Siddhartha Mukherjee has the coolest name of any writer I've read in a long time and his book has received near universal praise, it got starred reviews in the trades, it was a New York Times book of the year, an Amazon book of the year, a nominee for many of the major non fiction literary prizes...You can see where this is going can't you? ... Yeah, I didn't like it....
Physician and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee calls his work a "biography" of cancer rather than a history of its discovery and treatment and for me this is the problem. He mixes memoir with science and history and anecdote. The "biography" description is the giveaway that this book is pretty disjointed and a bit of a mess. Mukherjee makes you jump back and forth between pages to understand the chronology of the narrative and its so stuffed with info that you quickly get lost. I think the book is supposed to be organised thematically by type of cancer (although I'm not sure) so there is a lot of repetition of information and you're never clear where you are in the story. (It's also not only a very American account of the history of cancer treatment but a strangely Boston-centric one with what seems like more pages devoted to the history of the Jimmy Fund than to the entire pre twentieth century history of cancer. Boston featured so heavily in the history sections it made me wonder if Mukherjee hasn't been a bit brainwashed by his tenure at Mass General.)
Mukherjee is clearly a great oncologist and a wonderful physician but at the end of The Emperor Of All Maladies, I hadn't got much of anything out of his book. Beginning every chapter with a quotation is always a bad sign I think and maybe I'm a bit thick but Mukherjee's chronological time jumping and his blizzard of information left me thoroughly baffled. Mukherjee references Susan Sontag on several occasions and it's unfortunate, Susan Sontag's Illness As Metaphor is a genuine classic and a book I can return to again and again, but this...
...
Still, maybe I'm being too critical, the dude's heart is in the right place and lots of people smarter than me loved Emperor and anyway these are the times we are living in: The Huffington Post has become a paper of record, Malcolm Gladwell is hailed as some kind of genius and Roger Ebert gives Avatar a four star review. In 2011 no doubt Jonathan Franzen's overpraised novel Freedom and Mukherjee's overpraised Emperor of All Maladies will win many of the literary prizes and if that makes people happy then that's fine with me; there's no point complaining that Mukherjee is no Susan Sontag - her like we will not see again.
59 comments:
When did "biography" start serving as a catch-all category? One sees "biographies" of cities these days, and now the "biography" of a disease. I can't decide if "biography" applied to anything other than a person bothers me because it's cutesy or because it's pretentious. I think "history" ought to sue "biography" for punitive and compensatory damages.
What exactly is an author or a publisher saying by calling such a book a "biography"? In what way is such a book not a "history" or a "story"?
***
a) I once had a teacher named Roman Mukerjee.
b) I read "Illness as Metaphor"and thought: My god, that's right. How come everyone doesn't think like that?
c) I once met Susan Sontag and made her laugh.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Hi, talking about something else again. I'm having serious trouble with The Bloomsday Dead. My head is going frying, I have to take a break and read something silly. And in italian. So sorry Adrian, but I'm understanding that my english is too limited for this book. My bad. I'll come back here when I'll be able to finish this chapter of my beloved Michael's life. Love, Rory
I have this in galley form, but haven't read it yet. It's a catchy title, whatever the biography aspect. And I'm sure I will learn a lot from it if I ever get around to reading it, because I don't know that much about cancer even after having lost a few good friends to it.
"... her like we will not see again."
Well, we might, but we won't be tipped to her by The Huffington Post or Malcolm Gladwell. Or by the NYT or literary prizes, it seems.
We may just have to accept that what was once mainstream is being pushed further and further to the fringes and that's where we live.
Working in a bookstore which by necessity seems to have less and less time for the fringes, I find myself increasingly drawn to them and happy that they are there.
"Working in a bookstore which by necessity seems to have less and less time for the fringes,"
Now, now. That is nicht optimistik. Such unoptimism is positively unamerican in this time of opportunity.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Booksellers tend to be a bit on the pessimistic side, I fear. Or it's true of all the ones I've known, anyway. "No one ever goes into the book biz to get rich" is kind of an old saw among them. Us.
Peter
Maybe its stupid of me to long for the days when books were more focused and the editing tighter. People seem to like cross over stuff like Gladwell's and Mukherjee's. Its a shame though because I think its lazy and kind of a cheat.
