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Life Sciences
Ninon Moise is cursed. So is her mother Esther, as was every eldest female member of her family going back to the Middle Ages. Each generation is marked by a uniquely obscure disease, illness, or ailment—one of her ancestors was patient zero in the sixteenth-century dancing plague of Strasbourg, while Esther has a degenerative eye disease. Ninon grows up comforted and fascinated by the recitation of these bizarre, inexplicable medical mysteries, forewarned that something will happen to her, yet entirely unprepared for how it will alter her life. Her own entry into this litany of maladies appears one morning in the form of an excruciating burning sensation on her skin, from her wrists to her shoulders.
Embarking on a dizzying and frustrating cycle of doctors, specialists, procedures, needles, scans, and therapists, seventeen-year-old Ninon becomes consumed by her need to receive a diagnosis and find a cure for her ailment. She seeks to break the curse and reclaim her body by any means necessary, through increasing isolation and failed treatment after failed treatment, even as her life falls apart. A provocative and empathic questioning of illness, remedy, transmission, and health, Life Sciences poignantly questions our reliance upon science, despite its limitations, to provide all the answers.
Embarking on a dizzying and frustrating cycle of doctors, specialists, procedures, needles, scans, and therapists, seventeen-year-old Ninon becomes consumed by her need to receive a diagnosis and find a cure for her ailment. She seeks to break the curse and reclaim her body by any means necessary, through increasing isolation and failed treatment after failed treatment, even as her life falls apart. A provocative and empathic questioning of illness, remedy, transmission, and health, Life Sciences poignantly questions our reliance upon science, despite its limitations, to provide all the answers.
272 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2017
24 people are currently reading
650 people want to read
About the author
Joy Sorman
30 books20 followersJoy Sorman, l'auteur du texte, a publié aux éditions Gallimard, Boys, boys, boys (Prix de Flore 2005), Du bruit (2007)... Elle est aussi l auteur d un essai (en collaboration), 14 femmes, pour un féminisme pragmatique (Gallimard, 2007) et chroniqueuse pour la télévision et la radio (Paris Première, France Inter). Son recueil de nouvelles Gros OEuvre, paru chez Gallimard en mars 2009, porte sur la maison et l habitation. Elle vit à Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
February 4, 2022
The concept of the book was excellent and the writing was good. The story’s main protagonist is Ninon Moise. Major part of the book involves her from when she is in her late teens to when she is 20. Since the 1500s her female descendants have suffered from undiagnosable and oftentimes strange and fantastical illnesses, some short-lived and others of a more chronic nature. And she at age 17 encounters the same thing.
Here’s the synopsis from the back of the book:
• For centuries, the women in Ninon Moise’s family have been afflicted by obscure, inexplicable medical phenomena. Seventeen-year-old Ninon is no exception to this bizarre family inheritance, and she wakes one morning with a debilitating and excruciatingly painful response to touch on her arms. Unlike her forebears, Ninon refuses to passively accept her cursed fate and rebels against the indifferent medical professionals who dismiss her condition as uninteresting, feminine, obscure, niche, or incurable. A taut, daring parable of womanhood, ‘Life Sciences’ is a bold reclamation of self and bodily autonomy as Ninon struggles to define her own destiny.
It is somewhat of a fictional memoir of a female with a chronic pain syndrome such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, or some autoimmune disorders. These are disorders/diseases/syndromes that are hard to diagnose and hard to treat, and some people would say too little attention is paid to them because they occur predominantly in females (see: https://www.today.com/health/gender-b...).
My only quibble is that the book, for the subject matter covered, is a tad on the lengthy/redundant side. 3.5 stars for me.
Reviews:
• Wow, very moving and personal review by Lena Dunham, the creator of the HBO series “Girls,” and the author of “Not That Kind of Girl”: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/14/bo...
• Catherine Lacey, author of ‘Pew’ wrote the Introduction, and here it is courtesy of Literary Hub: https://lithub.com/fiction-as-resista...
• https://avalinahsbooks.space/life-sci...
Here’s the synopsis from the back of the book:
• For centuries, the women in Ninon Moise’s family have been afflicted by obscure, inexplicable medical phenomena. Seventeen-year-old Ninon is no exception to this bizarre family inheritance, and she wakes one morning with a debilitating and excruciatingly painful response to touch on her arms. Unlike her forebears, Ninon refuses to passively accept her cursed fate and rebels against the indifferent medical professionals who dismiss her condition as uninteresting, feminine, obscure, niche, or incurable. A taut, daring parable of womanhood, ‘Life Sciences’ is a bold reclamation of self and bodily autonomy as Ninon struggles to define her own destiny.
It is somewhat of a fictional memoir of a female with a chronic pain syndrome such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, or some autoimmune disorders. These are disorders/diseases/syndromes that are hard to diagnose and hard to treat, and some people would say too little attention is paid to them because they occur predominantly in females (see: https://www.today.com/health/gender-b...).
My only quibble is that the book, for the subject matter covered, is a tad on the lengthy/redundant side. 3.5 stars for me.
Reviews:
• Wow, very moving and personal review by Lena Dunham, the creator of the HBO series “Girls,” and the author of “Not That Kind of Girl”: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/14/bo...
• Catherine Lacey, author of ‘Pew’ wrote the Introduction, and here it is courtesy of Literary Hub: https://lithub.com/fiction-as-resista...
• https://avalinahsbooks.space/life-sci...
February 22, 2022
1 / 5 stars
To preface, I will state my qualifications in having these opinions and giving this advice. I am a disabled woman. More specifically, I am chronically ill which, for me, involves severe and incurable joint pain. I am proud of my identities, and they both contribute to my personhood and personality.
