A review by edelstein
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James D. Watson

informative slow-paced

2.0

It is almost impressive that in an autobiography, a format biased towards whoever is writing it, the person we follow throughout the book is still so unlikable. The book follows Watson's journey through the field of science as an undergraduate up to his discovery of the double helix structure in DNA, and the race between him and other biologists in the field to find the truth. Yet, the path is often muddied by the constant sexism, droning on about irrelevant parts of daily life, and an expectation of the reader to have intimate knowledge of biology coming in. Throughout the book, a fellow biologist named Rosy is constantly portrayed as an emotional antagonist to the boy's research despite seeming like she just wanted to do work without being bothered by the protagonist. Nonetheless, she is framed as actively working against them, and in reference to her, he states that "the only place for a feminist like her is outside of the lab,". Only in the epilogue does he concede the slightest bit of gratitude to her after she passed away early, even though the backbone of his scientific ideas seemed to be inspired by her work. All in all, if you want the story of a glorified frat boy who is hopelessly a product of his time finding out an incredible aspect of biology, this it the book for it.