Peter
Remind me of that Sontag story..
Rory
Could be that the 3rd book is very very slangy, I dont really remember. You could try Falling Glass which is told in third person which by its very nature is a little easier to get.
Seana
Well its not a terrible place to start. Susan Sontag's son wrote a book about her search for a cure that might be the next cancer book I read if I do read another one.
John
If the writer comes up with a piece showing that quantum theory proves that there is an afterlife then he WILL be in The Huffington Post. Huffington's bizarre fixation on alternative medicine and her disdain for science is what will always make that place a bit of a comic.
Seana, Peter,
Australia has just seen its two major book shop chains declare bankruptcy. Book buying and reading more than ever has become a minority taste - especially for men. Especially for young men.
I guess the whole "Harry Potter will produce a new generation of readers" concept hasnt worked out that well.
I listened to "The Emperor of All Maladies" while on vacation this January. True, it is actually a history of modern medicine, cancer specific, rather than a biography of these diseases. As such, it is a very, very interesting book.
If you want a biography of cancer, George Johnson is writing such a book. It starts with evidence for cancer in prehistory and works it way forward. Johnson read a couple of chapters to us recently and it, too, sounds intriguing. The book should be out later this year.
Michelle
Yes I might have liked it better as an audiobook, you can sort of dip and out of it when you're driving the car etc. and not get so caught up on the structure.
Although we used to think the departure of Borders would be such a great thing, there has been very little euphoria in the actual event. Doom and gloom really hasn't lifted much at all.
It's interesting that young men don't read--I happen to know a lot of them who do, luckily enough for me. As I've said before, Michael Forsythe is a force for good in this regard.
I'm reading Declan's Eightball Boogie at the moment, and though it's perfectly coherent and good, there is a lot of slang I don't know, which surprises me at this point in my Irish reading. So, Rory, you have my sympathies.
I'm hoping that Hitch is going to write a book about his cancer and that he is cured and still alive to promote it.
Interesting point, Peter, about the use of 'biography'. Peter Ackroyd's London is subtitled 'A Biography' but in that case I think its right as it was less about the history and more about the character which is where I think the distinction lies
Seana
Well you're on the front lines. Whats the ratio of men to women in the bookshop? Is it about 50.50? I imagine the Santa Cruz Man has got to be one of the most book friendly of demos in the nation.
Rob
That would be good. I still mean to write Hitch a letter. He says he likes getting letters from people.
However it doesnt look good. I read this a couple of days ago on a Hitch Fan Blog:
"Anyway, I explained to the oncologist that Hitchens remained relatively active during his chemotherapy. Now that the journalist has embarked on a course of radiation treatment, he has withdrawn from public life. “It is not a good sign,” the oncologist said.
When Hitchens received his diagnosis, he was already at Stage 4. As he pointed out in his famously blunt manner on C-Span: “There is no Stage 5.” In January of 2011, FGFM posted this latest C-Span appearance on Hitchens Watch. Hitchens’s discussion with Brian Lamb covered his health extensively.
Let us turn back to my own brief interview with the oncologist. He explained that when a patient receives a diagnosis of Stage 4 esophageal cancer, chemotherapy is administered for palliative rather than curative purposes. In fact, there is no cure at this stage. The median survival rate is less than a year. By shrinking the tumor, chemotherapy can control pain and relieve difficulty in swallowing. Thirty percent of patients, or slightly more, respond well to chemotherapy. In rare cases, patients can even live as long as two years, but even they cannot be cured. “The tumor starts growing again several months after chemotherapy is completed,” the oncologist said.
Since Hitchens has now resorted to radiation therapy, I asked the doctor if the journalist’s condition has worsened. “That is a likely scenario,” he said. Like chemotherapy, radiation therapy is a palliative procedure. Chemotherapy has likely proven ineffective for Hitchens, so his physicians have turned to radiation therapy for the same reasons: to control pain and ease swallowing. “There is also a possibility that the disease has spread,” he said, adding that in some cases, the cancer spreads to the bone. Of course, Hitchens acknowledged to Lamb that the cancer has already metastasized to his lymph nodes, and perhaps even to one lung.
