has an index and a long list of references: a general list and also one for each chapter. I've not run across anyone who has read this book, so I hope more people will read it especially now that we are in a second pandemic with the Corona virus, that like AIDS will need to be controlled, not cured, and with more such viruses to come.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty cool book. Admittedly, I picked it up expecting to learn the historical, cultural, and contemporary ins-and-outs of blood. However, it turned out to be fairly personal and rather literary. As I read more and more, I gained an appreciation from Hayes's perspective and personal experience with blood. I will mention that an equally important topic in this book seemed to be HIV, which I found to be thoughtfully commented on throughout. All-in-all, for something I hadn't expected, I really enjoyed this as a non-fictional story with a nice twist of history and parallels to mythology. Oh, and the research into blood, history, and contemporary science was very well done.

[Becky Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know the human body contains 5 quarts of blood and 60,000 (yes, that is the right number) MILES of veins, arteries, capillaries, etc.?

I never knew there was so much to learn about blood, and other than a brief fascination with it when I first read "Dracula," I have taken it for granted. Not any more.

I would like to meet Bill Hayes and talk with him over a cup of coffee. He is a meticulous researcher and follows the talk/boy-think/boy stream of consciousness when he reads. There is always something new for him to look up--and not on Google. Plus, he is an excellent writer.

Win/win.

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chapter near the end gives some excellent information based on blood banks about blood types. Some people have totally unique blood which I never knew before.

[Bookfairy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm torn, I might bump this to 5 stars.
The story is a little disjointed, with anecdotes thrown in, and small history lessons, all of which I enjoyed, but the flow felt bumpy.
Overall, this is an excellent story of a man and his journey, learning about the history of blood science, and a little bit of the future.
He takes us along for the ride.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

My opinion wavered a lot while reading this. At first, I thought I would enjoy the combination of memoir and medical history, then I found it distracting, then in the end I was okay with it again. It's a strange approach to a subject. Hayes is a passionate, intelligent man, who has clearly does his research and has a lot to share about his life and experiences. As a fan of both memoir and medical non-fiction, I really can't quite put my finger on why I didn't love this. I've another of his books on my shelf, waiting to be read, and while this didn't put me off his work, I can't say I'm in a rush to read more by him.

Clearly my feelings about this book are a bit muddled.

[John Treat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book about two white gay men dealing with HIV in San Francisco, but you know what? We don't have nearly enough of them. Hayes, an award-winning nonfiction writer, purports to write a part-scientific, part-cultural (Western) history of blood, but what grips the reader has to be the narrative his relationship with his HIV+ lover Steve, whose own blood terrifies Hayes. Hayes and I moved to Seattle at the same time, though he soon left for San Francisco and the heart of the catastrophe: this is a report from the front.

[Seacalliope · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were times I wished he'd had more science content, rather than personal and historical, because I'd previously read The Anatomist by Hayes and thought that was just a thoroughly satisfying book on every level. But I think he had a lot of personal insight into the topic and covered the current day attitudes toward blood in an interesting way.

[Pancha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both a memoir and a history of how Western science views blood.

[Francisca · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5*

now my second bill hayes book read (The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy also read this year) and i can't wait to read his other two books. i do have Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me waiting around my tbr pile of 490 books but i will hunt down his first one, Sleep Demons: An Insomniac's Memoir since i clearly have no self-control. i also hope he publishes more in the future because, hey, why not more books?

that being said, i was left scratching my head a bit towards the ending of this one. mostly because i didn't realise the ending i was reading was the actual ending of the book. i was more than ready to move unto the next chapter and then, bam! the references section. i'm not sure what i was exactly expecting from the ending but i know it left me wanting more--more resolution, more emotional development, a sense of catharsis perhaps, i don't know.

besides that detail, this book is the perfect mixture of personal history and historical medicine. again, i need to pull up all the usual narrative non-fiction books on medicine (The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine and Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them) and add this one to the pile of very specific recommendations.

[Paulo Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another very interesting and most enjoyable book by Bill Hayes. I love the way he writes about medical subjects, extremely clear and knowledgeable - and I should know, since I'm a doctor myself - and how he intertwines his personal experiences and feelings in his narratives. His writing is elegant, witty and endearing, and the book is full of interesting anecdotes and valuable information, not only on the history of our relation with blood across the centuries but also present day important issues, like the still recent AIDS history and what blood, its perils and values, mean to us (I would like him to have also approached the Jehovah's Witnesses' particular attitude towards blood!). All in all, a very good book, and I recommend it, as his other books.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part scientific tome, part autobiography, I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into when I picked this up. I was lured by the title, thinking that it'd be a straightforward study of the history of blood, and, it is - sort of. Intertwined with a not comprehensive study of blood is the story of Hayes's life with his partner, a man with HIV, and what that means for their blood specifically. It's a deeply personal work that does factor in science, but somehow still entangles a very romantic notion of what the word 'blood' means.