With this in mind, I was, rightfully, nervous about the premise being written by a nondisabled author. Feminism often forgets those that have multiple marginalized identities - from women of color, disabled women, lower class women, queer women, etc. - which leads to nonintersectional feminists miscontruing or further oppressing the more marginalized women.
Her nonintersectional feminism created an obviously ableist interpretation of an idea that she lacked the nuance to convey. She lost her feminist theories in her ignorance. Her purpose in creating this was drowned out by her lack of intersectionality. There are no draws to this, other than her writing style and my hopes that she seeks the education from the community that she so blatantly misrepresented. Worst of all, people are more likely to read this than disabled feminists due to its palatability and fame, further perpetuating the public ignorance surrounding the disabled community.
Her most minor offenses were within scenes or off hand lines of dialogue - the detachment and dehumanizing of the main character when she becomes disabled and the lack of nuance in the medical gaslighting, - but those which struck me most were the themes and plot devices, i.e. using disabilities as a plot device - and a curse.
Disabilities aren’t curses - or any form of magic for that matter - they are simply disabilities. They are neutral aspects of disabled life that will be perceived however the disabled person chooses. Chronic illnesses and chronic pain do not stop people from leading happy lives or having family and friends. We live full lives as disabled people. We are not suffering from our disabilities, we simply are.
This was not an idea that can be found anywhere in this, so much so that I have many personal highlights to share. To preface, the main character’s name, the one who develops pain on her arms at contact, is named Ninon.
People are really out here saying that they would commit suicide if they were Disabled. That’s disgusting. We live happy lives. We have our ups and downs, we’re people, no different from our nondisabled peers.
Or it can be considered pain. A new addition to her life. Not a tragedy.
Disabilities aren’t tragic, and Disabled lives aren’t either.
Her pain can be considered many things. Never justifiably tragic.
While I will admit that Disabled people are more in tune with their bodies than nondisabled people are, we do not gain super powers or strengthened abilities. This is a sad excuse at empowerment of a Disabled person, and I wish it had instead discussed the empowerment found within the Disabled community rather than falling into the “special ability” category of disability representation in the media.
As I said, Disabled people, even those with chronic pain, live happy lives and maintain meaningful relationships. We are not selfish isolationists that do not care about others. And yes, this was a very important idea throughout the book - that being Ninon’s disability stopping her from having any external relationships.
Unlike the Hunchback of Notre Dame portrays, disabilities are not disgusting, they are not scary, and Disabled people are not incapable of being loved or loving others. This is the harmful representation that further damages already marginalized communities.
Disabled people aren’t emotionless monsters. We are people. Even if some of us struggle with emotions, we are nonetheless all human beings.
Do I even need to explain how disgusting this is to see? Clearly.
The use of ableist language to describe a Disabled person is disgusting. It’s not surprising to find it in this considering how ableist every line and plot device was, but it is disgusting.
Some words have been reclaimed by specific communities within the Disabled community, but they are not words for nondisabled people - or even Disabled people who do not have the disability - to reclaim or use. No matter the situation.
And the infantilization of the quote is also horrific. Disabled people are often infantilized, but seeing it in a so-called feminist novel is terrifying considering many feminist’s fight against infantilization, especially in media.
If you’re really looking for good feminist novels or disability rep, I have a few recommendations.
For actual feminism :
White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer
For good disability representation:
Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz
Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig
Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled by Nancy Mairs
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau
Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century edited by Alice Wong
So the tl;dr?
This is an ableist novel that façades as feminism. Read feminist and/or Disabled books instead.
To preface, I will state my qualifications in having these opinions and giving this advice. I am a disabled woman. More specifically, I am chronically ill which, for me, involves severe and incurable joint pain. I am proud of my identities, and they both contribute to my personhood and personality.
With this in mind, I was, rightfully, nervous about the premise being written by a nondisabled author. Feminism often forgets those that have multiple marginalized identities - from women of color, disabled women, lower class women, queer women, etc. - which leads to nonintersectional feminists miscontruing or further oppressing the more marginalized women.
Her nonintersectional feminism created an obviously ableist interpretation of an idea that she lacked the nuance to convey. She lost her feminist theories in her ignorance. Her purpose in creating this was drowned out by her lack of intersectionality. There are no draws to this, other than her writing style and my hopes that she seeks the education from the community that she so blatantly misrepresented. Worst of all, people are more likely to read this than disabled feminists due to its palatability and fame, further perpetuating the public ignorance surrounding the disabled community.
Her most minor offenses were within scenes or off hand lines of dialogue - the detachment and dehumanizing of the main character when she becomes disabled and the lack of nuance in the medical gaslighting, - but those which struck me most were the themes and plot devices, i.e. using disabilities as a plot device - and a curse.
Disabilities aren’t curses - or any form of magic for that matter - they are simply disabilities. They are neutral aspects of disabled life that will be perceived however the disabled person chooses. Chronic illnesses and chronic pain do not stop people from leading happy lives or having family and friends. We live full lives as disabled people. We are not suffering from our disabilities, we simply are.
This was not an idea that can be found anywhere in this, so much so that I have many personal highlights to share. To preface, the main character’s name, the one who develops pain on her arms at contact, is named Ninon.
“can you live your whole life like this without throwing yourself out the window?”
People are really out here saying that they would commit suicide if they were Disabled. That’s disgusting. We live happy lives. We have our ups and downs, we’re people, no different from our nondisabled peers.
