Intuition

by Allegra Goodman

Book Overview

Hailed as "a writer of uncommon clarity" by the New Yorker, National Book Award finalist Allegra Goodman has dazzled readers with her acclaimed works of fiction, including such beloved bestsellers as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385336128
• ISBN13: 9780385336123
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Dial Press
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

I can't praise this novel enough.

It captures the atmosphere of bleak desperation I experienced when I did a postdoc in physics. Also, none of the characters are villains. The author makes their motivations real and shows that by acting with the best of intentions they turn the situation into a train wreck.

"I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease." - John Donne

Even in an age of public mistrust of scientists, there is still a tacit assumption that, biased or misguided as they might be, scientists are not deliberately misleading. The cardinal rule of research is such a significant part of the foundation of the scientific method that its violation is unthinkable: data can be inaccurate, or poorly interpreted, or incomplete, but it is never, ever faked. At least, that is what we'd like to believe, especially in the realm of those research fields that are even now struggling for the next breakthough in life-saving treatments like the often-cited "cure for cancer." In Allegra Goodman's Intuition, a young and ambitious post-doc, Cliff, seems to have found just that; the altered virus R-7 has caused tumor remissions in over half of his experimental group of mice. Not only is this virus successful, it's suddenly and dramatically so; days before the breakthrough, Cliff is strongly chastised for continuing an experiment that has been consistently failing in every other instance. The lab is part of an independent research facility in Cambridge, jointly operated by the charismatic Sandy Glass and the dedicated Marion Mendelssohn. Sandy is the face of the operation, the well-known oncologist in a private cancer treatment center with a talent for coaxing funding out of federal and private sources. Marion is the more level-headed researcher, and her meticulous practices set a precedence in the lab. The two are close friends, but conflict arises when Sandy, anxious to stake the first claim on R-7's miraculous performance, is eager to announce the findings to the press and publish the results before Marion feels the findings have been sufficiently replicated. Such is the reality of federally-funded research in an era where such monies are scarce; this publish-or-perish world of is realistically displayed in Goodman's compelling novel. She deftly portrays the tedium, stresses, and anxiety of lab research; as a graduate student in the biological sciences, I found her representation to be spot on. Still, this book is less about the science and more about the characters; Goodman has chosen the perfect scenario in which to observe the interactions and reactions of human beings under incredible pressure. Lab life is much like its own little bubble, and Goodman's researchers are like little guinea pigs, comfortable with the familiar confines of the lab but suddenly vulnerable and uncertain when the bubble shatters. For shatter it does; shortly after R-7's publication, Cliff's ex-girlfriend, Robin, makes a shocking allegation: she believes Cliff's results have been faked, and files an accusation with the ethics board of the National Institute of Health, a panel reviled by the greater scientific community for its notorious witch-hunt-like prosecutions. The repercussions of this accusation reverberate throughout the lab, the scientific community, and the federal government, as Robin finds her announcement has unforeseen conse

A rare perspective on scientific research

Allegra Goodman grabs the reader with her thorough understanding of the variables in a research lab. I respected her immediately for painting a solid, realistic description of a postdoc lab rife with troubled scientists, funding problems and intimacy among some of the characters. These characters were carefully crafted for the reader allowing us to discover a reason for their existence in Goodman's plausible plot. Scientific politics carry the plot from the initial discovery for a cancer cure from a bereft scientist, Cliff, to a minor character, Jacob, who we believe is altruistic, igniting problems for the staff and directors and then to a denouement which affects the entire cast of characters. From the beginning, Ms. Goodman is full of surprises, as we envision the Sandy, one the of main male characters as an egotitistical physician. However,the reversal of motives and actions among main characters result in a solid piece of writing about science, team effort, and the realization that the discovery to cure cancer is lost amongst the collision of blurred motives of the scientists and the agencies who oversee their research. Ms. Goodman never "talks down" to the reader whether she has a character allude to Donne or brings an immigration issue to light. A treasure of a book.