[Terese · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating exploration of medical techniques and history. Just when It starts to get too scientific Hayes takes historical side trips.
Written in 2005, so I found the ‘current’ HIV research curious, realising that I have no idea what the current status is. Interesting parallels with COVID 19 pandemic and vaccine research.

[Jen Maybe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was looking for - too much memoir to be science, too much science to be memoir. Surprisingly, recently read fiction (The Physician by Noah Gordon) proved to be a better medical/historical text, and Hayes flies over too many idea and topics too quickly for it to be academically rigorous or emotionally charged. Harmless, but not worth the time.

[Steve Kettmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005:

Digressions on blood, the fluid of life
Reviewed by Steve Kettmann

Sunday, February 6, 2005

Five Quarts

A Personal and Natural History of Blood

By Bill Hayes

BALLANTINE BOOKS; 290 PAGES; $23.95


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
San Francisco writer Bill Hayes is on his way to becoming one of those rare authors who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did.
Entertainment Weekly described his first book, "Sleep Demons," as "a graceful hybrid of a book that's half research treatise and half memoir," and that applies as well to "Five Quarts," a breezy ride of a book that is disarmingly nonchalant about leaping around through history and returning, always, to tales of Hayes' sisters and his longtime partner, Steve.

Not just any writer could make you care about a German scientist named Paul Ehrlich, who received the Nobel Prize in 1908 for his contributions to the development of immunology, which included developing what is now called chemotherapy. Hayes introduces Ehrlich into the narrative casually, mentioning that he coined the term "magic bullet," and then pans back to bring alive a more human picture of the man, leaning on a biography written by Ehrlich's former secretary Martha Marquardt.

"In Marquardt's affectionate work as well as in the drier tomes of Ehrlich's fellow scientists, a telling quirk surfaces: The man loved colors," Hayes tells us. "He was 'emotionally swayed' by them, one gentleman wrote. What spring is to a parfumeur, colors were to Paul Ehrlich. Though always a busy, busy man, Marquardt revealed, the doctor would still stop to extol the roar of yellows and reds in a bouquet of flowers. They 'would make him quite ecstatic,' Marquardt admitted." If the book at times feels like an endless series of digressions, the kind of thing one might hear from a charmingly quirky stranger on the N-Judah, Hayes has a higher purpose in mind with his short attention span. He's like a grade-school teacher who tricks the students into learning, by making it fun, for example, to think about the different types of white blood cells and what they do. By never, ever getting too technical, or too solemn, and connecting ideas with people wherever possible, Hayes equips even a casual reader with the knowledge to gain new insights into life, our bodies and how science can make more advances in fighting disease, especially HIV.

The devastating toll of the epidemic looms over the book, never far out of mind, but never dwelled on, either. Hayes tells of his many years of doctor visits side-by-side with his longtime companion Steve, who is HIV positive. But such descriptions have a casually informative quality to them, as if he was describing a visit to Alcatraz. That's not to say dark notes do not find their way into the book, only that Hayes never lets gloominess take over, even in describing the closing of Muscle System, a gym on Hayes Street that was much more than just a gym. "I had joined Muscle System right after arriving in the city," Hayes writes. "At the time, it was THE place to work out. It had such a mystique that Armistead Maupin wrote about it in his 'Tales of the City' series. Every beautiful man in San Francisco had a membership to this gym, it was said. Luckily, I later met one there: Steve, who'd moved here from Illinois in 1987. Muscle System functioned as the heart of the community, even though it was located a good mile from the Castro district."

Like a body battling the virus, the gym had been worn down and steadily depleted. Each week, new notes were taped up at the front counter announcing yet another memorial service. The wide cast of colorful characters thinned and thinned, sometimes as if its members were merely vanishing into thin air. Finally, all that was left was a husk of the old place, empty lockers decorated with the "BE HERE FOR THE CURE" stickers that Hayes - and Steve - had put up years earlier. This happens to be the spot in the narrative where Hayes introduces Paul Ehrlich, and the timing is everything: Coming as a distraction from the ringing sense of loss summed up by the abandoned lockers at the once-hot gym, the longish section on Ehrlich comes as a relief. So do sections on Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, an inveterate tinkerer, born in the Netherlands in 1632, who designed his own small microscopes and glimpsed what he dubbed "little animals," bacteria and protozoans; Bram Stoker and the authors of other books exploring vampiric themes; and hemophilia and the royal families of Europe.

Hayes' ultimate theme can be boiled down to a simple, reassuring thought: We are not alone. That is, mysterious new ailments have always cropped up throughout human history, and a few creative scientists have always been there to fill in the gaps in human knowledge necessary to win the fight against the disease. The only open question is how epic will be the human cost before the medical establishment can truly do that with HIV. •

Steve Kettmann is the author of "One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America."

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part memoir, part science of blood. Some interesting facts and stories about blood.

[Al · Rating 1 out of 5]

not what I expected.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of science and history. It is very interesting but slow reading as there is so much to absorb. If you are interested in anatomy, it's a great education about blood.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good and interesting. Just one place I disliked. I thought this was better than "Sleep Demons."

[Steph R · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Dia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who would think that a contemplation of blood would result in such a feel-good book? I think, though, that any topic that Hayes were to contemplate is likely to turn into a feel-good book, as Hayes himself is so clearly (and unpretentiously) a loving, feel-good person. His compassion for his partner, his family, his larger community, and even for historical victims of disease and crime, are what make this book a sweet treat. On the other hand (a smaller hand, to be sure), while reading this book I sometimes recalled the declaration made by a college writing professor I once had, that "writers write to get revenge." Hayes avenges a strangely (criminally) careless phlebotomist, a new age doctor, and his parents: when he came out to his dad, his dad said, "You might as well commit suicide" -- and that's the last we hear of Dad.

It seems that Hayes really wanted to write about these people whom he loves -- and blood itself was just an excuse to do so. The historical and scientific forays didn't have as much heart, oftentimes repeating common knowledge or what could as well be found on Wikipedia. When Hayes attempts to do original research in the form of touring labs and such, he quickly gives up on trying to understand what he sees and is told. In short, one who wants to actually learn about blood needs to read elsewhere -- and Hayes is kind enough to provide a bibliography to support the interested reader in doing so.

In short, I would've liked more John McPhee here -- but if Hayes wants to go Bill Bryson on his readers, he should just go all the way.

[Ana Monteiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-researched book about the history, sociological relevance, medical approaches and symbolism of blood.
It maintains a light writing style, yet it’s visible how deeply the author studied the subject to produce this volume.

[Tom Darrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the book "Stiffs" a while ago an it was so well written that it turned me on to the slightly gory, off beat, human body stories. This book does excel when he makes a solid connection between a personal or newsworthy event and history... but he does has his soap box. He spends a little too much time, in my opinion, focused on a small number of issues relating to blood. In particular, he focuses a lot on how blood and blood tests impact the gay community. I am a supporter of gay rights and issues, and a lot of what he talked about was good, but he seemed to dwell on it a little too long to make this a main stream book.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this man speak at UCSF following the release of his most recent book, "The Anatomist", and immediately went in search of his books. This enthralling account of what we used to think blood was, how we discovered what it really does, and how we have come to fear it in the modern age really captured me. Also, the author writes about his personal history with such affect, I would be happy to just be reading his auto-biography. He is a touching writer and I cant wait to read more of his books.

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved some bits of it, but much of it didn't interest me. The personal memoir wasn't compelling enough to involve me and Hayes' "I'm too dumb to understand this sciencey talk, so it's okay if you don't either, reader" act was a little annoying. I did love everything vampire-related, though. And a lot of the historical anecdotes were fun, if rehash of common knowledge. I would definitely recommend this as a motivational and educational read for anyone whose life is touched by HIV. A lot of bonding going on.

[David Meyer]

This was a fascinating book. I knew when I started it that it would be a detailed history of blood. It ended up talking about how different cultures have embraced, studied, and thought about blood throughout history. More interesting though, and what I didn't realize was that the author is a homosexual man whose partner is HIV positive. With this, he skillfully switched between discussing the past and discussing his personal experiences with blood and all that it means to him and his partner (as well as the author's 5 sisters).

[Leli · Rating 3 out of 5]

a memoir, with historical research. interesting, kind of.

-------------------
panacea.

This is also a personal voyage, in which Hayes recounts the impact of the vital fluid in his daily life, from growing up in a household of five sisters and their monthly cycles, to coming out as a gay man during the explosive early days of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, to his enduring partnership with an HIV-positive man.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, a fascinating dovetailing of science, history, and Bill Hayes' own life. This book was written before "The Anatomist," but I read this second which made parts of the story more poignant because I knew what would happen later- in effect, I knew the author's future before he did, which was a peculiar situation. Anyhow, this book is scientifically and historically interesting, and Hayes' writing is fast-paced, honest and clean.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was different than what I was expecting, but a fairly quick read. I got some of the social history stuff like origins of dracula, ancient Greek doctors, that type of thing. However, there was also a lot of memoir mixed in. Everything from the author's sister's dealings with her first period, to his partner's battles with AIDS. Overall it was an interesting read.