“[the pain] can only be considered serious, tragic”
Or it can be considered pain. A new addition to her life. Not a tragedy.
Disabilities aren’t tragic, and Disabled lives aren’t either.
Her pain can be considered many things. Never justifiably tragic.
“Yet Ninon also has the strange impression that she’s been more alive, sharpened, for a few days now, since her skin began to torment her without cease, as though the physical pain was invigorating her mind, as if this new bodily configuration had induced a new mental configuration, an acceleration of her intellectual faculties, quite simply she feels she’s become more intelligent”
While I will admit that Disabled people are more in tune with their bodies than nondisabled people are, we do not gain super powers or strengthened abilities. This is a sad excuse at empowerment of a Disabled person, and I wish it had instead discussed the empowerment found within the Disabled community rather than falling into the “special ability” category of disability representation in the media.
“Ninon can’t imagine maintaining a relationship with her friends”
As I said, Disabled people, even those with chronic pain, live happy lives and maintain meaningful relationships. We are not selfish isolationists that do not care about others. And yes, this was a very important idea throughout the book - that being Ninon’s disability stopping her from having any external relationships.
“[Ninon inspires] fear, and disgust no doubt, love is henceforth impossible”
Unlike the Hunchback of Notre Dame portrays, disabilities are not disgusting, they are not scary, and Disabled people are not incapable of being loved or loving others. This is the harmful representation that further damages already marginalized communities.
“An emotional desensitivity growing as her dermatological sensitivity rages, feels gripped by cold reason as her body goes mad”
Disabled people aren’t emotionless monsters. We are people. Even if some of us struggle with emotions, we are nonetheless all human beings.
“Coddled the invalids”
Do I even need to explain how disgusting this is to see? Clearly.
The use of ableist language to describe a Disabled person is disgusting. It’s not surprising to find it in this considering how ableist every line and plot device was, but it is disgusting.
Some words have been reclaimed by specific communities within the Disabled community, but they are not words for nondisabled people - or even Disabled people who do not have the disability - to reclaim or use. No matter the situation.
And the infantilization of the quote is also horrific. Disabled people are often infantilized, but seeing it in a so-called feminist novel is terrifying considering many feminist’s fight against infantilization, especially in media.
If you’re really looking for good feminist novels or disability rep, I have a few recommendations.
For actual feminism :
White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer
For good disability representation:
Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz
Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig
Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled by Nancy Mairs
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau
Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century edited by Alice Wong
So the tl;dr?
This is an ableist novel that façades as feminism. Read feminist and/or Disabled books instead.
July 13, 2024
Me ha gustado especialmente las diferentes formas de expresar y no poder expresar el dolor, sus límites y contradicciones. La focalización en la piel, las descripciones sobre la misma.
No me ha gustado ni he entendido el porqué crea a una protagonista que reniega de la historia en lugar de revelarse. Se queda justa y superficial ante el potencial de la crítica a la medicina.
Corre muy rápido en el final, aunque como alguien que sufre dolor crónico y tiene más de 100 tatuajes, me ha ganado fácilmente.
(he de reconocer que esperaba más)
No me ha gustado ni he entendido el porqué crea a una protagonista que reniega de la historia en lugar de revelarse. Se queda justa y superficial ante el potencial de la crítica a la medicina.
Corre muy rápido en el final, aunque como alguien que sufre dolor crónico y tiene más de 100 tatuajes, me ha ganado fácilmente.
(he de reconocer que esperaba más)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2021
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
"𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐚, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐜���𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤, 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫."
Ninon Moise, last born in a family ‘cursed’ with mysterious, rare illnesses as far back as 1518 with patient zero (Marie) of ‘the dancing plague of Strasbourg’, grew up hungry for tales of her family’s infamy. Esther has has provided her daughter fables that fell from their family tree of spells, diseases, madness that the eldest daughter’s have been plagued by for centuries, and Ninon is not inoculated. What will her malady be in this long list of hereditary disaster? The ticking time bomb goes off at the age of seventeen, her body has opened its every cell to her family affliction with cruel accuracy. The pain arrives on her body’s largest organ, her skin. So begins her journey, but feels more like a descent, into medical treatment. But how do doctors treat symptoms of a condition, illness, disease they cannot name?
Hysteria, that damning word a catch-all her own female ancestors were branded with, is tossed around. When medicine fails, surely the mind is accused and if that fails then the patient is to blame. Ninon doubts her doctors, but her pain and suffering is irrefutable. The body will not be silent, screaming nerves won’t allow her to ignore what has arrived. Only the young who have lived through the body’s turning on itself really understand how pain, illness ages you before time has a chance. No amount of bravery, sucking it up, grinning and bearing it, mind over matter will chase away this demon. Pills, painkillers, natural remedies, therapy, shamans- it’s an exhaustive existence.
The writing is clever, the experience is a horror show, because not knowing how to treat your suffering, or comprehend its form steals life from you. The futility in explaining your experience to others, the resentment that the healthy world goes on with you, the elusive search for a cure, the helplessness your loved ones can’t keep off their face, out of their gestures, it’s an avalanche. The search can be as nightmarish as the disease. You hope, fight, surrender, rage, try to run to the pain or from it, Ninon is disappointed again and again by the failure of science. Rare equates to ‘no special treatment’. Do you just live with it? How? As Ninon’s health is being stolen, she is losing her friends, her connection to youth and a once normal, healthy, functioning body. Her plans are dissolving, how do you build a life atop suffering, while haunted by a mysterious marauder leaving carnage within?