The Heart of Science

"Intuition" is science as observed by Jane Austen rather than Michael Crichton. I was mesmerized from page one and cried when I reached the gentle revelation of the last scene. Science has long deserved a literary treatment by a great novelist and Allegra Goodman delivers with her carefully-examined microcosm. The novel is a character study rather than a whodunit, or more precisely, whodonewhat. The central plot of alleged fraud in the lab provides the dissecting knife to tease apart the complicated relationships among the lab mentors and serfs--postdoctoral researchers and technicians. Goodman absolutely nails the depiction of the claustrophobic, almost cloistered ambience and power structures of a high-powered research institute. She treats all of her characters with fairness and honesty, which is the key to the novel's success. I myself was a neuroscience graduate student at Stanford. Reading "Inutition" brought back those days, adding the gifts of compassion and universal perspective to my hindsight view of many challenging years of study. "Intuition" is an old-fashioned novel, and I am interested to know if that is why Allegra Goodman chose to set the story in the late 1980's (1987 is my best guess). This was a technologically simpler era of cell biology, the moment just before molecular biology and gene cloning took off. The particular science performed in "Intuition" is secondary. There are no whiz-bang scenes of technological madness. That's the brilliance of the novel: distilling scientific ambition, reward, disappointment and betrayal down to its human essence. "Intuition" is the rare book that will be enjoyed by lab geeks and English lit majors alike.

An insightful and thought-provoking novel about science, faith, and truth

In a world of few certainties, should we let intuition be our guide? Equally, how much faith should we place in the hands of others, even those we think we know the best? These are the intriguing questions driving Allegra Goodman's thought-provoking new novel exploring the human side of the high-stakes world of experimental research. Exchanging the close-knit Jewish community of her National Book Award-nominated KAATERSKILL FALLS for the collegially cutthroat scientific community, Goodman shifts her focus from religious and spiritual issues to exploring faith of a different kind --- faith in others, faith in ourselves, and most of all, faith in moral certitude. Just as the protagonist in Goodman's previous novel PARADISE PARK was obsessed by a quest for spiritual truth, INTUITION's single-minded cancer researcher Robin Drecker becomes obsessed with seeking truth of the scientific and moral kind at the prestigious Philpott Institute where she works alongside her self-assured boyfriend Cliff. Hungry for grant money --- and therefore in desperate need of results --- their small Cambridge research lab is quick to jump on the groundbreaking new findings demonstrated by Cliff's experiments with a promising viral strain that seems to bring about remission in cancerous tumors. Lab co-director Sandy Glass, a brash oncologist and "evangelist of the most remarkable sort," insists on plunging ahead to herald the discovery with great public fanfare while his more circumspect partner, the rigorous and no-nonsense scientist Marion Mendelssohn, advocates a more cautious approach pending further experimentation. But Glass's contagious enthusiasm and relentless persistence eventually wins out, and the scientific world is set ablaze with news of the stunning breakthrough. Meanwhile, Robin's instincts lead her to question Cliff's sensational results and make a disquieting discovery, but her concerns are summarily dismissed by Mendelssohn as little more than professional jealousy. With no outlet for her increasing uneasiness as she becomes ostracized from a scientific community that sticks together at all costs, her initial whispers of doubt blow into a force so destructive that it threatens to flatten everyone in its path --- including Robin herself. As the story unfolds from four contrasting yet equally sympathetic points of view, the shifting narration continually casts doubt on what the "truth" really is, building up to an agonizing crescendo of suspense. The cut-and-dried world of science was never so ambiguously enthralling, a feat Goodman manages to accomplish by breaking down the field's impersonal facade to reveal the human side lurking underneath. With remarkable acuity, she illuminates the intricate, behind-the-scenes pressures and protocols involved in the high-stakes world of scientific research, portraying to powerful effect the often insidious --- and unavoidable --- influences of money, politics and power. Against this weighty backdrop, Goodman b