I asked the physician to estimate how long Hitchens has to live: “Less than six months.” "
Getting young men to read - it's tough. Recently a program started in Canada (based on one in the UK) to publish books for "reluctsnt readers," - young men. I called right away and volunteered to write one and they said they'd get back to me but never did. Louise Penny got the gig.
And I second Falling Glass for Rory, a terrific book - I bet even young men would like it.
Maybe its stupid of me to long for the days when books were more focused and the editing tighter. People seem to like cross over stuff like Gladwell's and Mukherjee's.
Fernand Braudel had the right idea in The Identity of France. The introduction proclaimed his love for his country, a love he said was no less passionate than Jules Michelet's, and he could write beautifully about this. But he dropped all that when he got to the main body of the book, which is wonderful in its own way.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Remind me of that Sontag story..
It was a humid, 90-degree day in Harvard Square, and I had taken the extraordinary step of attending the theater (Robert Wilson's Alcestis at the ART) in just shoes, socks, a T-shirt and shiny red running shorts. I see a woman sitting alone at a table in the lobby, and I identify her instantly by her shock of white hair.
"Excuse me," I say, "but if you're who I think you are, would you sign a book for me?"
The book was Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, which I was carrying at the time.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I can't sign that book. It's not one of mine. It's a very good book though."
"Well," I said, drawing myself up in mock high dudgeon and raising my voice in mock anger, "I've read two of your books. If I'd known you were going to be here, I'd have brought them."
She started laughing, which was worth more to me than an autograph, so I figure I came out ahead.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Australia has just seen its two major book shop chains declare bankruptcy. Book buying and reading more than ever has become a minority taste - especially for men. ...
I guess the whole "Harry Potter will produce a new generation of readers" concept hasnt worked out that well.
The Borders in Center City Philadelphia is shutting its doors in May. But hey, I'm down with the cheerleaders who welcome the opportunity for expression, who say they're tired of someone else determining what we can read.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
If you want a biography of cancer, George Johnson is writing such a book. It starts with evidence for cancer in prehistory and works it way forward.
I don't suppose this matters much to readers who will like Johnson's book, but that sounds like a history of cancer. My quarrel is with the use of biography for anything other than a living thing -- anything other than a human, really.
A book like Johnson's may expand traditional boundaries of history -- as did those of many other historians before him. But it's sitll history, based on your brief description.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
As with the two friends and one cousin who have died of cancer in the last few years, Hitchens situation doesn't sound good. Although I notice that he is well enough to defend Bush's decision on invading Iraq. Healthwise, it's probably a good sign for his health that he still cares.
And Peter, I'm sorry to tell you that there are no signs that the individualistic reading impulse is going to be supported let alone rewarded any time soon.
On the male reading demographic in Santa Cruz, well, I know that when they took a survey a few years ago, it was women, and let's just say, women of a certain age who took the time to fill those surveys out. But there are a lot of men who come in and buy all kinds of things, and even if its surf magazines and tattoo books and pot growing books, that's not so bad. Also, the university guarantees that there are tons of literary types of both genders, and as far as I can tell, both crime writing and science fiction have camps in both sexes.
John McFetridge ..":
Getting young men to read - it's tough. Recently a program started in Canada (based on one in the UK) to publish books for "reluctant readers," - young men. I called right away and volunteered to write one and they said they'd get back to me but never did. Louise Penny got the gig.
John, is that UK program the one Alan Guthrie wrote Kill Clock for? If the goal is to get young men reading, why wouldn't you want books that might appeal to young men, like Guthrie's or maybe like yours?
That's no knock on Louise Penny, by the way. I was rummaging by damn house for my copy of her latest book, which at the top of my reading list.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
John
What would you know about young men's tastes, just because your male, you've written crime novels with male leads, movie scripts with male leads, cop shows with male leads, and you have sons...
Peter
Thats a great story about Sontag. You should have chanced your arm and asked her for her phone number in French...big Francophile was she. Of course she was probably in a committed relationship with whatshername then.
Seana
It may seem that the college campus skews the demo but actually there must be a 1000 small college towns in America with exactly that demo.
I read somewhere that the entire existence of the Metropolitan Opera is dependant upon a core of 1000 NYC opera goers. Maybe we should be focusing on a core of 100,000 readers and just give up on the rest of the population.