My favorite part of the story is the doctor who tells her about a patient of his who has suffered with debilitating pain and his creation of ‘armor’, a way to outwit or adapt- naturally its likely an attempt to soothe her, but it does the opposite. Those pillars of medical science generally mean well, but in the end, they too are human. There is plenty to ruminate over, any one of us can (and so many of us do) face serious illness. What is to be done when even the experts don’t have an answer or worse, claim it’s all in your head. You know we women are so ‘theatrical’. Note the sarcasm.
One common theme, in so many of the books and memoirs about illness, is the desperation the afflicted feel. They will try anything, what other option is there? They will be bombarded by well intentioned strangers, and friends and family too, with a bevy of remedies and suggestions from drugs, tinctures, prayers, spells, to all out anger that they can’t wave a magic wand or soothe you with magical words. Nothing causes more anger, though, then the implication that you are making it all up. At heart though, as this book speaks more for women, it is about the manner in which women’s suffering is often denied in the medical community. My daughter was lucky to have a wonderful doctor after being dismissed for years (as she’s an adult now I won’t go into details of her journey, it’s not mine to tell) and he once said ‘I bet you were told it was all in your head.’ It wasn’t, he listened and ordered the right tests, lo and behold…. a diagnosis. Not every woman is lucky, in fact, why should luck be in play? Shouldn’t it be a given that those you go to for help, that you pay exorbitant amount of money to, should listen to you, take your symptoms seriously? It’s known that women, through time, have been subjected to implications of overreacting or exaggerating their pain, at a deadly cost. Ninon’s family tree is full of implications aimed at the females in her line by doctors, healers. This is not to disparage the medical community, there are incredible doctors, but for women, it has been a hell of a fight. The constraints of our times, the age of our science can feel like a curse itself, and Ninon’s ancestor’s lives attest to this. What is the journey when science is failing you? Certainly this is an original book, I can relate to the elusiveness, the very cunning cruelty of illness. Been there, done that again and again- and have seen such genes played out in my own family tree. It often doesn’t matter to people until it is they or a loved one who has been marked by illness, but it should. Interesting story.
Publication Date: October 12, 2021
Restless Books
"𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐚, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐜���𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤, 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫."
Ninon Moise, last born in a family ‘cursed’ with mysterious, rare illnesses as far back as 1518 with patient zero (Marie) of ‘the dancing plague of Strasbourg’, grew up hungry for tales of her family’s infamy. Esther has has provided her daughter fables that fell from their family tree of spells, diseases, madness that the eldest daughter’s have been plagued by for centuries, and Ninon is not inoculated. What will her malady be in this long list of hereditary disaster? The ticking time bomb goes off at the age of seventeen, her body has opened its every cell to her family affliction with cruel accuracy. The pain arrives on her body’s largest organ, her skin. So begins her journey, but feels more like a descent, into medical treatment. But how do doctors treat symptoms of a condition, illness, disease they cannot name?
Hysteria, that damning word a catch-all her own female ancestors were branded with, is tossed around. When medicine fails, surely the mind is accused and if that fails then the patient is to blame. Ninon doubts her doctors, but her pain and suffering is irrefutable. The body will not be silent, screaming nerves won’t allow her to ignore what has arrived. Only the young who have lived through the body’s turning on itself really understand how pain, illness ages you before time has a chance. No amount of bravery, sucking it up, grinning and bearing it, mind over matter will chase away this demon. Pills, painkillers, natural remedies, therapy, shamans- it’s an exhaustive existence.
The writing is clever, the experience is a horror show, because not knowing how to treat your suffering, or comprehend its form steals life from you. The futility in explaining your experience to others, the resentment that the healthy world goes on with you, the elusive search for a cure, the helplessness your loved ones can’t keep off their face, out of their gestures, it’s an avalanche. The search can be as nightmarish as the disease. You hope, fight, surrender, rage, try to run to the pain or from it, Ninon is disappointed again and again by the failure of science. Rare equates to ‘no special treatment’. Do you just live with it? How? As Ninon’s health is being stolen, she is losing her friends, her connection to youth and a once normal, healthy, functioning body. Her plans are dissolving, how do you build a life atop suffering, while haunted by a mysterious marauder leaving carnage within?
My favorite part of the story is the doctor who tells her about a patient of his who has suffered with debilitating pain and his creation of ‘armor’, a way to outwit or adapt- naturally its likely an attempt to soothe her, but it does the opposite. Those pillars of medical science generally mean well, but in the end, they too are human. There is plenty to ruminate over, any one of us can (and so many of us do) face serious illness. What is to be done when even the experts don’t have an answer or worse, claim it’s all in your head. You know we women are so ‘theatrical’. Note the sarcasm.
One common theme, in so many of the books and memoirs about illness, is the desperation the afflicted feel. They will try anything, what other option is there? They will be bombarded by well intentioned strangers, and friends and family too, with a bevy of remedies and suggestions from drugs, tinctures, prayers, spells, to all out anger that they can’t wave a magic wand or soothe you with magical words. Nothing causes more anger, though, then the implication that you are making it all up. At heart though, as this book speaks more for women, it is about the manner in which women’s suffering is often denied in the medical community. My daughter was lucky to have a wonderful doctor after being dismissed for years (as she’s an adult now I won’t go into details of her journey, it’s not mine to tell) and he once said ‘I bet you were told it was all in your head.’ It wasn’t, he listened and ordered the right tests, lo and behold…. a diagnosis. Not every woman is lucky, in fact, why should luck be in play? Shouldn’t it be a given that those you go to for help, that you pay exorbitant amount of money to, should listen to you, take your symptoms seriously? It’s known that women, through time, have been subjected to implications of overreacting or exaggerating their pain, at a deadly cost. Ninon’s family tree is full of implications aimed at the females in her line by doctors, healers. This is not to disparage the medical community, there are incredible doctors, but for women, it has been a hell of a fight. The constraints of our times, the age of our science can feel like a curse itself, and Ninon’s ancestor’s lives attest to this. What is the journey when science is failing you? Certainly this is an original book, I can relate to the elusiveness, the very cunning cruelty of illness. Been there, done that again and again- and have seen such genes played out in my own family tree. It often doesn’t matter to people until it is they or a loved one who has been marked by illness, but it should. Interesting story.
