The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Welcome to the paperback trails, in today's journey we shall be traversing through a substantially thick tome. Written by the former Pulitzer price winner Dr Siddharth Mukherjee. This book takes a look at the "Gene" and traces its journey from obscurity to the being one of the most important and revolutionary concepts of science. But before we begin tearing into the book, let's have a brief look at the author and his previous works

For those accustomed to Dr Mukherjee's works, this book would not be a surprise, but for those reading him for the first time, it would be beneficial to know that Dr Mukherjee is a doctor, geneticist and writer, his seminal work The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, won him the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Much like his previous works, Dr. Mukherjee's astute research and grasp on the concepts of biology is evident in "The Gene" too. Couple this with a lucid writing style and you get a book which in its content and theme is unequivocally scientific but will appeal to any general reader, so don't let the heft of the book worry you, there aren't any prerequisites as such which you need to know so as to enjoy the book

With that out of the way let's begin with the 3 basic questions of Why, What and How

Why did I pick this book up? 
Apart from the general reputation of this book, I picked it up simply because it ignited my imagination and I thought it would be an interesting prospect to learn about the intricate concepts and the larger bearing of a seemingly easy high-school biology topic (remember those allele charts that you used to draw after studying about Mendel's peas). I must say that though a lengthy read (yes it is thick and has fine print but hey, there are photos too ;) ) it was extremely rewarding

What was the book all about? 
So let's get to the chase, perhaps this is what you're here for. Well, the book does pretty much what the rubric says. It tells you an intimate history of the gene. But this is not all that it does. The book links the past and the present to open a vista for the future. The book tells you about the huge history the Gene has had - the sapiens' fascination with questions of heredity, racial superiority, biological tweaking and the role Genetics played in all this. At some points the development in Genetic studies led to massive scientific breakthroughs, at others, it inspired a nefarious regime of eugenics and ethnic cleansing like the Holocaust. All in the all, it's been a passionate affair. While a part of the book deals with what's been done, another major chunk deals with what the future holds. Dr Mukherjee, building upon the developments in the realm of Genetic Engineering, Bio-engineering, cloning, Gene-editing etc, tries to draw a picture of what the future might hold. Are answers to questions like " Will we ever cure cancer ? ", "Will we have genetically engineered cyborgs in the future ? ", " How feasible are designer babies ? " hidden in the 4 letters of our DNA (ACTG), and if yes when will humanity finally decipher the mystery that is the "Self". The book maintains a cautious line and does not tread into fantasy. Rest assured the things in this book have a scientific basis and are not yarns spun out of fiction.

How was this book to read ? 
L.O.N.G. This book was a lenghty read but it was extremely gratifying. What this book does so well is take a quintessentially technical(or scientific) topic and makes it legible for the normal reader with such sheer simplicity that you can only hope if your high school teachers had adopted a similar pedagogy, biology would have been much more fun. The book does this without dumbing the Gene down or making it trite. The best part about this book, is that this book forces you to think and ask questions. I feel any book which can make your curiosity (which sometimes you didn't even know existed) rise, is worth a read and always delivers a very profound experience. Despite being a rather interesting read, the book does tend to belabour the technical details of discoveries sometimes a little too much, which might bore the reader a little bit, but my advise; don't worry and hang in there, because most certainly, there's a twist right aroud the corner waiting to shock you out of the boredom and getting you glued to the book again.

So do I recommend this book - YES I do, read this book when you get the time and can commit some sizeable time to it because it'll require that.

Can this be your first book? - Well, sure it can but should it? I would prefer that the first-time readers (young or old) should try something else, get your reading groove on and then tackle this one. I feel thick tomes (like this one) tend to throw off new readers, ticking them off from that book, or in some extreme cases the entire genre or the very habit of reading. So don't let mistiming spoil a potentially great book for you. Start with something simple and not as niche as  "The Gene", and build your pace and attention span slowly for books like these

You won't like this book if - Niche nonfiction is not your thing. If for indulging in a book, a fictional setting, a fantasy land, a debonair detective, or things like that, are your prerequisites, then this book might really bore you. The only fantasy land here is that of your DNA and mitochondria and the only debonair detectives here are the geeky scientists back at the Harvard or Cambridge lab.

With this, we come to end our first trail stop. Hope you will read the book and have as much fun travelling through the myriad lanes of the Gene as I did. Until next time, keep reading, keep recommending and keep sharing the love, for more the fellow passengers in the paperback trail, more the fun.