Adrian, I was hot, sweaty, and wearing running shorts with no underwear. I don't think anyone has ever gone out in public dressed worse than I did that day, so a pick-up was not in the cards.
As for who she was in a relationship with, for a long time I thought Fran Lebowitz, but someone told me relatively recently it was Annie Lebowitz. What the hell do I know -- except that I once made Fran Lebowitz laugh, too.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Yes but Opera is elitist. I would love to see a ballet at Convent Garden but 300quid for a decent ticket isnt an option.
One of the reasons young men dont read is because males are repressed. I see it everyday with the way boys are brought up by dumb ass parents.I saw a man shout at his 2yr old son because he wanted a pink lolly. The dad told him fiercly that pink is for girls. The boy had a shaven head because of course boys arent allowed hair. All these things tell boys that girls and nerds are the ones that read.
I also think the publishing world is made up of women and that has an effect on what authors they decide to market and so on.
I went to a Lynda Barry book signing event thing in Montreal. She's a multi-disciplinary loaf of Wonderbread. She wrote a heartbreaking and hilarious novel called Cruddy. She's a cartoonist who was syndicated all over independent newspapers were. She wrote a play. She's got a fantastic cd, no longer 'in print' of stories that she wrote and reads herself...and intersperses answering machine messages in between the stories.
Anyway, a seemingly small publisher in Montreal, Drawn and Quarterly, picked her up. I'm a huge fan and happened to be in Canada at the time, so I drove three hours (there was a blizzard and I'm up in the mountains) to go to this Ukrainian theatre in the Mile End area to see her. Nearly 500 people showed up.
The bookstore itself is tiny but perfect.
That evening heartened me since I've been so worried about the state of books and bookstores. Is it a Canada thing? A Lynda Barry thing?
Yes, Peter, same kind of program as the one Al wrote Kill Clock for.
And I think my experience ties into what Seana said; "But there are a lot of men who come in and buy all kinds of things, and even if its surf magazines and tattoo books and pot growing books, that's not so bad."
I really felt with the Canadian 'reluctant reader' program the people behind it were more concerned with what young men were reading more than that they were reading, so books about pot growers and surfers wouldn't have worked.
Which I think ties into Adrian's idea of the 100,000 readers. Books like, "The Emperor of All Maladies" targets the right 100,000 people.
I think reading works best when it's a misunderstood and slightly subversive activity. That's why the very idea of a book group has a note of earnestness that always threatens to kill the spirit of reading. It's a problem in school, too. Only the very best teachers can overcome it.
One thing I liked about Killian in Falling Glass was that he didn't get around to reading until he was twenty. Of course, most people wouldn't get around to it at all at that point, but less literally, people can get the reading bug at any age, and I don't think that kind of love of reading ever really dies.
Maybe Radiohead will get young men reading.
Did you see this? An authors response to criticism. Fair play to her I say.
http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html
Frankie, I want to believe that the comments on that thread purporting to be from the author are really malicious pranks against her. There is no way anyone could be that much of a jerk.
Formatting issues aside, the sentences that the reviewer quotes were, ineed, godawful.
It could be someone pretending to be her couldnt it? I sort of want to read that book now to see how bad it is...ooooh it might just be a very wiley publicity stunt.
The "fuck offs" are very well-timed.
John, I got the flavor of the discussion before I got as far the fuck-offs.
Frankie, it crossed my mind briefly that the exchange might be a publicity stunt. If so, it backfired, unless its purpose was to eliminate any chance that I might ever look at the book. ======================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Peter, I doubt very much that you were the demographic she was aiming for either before or after.
John, yeah, Radiohead might get them reading--for a day. I have to say the guys in the middle of the picture with the plaid over plaid shirts and jackets definitely could sneak into Santa Cruz and no one the wiser.
Maybe not, but still: How could someone conduct herself in public like that? (And no, I am not proof that her strategy worked. I did not read the entire string. I gave up in disgust after the first ten or so posts.)
My sympathy for the reviewer is all the stronger because, I, too, will point out an awfully written sentence from time to time. I've never been attacked for it the way this thug of an author attacked the reviewer. Is this author the new Alice Hoffman?
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Sheiler
It'll be a local phenom. I've never had more than 12 people show up for one of my readings. Ever.