Publication Date: October 12, 2021
Restless Books
October 3, 2021
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
4.5 stars, rounded to 5
I haven’t encountered many great books about experiencing and learning to live with chronic illness, but Life Sciences is definitely one of them. And it’s not a technical book either – I was surprised how something as unromantic and uncomfortable as being chronically ill could be expressed as poetically as it was in this book.
I’ve had my own experiences with the fatigue, alienation and inevitable dismissal by others that comes with being chronically ill or undiagnosed, and what a rocky road it is to make peace with it, to learn to live with it and maybe eventually get better.
From my experience, I can say that not only is this book incredibly on point and relatable, it’s also SO good to read, because you keep saying “yes, YES to this” as you go, and for someone who has been dismissed a lot of times when it comes to your health and how you feel, it’s a liberating experience. Life Sciences by Joy Sorman was definitely unforgettable like that, and it’s also inevitably tied to the experience of being a woman. It’s definitely a book you may want to pick up.
Read my full review here on the blog:
https://avalinahsbooks.space/life-sci...
Triggers: chronic pain and illness, experiences of dismissal within the medical system, depression, self-harm.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
4.5 stars, rounded to 5
I haven’t encountered many great books about experiencing and learning to live with chronic illness, but Life Sciences is definitely one of them. And it’s not a technical book either – I was surprised how something as unromantic and uncomfortable as being chronically ill could be expressed as poetically as it was in this book.
I’ve had my own experiences with the fatigue, alienation and inevitable dismissal by others that comes with being chronically ill or undiagnosed, and what a rocky road it is to make peace with it, to learn to live with it and maybe eventually get better.
From my experience, I can say that not only is this book incredibly on point and relatable, it’s also SO good to read, because you keep saying “yes, YES to this” as you go, and for someone who has been dismissed a lot of times when it comes to your health and how you feel, it’s a liberating experience. Life Sciences by Joy Sorman was definitely unforgettable like that, and it’s also inevitably tied to the experience of being a woman. It’s definitely a book you may want to pick up.
Read my full review here on the blog:
https://avalinahsbooks.space/life-sci...
Triggers: chronic pain and illness, experiences of dismissal within the medical system, depression, self-harm.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
November 7, 2023
Para mí, «Ciencias de la vida» es una historia sobre la reconquista del propio cuerpo. Uno cruel y despiadado, un cuerpo que muta, que crece y se vuelve un engendro extraño en esa etapa vital tan poco comprendida como es la adolescencia.
Es también una historia sobre la enfermedad. De las que se escapan de los manuales y que suelen marcar una vida llena de incertidumbre y desesperación. De la búsqueda de una respuesta. De la fe ciega de la medicina, de la obvia realidad de que su alcance es limitado, de lo abstracto y complejo del mundo de las sensaciones y el dolor.
A su vez, «Ciencias de la vida» es una novela sobre el tacto. Y ya no solo como sentido, sino como concepto. Sobre los efectos del desarraigo y el aislamiento, sobre el ansia de volver a tocar que la apatía de la depresión impide.
Por último, este es un libro sobre la herencia familiar en su faceta más íntima. En cómo lo estipulado por generaciones de existencia configura lo que somos.
Una novela que me ha calado con su pluma certera, lírica y descarnada. Una novela pausada, sin grandes sucesos, en la que pasa mucho.
Es también una historia sobre la enfermedad. De las que se escapan de los manuales y que suelen marcar una vida llena de incertidumbre y desesperación. De la búsqueda de una respuesta. De la fe ciega de la medicina, de la obvia realidad de que su alcance es limitado, de lo abstracto y complejo del mundo de las sensaciones y el dolor.
A su vez, «Ciencias de la vida» es una novela sobre el tacto. Y ya no solo como sentido, sino como concepto. Sobre los efectos del desarraigo y el aislamiento, sobre el ansia de volver a tocar que la apatía de la depresión impide.
Por último, este es un libro sobre la herencia familiar en su faceta más íntima. En cómo lo estipulado por generaciones de existencia configura lo que somos.
Una novela que me ha calado con su pluma certera, lírica y descarnada. Una novela pausada, sin grandes sucesos, en la que pasa mucho.
December 24, 2025
Me empezó encantando tanto por la trama como por el estilo en sí, pero acabó siendo el estilo precisamente lo que me cansó y me sumió en un bloqueo lector.
Sobre el dolor, sobre el desahucio que supone no encontrar explicación o solución, sobre lo incapacitante de la experiencia…
Ojalá Ninon rebelándose contra esa historia familiar, pero entiendo que no encontró otra opción.
Sobre el dolor, sobre el desahucio que supone no encontrar explicación o solución, sobre lo incapacitante de la experiencia…
Ojalá Ninon rebelándose contra esa historia familiar, pero entiendo que no encontró otra opción.
