TLDR: You need some background in life sciences. If you put the time it needs you will learn a lot.
Context: I read The Emperor of All Maladies a while ago and was left unsatisfied. After reading this book I believe that I did not spend the time or brain power that book needed for me to understand it. I may also have been hindered by false expectations that the book would tell me that cancer is cured. Cancer sucks.
I really regret my poor education in life sciences right now. Fortunately I was reading this as a Libby library book on the Kindle app which made looking up definitions so much easier. Even though I was way above my education level with this book I do feel I have a better understanding of how the cells of my body work. A post-secondary class in a non Evangelical environment would have helped.
I am blinded with science. So much complexity. So much has to work exactly right every time. All those cells singing all those metaphorical songs so my brain can fire and I can attempt to understand the digital print in front of me.
Professor Mukherjee breaks up the medical content with stories of patients and scientists and starts chapters with a verse of poetry or a quote (hIs poetry selections are worth looking up to read the entire poem). This helped break up a very dense book. I had trouble with concentration, sometimes needing to reread a paragraph as my mind would wander. The patient stories also helped me understand real life consequences .
Professor Mukherhjee names the female scientists and scientists from continents other than Europe and North America who often don’t get named in US nonfiction science books. He also takes the time to acknowledge that women did not get named as authors in scientific papers until the last few decades even though they may have done much of the lab work. He also used she/her when speaking about scientists in general. I appreciated this as all too often it seems that no one like me is mentioned in this type of book except as breast and cervical cancer patients..
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Infertility, Blood, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
Covid 19, medial experiments on animals, Nazi human experiments, depression.