Sarcophagus

Jean-Pierre Chevalier
iUniverse (2006)
ISBN 0595392288
Reviewed by Regan Windsor for Reader Views (4/07)

The medical research community is clouded in conspiracy over the latest gene targeting developments.  Doctor Grey and Doctor Philippe are at the center of it with their successful developments in the field.  Unfortunately, however, they are not left to merely advance science, they must instead deal with the politics and scandals going on around them, impacting their research and slowing developments.

“Sarcophagus,” written by Jean-Pierre Chevalier, a leading authority on genetic medicine, takes the form of a novel, written as a drama, with the reader front and center.  While the format is an innovative and interesting way of presenting the “drama” of the medical research world, with Hollywood as its setting, the depth of detail is way beyond the average reader and most of the irony is therefore lost.  For a book of less than 200 pages, it is a very long read.   

Not being an expert on gene therapy or its main proponents I was lost in not only much of the irony, but also how closely this novel follows reality, which I get the sense in the way of a satire, it does.  Therefore, while “Sarcophagus” may be a brilliant novel I could not appreciate it as someone in the medical research field might.   

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