October 10, 2023
creo que fue el director de cine José Luis Garci quien dijo que lo mejor de recuperarse de una enfermedad, de un resfriado se refería, era ese momento en que comenzaba a sentirse bien. No cuando ya estabas bien sino cuanto un día, de repente, comenzabas a encontrarte mejor. Como una forma de ver la luz tras la oscuridad de la enfermedad. Ninon, la protagonista de #cienciasdelavida, parece provenir de una progenie femenina que arrastran la enfermedad en su genética. enfermedad como herencia o lotería . y en lugar de ser eso un lastre para ellas casi se podría decir que se sienten orgullosas portadoras. la infancia y parte de adolescencia de Ninon transcurre escuchando las truculentas historias de sus antepasadas que quedaron tullidas, locas, solas, impotentes por esa maldición. Y es la madre de Ninon la transmisora de estas narraciones y la que se enfrentará junto a su hija a la enfermedad en suerte que se cuela en el cuerpo de la protagonista. De la noche a la mañana Ninon sentirá que un gran dolor le atraviesa los brazos. Cualquier contacto con sus brazos le provocará tal cadena en reacción de dolor, miedo y rechazo que pasará los siguientes dos años de su vida en una peregrinación por neurólogos, osteópatas, dermatologos y hasta chamanes con los que lleva a cabo el ritual de la ayahuasca. Y así entre médicos y pastillas y agujas y hierbas un día despierta y el dolor ya no está.... ¿Qué es lo que ha ocurrido? ¿Por qué ayer estaba mal y hoy se siente bien? ¿Dónde se ha ido ese dolor?, ¿volverá?, ¿qué debe hacer a partir de ahora?.
#joysorman construye en esta suerte de novela y tratado sobre la enfermedad en las mujeres una fábula sobre el trato que recibe la mujer en la medicina tradicional, como se toma ese dolor como algo más imaginado que real y que, cuando no hay una solución científica o probada que lo diagnostique, se tira la pelota a otro tejado. Así a través del personaje de Ninon se hace un recorrido por los diferentes diagnósticos y tratamientos y como se puede llegar a recurrir a métodos pocos fiables con tal de volver a encontrar esa normalidad que es sentirnos bien. Sin florituras en su lenguaje que es más bien descarnado y típico de manuales de medicina lleno de datos y más datos lo que busca #joysorman dar voz a esas enfermedades crónicas y poco conocidas que se sufren en silencio y para la que aún el único remedio es conformarse.
#joysorman construye en esta suerte de novela y tratado sobre la enfermedad en las mujeres una fábula sobre el trato que recibe la mujer en la medicina tradicional, como se toma ese dolor como algo más imaginado que real y que, cuando no hay una solución científica o probada que lo diagnostique, se tira la pelota a otro tejado. Así a través del personaje de Ninon se hace un recorrido por los diferentes diagnósticos y tratamientos y como se puede llegar a recurrir a métodos pocos fiables con tal de volver a encontrar esa normalidad que es sentirnos bien. Sin florituras en su lenguaje que es más bien descarnado y típico de manuales de medicina lleno de datos y más datos lo que busca #joysorman dar voz a esas enfermedades crónicas y poco conocidas que se sufren en silencio y para la que aún el único remedio es conformarse.
March 14, 2022
Life Science by Joy Sorman, translates from the French by Lara Vergnaud, is a strange little novel following the afflictions of the first born daughters in a French family. It is a mixture of genealogy, a study of medicine, the occult, pain, and identity.
Ninon wakes up one morning to find out her arms are in pain. The intense feeling of burning overwhelms her, but does not surprise her. She has been expecting this curse since childhood. Every first borm woman in her family since the 1500s has experienced a puzzling illness. Not the same illness, but one that continues to strike every generation. Ninon's mother became experiencing the world in black and white in her teenage years, her grandmother became both blind and deaf, and her great grandmother was struck by lightning.
The novel follows Ninon's life as her intense pain prevents her from attending class, occupying public spaces, and even sleeping. She undertakes a journey through multiple doctors offices, and other increasingly desperate healing venues. Theae chapters are alternated by the stories of Ninon's ancestors and other iterations of the family's curse.
Joy Sorman's writing was smart and fast paced, challenging my mind's agility in the best of ways. Although the story moved slowly, the prose and observations were so enjoyable I welcomed all the time I spent with Ninon. Sorman gave me so much to think about in this book.
Ninon wakes up one morning to find out her arms are in pain. The intense feeling of burning overwhelms her, but does not surprise her. She has been expecting this curse since childhood. Every first borm woman in her family since the 1500s has experienced a puzzling illness. Not the same illness, but one that continues to strike every generation. Ninon's mother became experiencing the world in black and white in her teenage years, her grandmother became both blind and deaf, and her great grandmother was struck by lightning.
The novel follows Ninon's life as her intense pain prevents her from attending class, occupying public spaces, and even sleeping. She undertakes a journey through multiple doctors offices, and other increasingly desperate healing venues. Theae chapters are alternated by the stories of Ninon's ancestors and other iterations of the family's curse.
Joy Sorman's writing was smart and fast paced, challenging my mind's agility in the best of ways. Although the story moved slowly, the prose and observations were so enjoyable I welcomed all the time I spent with Ninon. Sorman gave me so much to think about in this book.
June 21, 2022
I give it a 3.5. I am glad to have read this one. Very few novels focus on chronic pain and this one did very well. The inclusion of a family lineage of medical anomalies and issues was a fascinating add that I appreciated.
May 8, 2022
alllmost a DNF for me- the concept of this book is incredibly interesting but the overall plot is very repetitive. towards the end, i had to just start skimming!!
July 29, 2024
Weird and utterly delightful, tinged with myth and sarcastically serious. Didn’t take my pain away but made me feel less alone in it.
