Allyson M W Dyar reviewed His Brother's Keeper by Jonathan Weiner
Review of "His Brother's Keeper" on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I ordered this hardback around 2005 from the Scientific American Book
Club because I needed another book to fulfill my commitment. Nothing
really hit my fancy and since I desperately needed to select something,
"My Brother's Keeper" by Jonathan Weiner was reluctantly selected.
For five years, the book sat upon my shelf. I'd picked up the book
several times and each time, opted not to read it. Finally, I took the
plunge because my newly ordered books hadn't arrived yet and I needed
another book to read. My gut reaction was that I wasn't going to enjoy
this read all that much and, much to my dismay, I wasn't disappointed.
As I read the first few chapters of this book while traveling home from
work, my initial impression was "pretentious twaddle." My subsequent
view of the book mellowed as I realized that the author was telling his
mother's neurological story …
I ordered this hardback around 2005 from the Scientific American Book
Club because I needed another book to fulfill my commitment. Nothing
really hit my fancy and since I desperately needed to select something,
"My Brother's Keeper" by Jonathan Weiner was reluctantly selected.
For five years, the book sat upon my shelf. I'd picked up the book
several times and each time, opted not to read it. Finally, I took the
plunge because my newly ordered books hadn't arrived yet and I needed
another book to read. My gut reaction was that I wasn't going to enjoy
this read all that much and, much to my dismay, I wasn't disappointed.
As I read the first few chapters of this book while traveling home from
work, my initial impression was "pretentious twaddle." My subsequent
view of the book mellowed as I realized that the author was telling his
mother's neurological story scattered amongst his relating the tale of
Jamie Heywood's valiant effort to save his brother Stephen from ALS also known
as Lou Gehrig's Disease (side note: this disease is most notable for
being named after a famous patient rather than the researcher who
created the definition documentation of the affliction).
"My Brother's Keeper" takes the reader from pre-diagnosis to diagnosis
and the new frontier of gene therapy leaving the reader to conclude the
inevitable at book's end.
I am an avid reader of medical history books and unfortunately, I can't
recommend this book. In fact, I'm giving serious consideration to
ditching the book, a decision I don't take likely (I have over 50 books
dedicated solely to anatomy and physiology; I view the removal of a book
from my library very seriously).
I'm really not sure what audience this book is aimed at. At times, this
book waxes poetically about the subject at hand, other times, in delves
into the complex world of cloning, recombinant DNA and stem cell therapy
-- heady subjects for a book written in a way that would be better
suited to the modern fiction section of a book store than a 'true-life'
adventure The story itself was compelling without surrounding the reader
with such florid prose.
I will give props to the author for taking these fairly complex subjects
and expertly distilling them to a primarily lay audience.
All in all, I found the book to ultimately be an unsatisfactory
experience but I'm sure there are others who will enjoy it more than I
did.