Scan barcode
rodzalendo's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
tablereader234's review against another edition
5.0
Mukherjee is the best medical history writer there is, for my money. I have no reason to care about the history of the gene but he makes me care and think deeply about the questions posed by the history he lays out. Like Emperor of All Maladies, he weaves in a personal narrative, this time focusing on his family instead of his patients. This narrative is deeply affecting and he uses it tastefully, never feeling exploitative or without its place in the larger project of the book. It's a fantastic book without question.
dillonbrantley's review against another edition
5.0
Mukherjee's extensive history of the gene, its discovery, its applications, and its implications is an engaging and joyful read for someone interested in scientific history. However, if you are lacking much biological knowledge, you may struggle with some of the more esoteric parts of the book. Mukherjee makes a valiant effort (certainly better than most), but surely he was limited in how many diagrams he could use. As someone with a degree in biology, I was able to follow along with no issue, but I imagine someone with less of a background might struggle in the latter half of the book.
angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
5.0
In a flip flop of how stuff I’ve been reading has lately been panning out. Started really slow. Was only marginally interesting for the first 80 pages or so. Then later on the modern advances, consequences, and ethical implications of the book were extremely engaging. Great read. Highly recommended. Thus far both of his books have been great.
rijanhastwoears7's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Informative but slow.
honnari_hannya's review against another edition
4.0
A cogent, comprehensive review of our understanding of genetics through the course of human civilization. This was written very accessibly so that even those with a minimal background in the sciences could digest and enjoy. I really enjoyed the way Mukherjee interspersed the history of genetics with the histories of the people who were consequential to discovering more about it, whether they be patients or scientists, as well as his own family history that definitely added a layer of depth to the book and gave it very human stakes.
greatlibraryofalexandra's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Wow, obsessed. I loved this book. It took us on a fascinating but layperson accessible journey through the history of this important building block of life, drawing personal, sociable, and scientific lines throughout. I appreciated how Mukherjee did not shy away from relating the ugliest side of this kind of science, but did take time to discuss the faults with it even as he examined the results of bad experience. He showed us a good mix of scientific enthusiasm and humane, ethical restrain, and I think he poses a really good question when he asks us to explore the question of what we would lose if we started eliminating 'bad' genes - we'd eliminate people, right? That is such a good thing to remember, in a world where we are so conditioned to believe Disabled folks would be "better off" if we could fix them - Mukherjee does an excellent job of refusing to sacrifice the human, and the soul, while discussing the benefits and the dark sides of where the future of the gene may take us.
For a companion piece, read Michael Crichton's "Next"!
For a companion piece, read Michael Crichton's "Next"!
jhrcook's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
To start, my credentials: I’m a geneticist with a PhD in computational genetics, specifically cancer genetics, and I now work in gene therapy research for a pharmaceutical company. Also I have read and enjoyed The Emperor of All Maladies.
A priori I really wanted to enjoy this book. The first 300 pages or so were exactly as expected: detailing the story of the advancements in genetics, weaving a narrative between the key insights and revolutions. It had the same feel as in Emperor of All Maladies.
This was followed by about 100 or so pages on social issues with weak, cherry-picked, evidence to support vague claims. This included a lot of opinion and personal stories. There was this feel of half-baked philosophical musings – there were silly analogies and pseudo-sophisticated sentences (i.e. they sounded nice and with a semi-poetic structure), but they didn’t hold up to simple scrutiny. I read through a chapter of this and then began skimming and skipping where I could see the content was of limited value or interest.
Finally, the last 50 or so pages touched on gene editing, though the rich history of basic research and technology development was skipped with a limited discussion of the discovery and development of CRISPR. In general, this section felt lazily written, as if either the author was hitting the editor's page limit or he didn't want to have to wade through several decades of dense research (genetics and biological research in general moves much faster and with greater volume than it did in Darwin's time).
In summary, the first 2/3 of the book are solid, the remainder is shaky and can be skipped. Throughout, there is a lot of fluff, a distracting number of poor analogies and quips, and odd repetitions of information and ideas (as if sections were moved around after all the editing and proofreading was complete). (Comparatively, Emperor of All Maladies was more thorough and better written and maintained its intensity throughout the entire book.)