Frankie
As I said to Rob on the other post where he also linked, I dont blame her for the copyediting, bad copyediting embarrasses us all but it does happen and she should suck it up and live with it if someone complains or explain it as a copyediting problem if someone complains. But I do blame her for the horrible prose which she is apparently proud of. To me it sounds like broken English.
John
Thats interesting. But Radiohead themselves are getting on a bit arent they? And of course they're all nice upper middle class private school boys.
Peter
I dont know. If a reviewer unfairly goes after a novelist because of a copy mistake I dont think thats entirely fair. I remember once I had a review that went after me for mistakes in the galley which didnt even appear in the print edition. When I pointed this out in a letter to the editor he didnt have the balls to print it.
Her main problem seems to be that she can't actually write a coherent sentence in the English language. In fact I'm not convinced her first language is actually English.
Seana
Thats the problem with everything. Its the whole Mark Twain fence whitewashing thing isnt it? As soon as you are forced to do it, it becomes a job and ceases to become enjoyable.
Adrian, of course it's not fair to blame an author for sloppy editing. And of course it's not kosher for a reviewer to quote from a galley. (I've checked with authors before quoting from galleys if I didn't have a copy of the finished book at hand.)
But it sure as hell is fair for a reviewer to point out sloppy editing in a finished copy as long as blame is not improperly placed. In fact, I wish more reviewers would do so and by so doing embarrass publishers into paying for better proofreading. (I offer my services, references available.)
You do seem to have noticed that, while merely mentioning editing errors, the reviewer quoted examples that read as if they were spoken by someone with a neurological disorder that affects the ability to form sentences.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
No, Linda Barry has cult status. She'd play big in Santa Cruz too. She's a friend of one of my friends. I believe it is a dog lover connection, but also an artistic one.
I think that a lot of people who like to read think that getting together to discuss books with other people is a good idea. What they fail to factor in is that other people are, well, other people.
I caught up with the Jaqueline Howett story through the Guardian editorial. I thought the best line in it came from good old Iris Murdoch:
"A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia."
I also have often found that self-published authors are often singularly unprepared to encounter 'the world as it is'.
Peter
She can't have read those sentences out loud to herself. Either that or she's a) a foreigner or b) crazy.
Seana
But the worst thing of all is getting no reviews. Thats when you're really up shit creek.
True. She will definitely get sales out of this, and perhaps her career is launched, despite her lack of shall we say tact.
"That's why the very idea of a book group has a note of earnestness that always threatens to kill the spirit of reading. It's a problem in school, too."
It's also a problem with those Ein-- I mean, those "One Book, One City" programs, at least Philadelphia's version of them. New York will throw in a Maltese Falcon now and then and Chicago a Chandler novel. But in Philadelphia the books are always relentlessly high-minded, even if they are good.
Well, OK, one year the book was The Complete Persepolis, and getting a comic in there was pretty cool.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Adrian
Ok thank you, Falling Glass, I'll order it.
Now I'm cleaning my mind with Billy Corgan's poetries in italian, then I will ready. I hope.
Uh, I see that my name is for both women and men, well, I'm a (not-so-young -38-) woman.
Thank you and see you soon, Rory
Just to be completely self-contradicting, I am in a book group of long standing, and it's been a nice part of my life, but as with most such groups I'd guess, it's now more about the sociability than the reading material, and it can be irksome to allot the time for a book you don't really care about. True, there have been some surprises.
As for community book reads, we did one at the store last year for To Kill a Mockingbird, which turned out to be pretty great. But I think this was because it was more an exercise in nostalgia for past reading of the book. Fun and even moving at times.
Must be an enjoyable read The Emperor of All Maladies, A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. loved the way you wrote it. I find your review very genuine and orignal, this book is going in by "to read" list.
This book is precisely what it states, it lugs you through an epic journey towards the discovery of cancer,it's varieties and its cure. It traces through the cancer landscape,its highs and lows,the battle,the petitions and the litigations in the era of War on Cancer in the nineteenth century. A parallel plot trudges the authors emotions and affiliation with some of his patients and his morbid experience as a medical intern at Massachusetts General.
Riveting read with handpicked and polished language,captivating and at the same time thought provoking, it's been my afternoon ritual with coffee lately.
Post a Comment