October 14, 2025
This novel — introduced by Catherine Lacey! — is a bizarre and fascinating fable about a young woman whose female relatives have been afflicted by inexplicable illnesses for centuries. There’s so much here about what it is to live inside a female body and what happens when that body becomes objectified by various models — Western and otherwise — of healing.
January 24, 2022
I received this book from a surprise book club run by a local bookstore, and I am so glad that this was the book club pick because I don't think I would have picked it up otherwise. This was an eloquent story about learning to live with and accepting chronic illness. Ninon's pain is ignored by so many doctors (mostly male) and she falls behind in life because of her debilitating condition. The author did such a good job of capturing how often men ignore women's pain.
February 4, 2022
Discounting the sociopathic inclinations of Peter Stegman, there may or may not be wisdom in the statement from this member of THE CLASS OF 1984, who famously said that life is pain and pain is everything. While LIFE SCIENCES plays in today's France, its protagonist has troubles that go back a lot farther than high school punk flicks. Ninon Moise is the last link in a chain, perhaps the end of an ill-fated lineage dating all the way back to 1518 Strasbourg. An ancestor in an electric twitch trance, a dancing mania, amid perhaps the first recorded flash mob in history.
The catalyst, in an otherwise normal teenager's life, is Ninon's mother, steeped in family (medical) history, and always on the lookout of a lead indicator that a Bad Moon is on the rise. Fretting vicariously through mom, who's waiting (a lifetime) for "some hereditary anomaly" to break out from latent limbo, it's obvious for Ninon that it's crazy how easy things are when you're in good health. The moment of inevitability is sure to appear. Perhaps the slow decline into pseudo hypochondriac mania is a parallel to the seventh pit of hell that is internet interconnectivity and the bottomless ocean of aggregated (albeit scantily validated) information and opinion. Perhaps it's also a testament of the impotence of modern medicine, where treating symptoms is king and long-term disease management slowly erodes the staff of caduceus/the sacrament of faith in medicine.
The gradual erosion of good health begins with baby steps, naturally, and it's via a malady, real or imagined, that can be observed but not explained. Ninon was growing up in health, but what will fate and the inexhaustible resources of the genome have in store for her? Ever the good citizen of western society, the protagonist abandons herself in the arms of medicine, which are actually the arms of an octopus, a swarm of tentacles. Along with the prodding, testing, diagnosing, treating, prescribing is the erosion, over time, of the admiration for the medical profession. The faltering confidence in medicine; the incessant exploration of causal symptoms and the choking net of relational ailment hypothesis. But the sound of inevitability reverberates and later rather than sooner an intrepid doctor credits himself with the equally vague and inept naming of her affliction: allodynia.
Finally unburdened from the weight of the unknown, Ninon is validated by the system that never fails; she is sick, and thus, faultless in her malady of the ectoderm. Eventually, Ninon's insidious indisposition causes her to live withdrawn from the physical world, resulting in the Internet being the most "living" she can do. Interspersed in the downward spiral of Ninon's affliction are collated chapters of the Moise women's family medical history, recorded through the outrageous history of a family that has always favored fantasy over reason. Finding its way into the narrative, inexplicably so, is a veiled reference to THE COVEN among choice side-products of medicine like functional disorder, packing, Shamanism and somatic halos.
As nice as connecting to people she'll never really meet all over the world is, Ninon will eventually have to return to the world and renounce the tranquility of nigh interwar sanatorium isolation. As such, the point will be whether she's cured or perma-treated into a state of accepted managed health. Ever the scholar of circumstance, Ninon conjures a "fix" for herself that's extreme and borders on the insane. Fittingly, LIFE SCIENCES chronicles the gradual descent into the hell of managed care that is omnipresent in modern western society and most often associated with advanced age. Can we escape the science of health by embracing the science of life? In turn, LIFE SCIENCES is a scathing indictment of the allopathic medicine system that seems asymmetrically slanted in women's disfavor but also tribute to the steadfast perseverance of the human spirit. Joy Sorman has crafted a tale that will either be or astringent for the mind or balm for the soul. Whichever side of the scale you fall, just remember that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
January 11, 2022
One of the more beautiful books I’ve read in a while- made me acutely aware of my womanhood (in a good way I think)
September 14, 2021
Medicine and doctors spin and weave around a girl's pain in a tale, which questions intentions and the limits of modern science.
It started in the Middle Ages as a woman in her mid-thirties suddenly suffered a constant, tingling pain on her skin. From generation to generation, the illness continues from mother to daughter, each time bringing new and/or different symptoms. Ninon, an average teen girl, is aware of the curse she will inherit from her mother, but when it hits, the knowledge doesn't offer any relief. Like those before her, she tries to find medical assistance, but like those before her, the doctors can't seem to find a solution. With test after test and treatment after treatment, not only does she realize that modern medicine might not be capable of helping, but there are times, she's sure it's not even its true goal.
This book comes from a well-known and talented French author and has been translated into English. It's not a light book but steers with an obvious and clear purpose. The questions surrounding society's trust in modern medicine and science, how the medical world views women's health issues, and the, at times, true intentions behind medicine's greed and ambition at patients' expense are explored, allowing a darker side of all of this to come to light. And one that, unfortunately, women can and do see glimpses of themselves.
I tend to read mostly fiction, which makes the more dry and direct flow of this book stick out to me quite a bit. This isn't written in a story form, meaning it doesn't hover around dialogue, scenes or world building in that sense, but rather takes a drier and concreter look at Ninon and her experiences. It begins with a foreword, which is interesting to read, from Catherine Lacey, and then, dives into the historical explanation of when the disease first appeared in Ninon's ancestors. It takes the form of a told account rather than sliding into a more personal tone and does flow smoothly and clearly.
