George Johnson is a science writer (Fire in the Mind) "comfortable with the sharp edges of cosmology and physics" who chose to tackle the "wet, amorphous, and ever-changing terrain" of cancer after his wife's uterine cancer diagnosis. While The Cancer Chronicles may not provide inspiration or even hope, his survey of this ubiquitous scourge is richly informative, unerringly balanced and undeniably compelling.
"One of the most elusive questions about cancer is how much is timeless and inevitable--arising spontaneously inside the body," Johnson writes, "and how much has been brought on by pollution, industrial chemicals, and other devices of man." So he begins in Dinosaur, Colo., where the earliest known case of bone cancer was found in a mid-Mesozoic fossil. He then explores man-made and environmental factors--including cell phones, microwaves, food and radon---but is left with only smoking, the sun, obesity and old age as "unambiguous instigators."
A man of science, Johnson understands "the natural tendency of the world toward disorder," but recognizes "the curse of being human: this idea that you get cancer because you did something wrong or someone--something--did it to you." This drives Johnson to measure the radon levels in his home and wonder if his desire to forgo children contributed to his wife's cancer. "Understanding cancer," he ultimately realizes, "will require no less than understanding the deepest workings of the human cell."
While Johnson does not arrive at any easy answers or "quick fix" solutions, his findings are surprising and thought-provoking. --Kristen Galles, blogger at Book Club Classics