Saving St. Germ: A Novel

by Carol Muske-Dukes

Consumed by her pursuit of a Theory of Everything, a brilliant California scientist struggles to deal with life in and outside the lab

Doctor Esme Charbonneau Tallich’s passion is cosmology, the science of the origin of the universe; specifically, she is searching for a TOE, or a Theory of Everything. Esme is a feminist maverick, a rogue thinker. Hired as a professor of molecular biology at the University of Greater California, she prefers the “bench science” of organic chemistry at one extreme and “walking out into space” at the other. Her marriage to a TV director and aspiring stand-up comedian is rocky. Esme’s five-year-old daughter, Ollie, the sun in her galaxy, seems an enigma. Too readily diagnosed by professionals as “challenged,” even possibly autistic, she is, like Esme, a renegade thinker and creative mind. Her use of language is poetic, not deficit driven or conventional.

As her marriage dissolves, Esme’s struggle to maintain custody of Ollie and autonomy for herself and her work is set against the backdrop of the beckoning cosmos. Her tantalizing closeness to discovery of a grand unified theory—as psychiatric professionals, lawyers, and Esme’s estranged husband also close in on Ollie, seeking to medicate and restructure her—heightens tension while also offering hope. The discovery that Esme seeks is enlightenment and equilibrium in the troubled universes of her personal and professional lives.  Saving St. Germ  is a provocative, dramatic look at a single mother’s life at the edge of the universe—and the center of the human heart.

Genres: Fiction

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 9, 1993

About the author

Carol Muske-Dukes (born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1945) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, critic, and professor, and the former poet laureate of California (2008–2011). Her most recent book of poetry, Sparrow (Random House, 2003), chronicling the love and loss of Muske-Dukes’ late husband, actor David Dukes, was a National Book Award finalist.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m interested to look into the chemistry theory that this book contains. What I remember suggests that everything was relatively accurate, scientifically, but I’m curious how someone with a deep knowledge of the subject would find it. Or maybe I’m selling the author short, and she herself has a strong chemistry background.

For some reason Ollie’s mannerisms seemed to match Edward from the original Cowboy Bebop. Not sure if that’s because they are similar characters, or have similar patterns of speaking, or I just thought of Edward early and couldn’t get her out of my head. A child referring to themselves mainly in the third person is something the two characters share, not sure if the rest of the connection is imagined though.

I liked Esme, but of course found some of her actions frustrating. Her storming onto the stage at the stand-up show was impossibly dumb. Navigating the school system of Los Angeles would be immeasurably frustrating for someone trying to raise a child like Ollie.

The ending was too abrupt, in my opinion, though lord knows there are enough stories about custody battles out there, so idk if continuing forward really makes sense either.

Still feel like divorce and infidelity are wildly over represented in popular fiction.

[Orchid · Rating 5 out of 5]

so beautiful
this made reading hamlet worthwhile

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author has quite a grasp on physics! There are many very detailed and technical passages about quarks and string theory and heterocity (sp?) and the protagonist's main interest, asymetric chiral molecules (she's a chemist). The story involves an odd girl who speaks in word salad but whose mom "gets" her and was like this as a child; a marriage between people who really *don't* get each other; reflections on the mentor relationship in grad school; and a portrait of the main character's emotional dissolution as she grapples with her big idea (Theory of Everything). Things do come right in the end, it seems. A good story, well told.

[Notcathy J · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Horrible acting. Impossible dialogue. Overabundance of italics--why didn't some editor tell her this?"

[wenjo · Rating 3 out of 5]

mysterious, sexy, surprising internal-y kind of novel with science and physics entangled with her personal anxieties

[Seana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seem to be attracted to novels about parental pedagogy, if my high marks for this and The Last Samurai are any indication...

[Mills College Library]

Fiction M9878s 1993