Ghosh, Amitav - The Calcutta Chromosome
Thu, Apr. 15th, 2010 09:28 pmIn a near-future—or past near-future, since the book was published in 1995—New York City, Antar discovers the ID card of one L. Murugan, self-proclaimed expert on Ronald Ross, the man who discovered that malaria was transmitted by mosquito. Murugan disappeared on August 21, 1995, and as Antar tries to find out what happened to him, he begins to suspect that Murugan's disappearance has something to do with his conspiracy theory that Ronald Ross was lead to his malaria discovery.
I picked this up instead of Sea of Poppies largely because I don't think my brain can handle a large cast of characters right now. Plus, malaria! Secret histories! Medical thrillers! It appeals to the part of me that read every single Michael Crichton book in middle school, devoured the Time-Life Dictionary of Medicine, and read several Scholastic books with titles like Six Medical Mysteries. Only this is even better because it touches on knowledge and scientific discovery and the politics thereof, which I have been thinking about for a while now.
The book begins rather slowly; none of the characters came alive for me until they started talking to each other, and then, I mostly found the stories they told more interesting then their own stories. But then things begin to come together and stories begin to overlap and we rush toward the conclusion.
( Spoilers )
I hate saying that things "transcend genre," because this book is SF and a thriller and it never stops being in those genres. But what is extraordinary is how Ghosh uses the rush-to-the-end that I associate with thrillers not only as a narrative device, but also as a commentary on the nature of knowledge and discovery and as a means to make the reader a tool in the journey of discovery. I also love how he overturns the narrative of scientific discovery and shows it for the construct that it is. And he does this all not by transcending genre, but by staying firmly within the genre of a page-turning thriller.
Recommended both for sheer readability and for the cool ideas.
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coffeeandink's review
I picked this up instead of Sea of Poppies largely because I don't think my brain can handle a large cast of characters right now. Plus, malaria! Secret histories! Medical thrillers! It appeals to the part of me that read every single Michael Crichton book in middle school, devoured the Time-Life Dictionary of Medicine, and read several Scholastic books with titles like Six Medical Mysteries. Only this is even better because it touches on knowledge and scientific discovery and the politics thereof, which I have been thinking about for a while now.
The book begins rather slowly; none of the characters came alive for me until they started talking to each other, and then, I mostly found the stories they told more interesting then their own stories. But then things begin to come together and stories begin to overlap and we rush toward the conclusion.
( Spoilers )
I hate saying that things "transcend genre," because this book is SF and a thriller and it never stops being in those genres. But what is extraordinary is how Ghosh uses the rush-to-the-end that I associate with thrillers not only as a narrative device, but also as a commentary on the nature of knowledge and discovery and as a means to make the reader a tool in the journey of discovery. I also love how he overturns the narrative of scientific discovery and shows it for the construct that it is. And he does this all not by transcending genre, but by staying firmly within the genre of a page-turning thriller.
Recommended both for sheer readability and for the cool ideas.
Links:
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coffeeandink's reviewTags: