More Tangled Than a Chromosome

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: the Powers. Perversions and Potential of Heredity  by Carl Zimmer

[New York, N.Y.] : Dutton, [2019]

xiv, 656 p. ; 24 cm. 

This was a long read and - to be honest - a bit above my pay-grade so to speak.  I love science and this is written for lay readers, but the subject matter is pretty darn complicated.  However, it is readable, super interesting and worth the effort.

Though I was pretty good in math and science as a student, the intricacies of probability and statistics always gave me headaches. So, it's no wonder that some of the complexities of inheritance are a bit foggy to me.  That being said, there is a lot that anyone can get from this fine science book.

I think the most interesting take-away from this book is its deep dive into what "heredity" actually means and how the concept is far more messy than many of us think of it.  Zimmer wants us to see that inheritance (even genetic inheritance) is far more complicated than the sum of what we each get from our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. He notes that there is in essence a "heredity" that occurs within each of us as our cells divide and divide and divide - both in their determined specifications and also with accumulated mutations of those cells. He also points out how unusual occurrences such as an individual who is the combination of two fused zygotes can really challenge our ideas of genetic certainty (e.g. a mother whose children do not test as being her children!) He also explores how environment can affect heredity. 

The book also takes a good long look at what we inherit culturally and what an impact it has.  Finally the book really goes into the cutting edge (literally) technologies that genetic engineers are using/developing.  The hardest for me to get are CRISPR (gene cutting DNA code discovered in bacteria and other archea) and gene drives (which spread traits through a species far more than natural reproduction/inheritance).

I read this book because it is one a student requested for the library when they were one of our yearly scholars.  It is a good read, but one that would likely challenge all but the most scientific minded readers.

      

Hallucinating Iowa & Genetically Modified Obessions

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
New York, N.Y. : Dutton Books, 2014.
388 p. ; 22 cm.  

Grasshopper Jungle is a wild ride.  It has been critically acclaimed - from the New York Times to making the 2015 Printz honor list.  I found it a compelling read - exciting, clever, funny, sometimes gruesome, and sometimes brilliant.  However, I ultimately found myself disappointed with the near-manic, writerly wittiness of the main character combined with his obsessive fixation on his (and others' testicles).

Before going further, I should just recap that the novel centers around Austin, a young man in a dinky Iowa town who accidentally unleashes a genetically manipulated plague that turns people into grizzly bear-sized, unstoppable, deadly, exponentially-reproductive mantids.  Caught at the center of this apocalyptic nightmare are Austin, his beloved girl friend, Shann, and his best friend Robby - a smart and striking gay young man for whom Austin has more than just feelings of friendship.  Austin is in a constant state of being turned on and attracted to practically all females - and confused about his love and attraction to Robby.

There is a great deal of wit, humor, history, politics and pop culture to round out this novel.  But I couldn't help getting weary of Austin's fixation on his testicles and the testicles of practically every male that's mentioned in the novel.  The novel has a middle school fixation on things bodily and sexual and I found it tiresome.

I would have loved the novel more if the locker room humor had been cut by about half.  It still would be a funny, and bawdy story, but it just wouldn't seem like it was trying SO hard to be edgy.  I also just find humor about testicles to be kind of boring - something I have felt watching the Daily Show and The Colbert Report.  As I read it, I kept trying to imagine a woman writing anything remotely similar...maybe.

Would I recommend the book?  Yes, to a mature student looking for a rollicking send-up of the end-of-the-world genre.  It is a fun read.  Also the ending was really great...no compromise there and pleasantly surprising.

Feeling Down About Being Wound Up

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
San Francisco : Night Shade Books, c2010.
361 p. ; 23 cm.

"Feeling down" in the title of this post is not meant to be a negative critique of this book, just a description of how its grim view of the future had me feeling (and thinking) about the grim present we are living in.  

Bacigalupi sets his novel in a future Thai kingdom that has survived the collapse of the global carbon economy, survived the ravages of plant and human epidemics sparked by genetically modified organisms, survived catastrophic climate change, and survived the predatory depredations of global corporate raiders.  Quite a future, isn't it?  But will it survive the infighting of factions within its ruling parties, and the attempts of global genetic corporation raiders from the outside?  You'll have to read it to find out!

Notice that I haven't even mentioned the novel's eponymous windup girl, Emiko.  She is probably the saddest and most troubling character in the novel.  A creation of Japanese geneticists, she is one of the "new people" who is meant to be an obedient servant, secretary, assistant and sexual plaything of the male Japanese elite.  Her genetic makeup (along with strict training) compels her to be obedient, and makes her physically stunning.  Unfortunately her "owner" has abandoned her in Thailand where "new people" are hated, in constant danger, and not accepted as having any of the rights of other human beings.  She survives as the grotesquely exploited show-piece of a tawdry strip-club/brothel, but eventually finds herself at the center of explosive events in the kingdom when a foreign corporate agent takes a liking to her.

Bacigalupi has a wild imagination and has done copious research for this novel.  Unlike Ship Breaker, which was clearly a young adult novel, The Windup Girl is an adult novel, but will appeal to sophisticated readers who want to move past The Hunger Games or Divergent for something more complex and weighty.