Embracing hard-won realizations and exploring emotions, Ninon's experiences with her disease and the medical world leave more than a little food for thought. The ending does offer that needed ray of hope and allows even the darker shadows, which cannot be ignored, to not necessarily win the upper-hand.
I received an ARC, am giving it 3.5 stars while rounding up, and found the read thought provoking.
It started in the Middle Ages as a woman in her mid-thirties suddenly suffered a constant, tingling pain on her skin. From generation to generation, the illness continues from mother to daughter, each time bringing new and/or different symptoms. Ninon, an average teen girl, is aware of the curse she will inherit from her mother, but when it hits, the knowledge doesn't offer any relief. Like those before her, she tries to find medical assistance, but like those before her, the doctors can't seem to find a solution. With test after test and treatment after treatment, not only does she realize that modern medicine might not be capable of helping, but there are times, she's sure it's not even its true goal.
This book comes from a well-known and talented French author and has been translated into English. It's not a light book but steers with an obvious and clear purpose. The questions surrounding society's trust in modern medicine and science, how the medical world views women's health issues, and the, at times, true intentions behind medicine's greed and ambition at patients' expense are explored, allowing a darker side of all of this to come to light. And one that, unfortunately, women can and do see glimpses of themselves.
I tend to read mostly fiction, which makes the more dry and direct flow of this book stick out to me quite a bit. This isn't written in a story form, meaning it doesn't hover around dialogue, scenes or world building in that sense, but rather takes a drier and concreter look at Ninon and her experiences. It begins with a foreword, which is interesting to read, from Catherine Lacey, and then, dives into the historical explanation of when the disease first appeared in Ninon's ancestors. It takes the form of a told account rather than sliding into a more personal tone and does flow smoothly and clearly.
Embracing hard-won realizations and exploring emotions, Ninon's experiences with her disease and the medical world leave more than a little food for thought. The ending does offer that needed ray of hope and allows even the darker shadows, which cannot be ignored, to not necessarily win the upper-hand.
I received an ARC, am giving it 3.5 stars while rounding up, and found the read thought provoking.
January 4, 2022
A girl experiences debilitating pain, the affect on her life, and her search for medical help.
January 1, 2022
I tried. I didn't quite understand the larger point she was trying to make. For me it just went on and on as Ninon tried to find the reason for her ailment. I think this might have worked better as a short story.
May 24, 2022
On the surface level, Life Sciences is about an individual’s response to inexplicable chronic disease within a modern society that can provide no relief or healing. Seventeen-year-old Ninon Moise wakes one day to discover the skin of her arms burning in pain at the slightest touch. Her doctors are at a loss for how this has come about, they wonder if perhaps she is just even making it up. Or perhaps there is no physical cause to it, but an issue of psychology, a trick of the mind and self perceptions of pain?
The onset and unique specificity of symptoms doesn’t surprise her, she’s expected their arrival, only uncertain in the precise form they’d manifest. Her mother Esther was similarly struck with achromatopsia at a young age, an inability to see colors any longer, with no discernable cause or deficiency behind its revelation. Back through the family line, to the earliest recordings in the Middle Ages, women in their family have been stricken with seemingly random disease. A curse. Or a perverse female birthright claimed.
"It’s therefore time for her daughter to stand out, and it’s as though that distinctiveness can only be revealed through her genes, as though uniqueness can only be expressed by a cell line, as though the force of a person’s existence is reabsorbed whole by the transmission of genetic characteristics hoped to be rare and mysterious, as though that force can’t be incarnated, for example, by an act…"
Ninon’s physical discomfort, and the complications the condition manifests for her daily activities – like high school – quickly turn her mind from seeing the disease naively as a rite of passage, membership and individuality attained within her family. She rebels against acceptance and accommodation, seeking answers from medicine, and treatment, starting with basic identification of what afflicts her, for “… a sickness without a name isn’t a disease, it’s just shapeless suffering.” The awful chasm of fearful uncertainty becomes alleviated when professionals diagnose her condition: dynamic tactile allodynia.
"…what a marvelous, beautiful trio of words! wonderfully pompous and complicated, three words when just one would have sufficed, three words that roll off the tongue, and with the diagnosis pronounced, Ninon could almost dance for joy, she’s finally been deemed sick and therefore innocent, absolved of all suspicion, what a relief to know you have something rather than nothing."
The joy from that first step of answers rapidly vanishes as she realizes the doctors have no clue what to do about this monster they have given a name. They throw any treatment they can think of towards her body. And when that fails, her mind. With modern medicine failing at every turn, she turns to traditional, folk practices. But still the pain in her arms continue with the barest brush of touch. Is it perhaps lessening with time? Or is that just her becoming habituated to the pain?
Sorman’s novel thereby works at this basic level as a fascinating study of an individual human body falling prey to biology that we still do not precisely understand. For as far as we may have come from hundreds of years ago, our science sometimes still fails to provide answers or healing, giving less than even religions or faith may have given to Ninon’s female ancestors through the earlier ages.
Sorman’s language, beautifully translated in flowing prose by Lara Vergnaud, spectacularly conveys the feelings of pain and helplessness, of despair that can happen amid inexplicable disease or disorder. It’s something relatable for any feeling human who has felt desperation for finding answers to one’s health, even if one doesn’t have to live with a chronic condition.
At the metaphorical level, the novel becomes something even more, symbolizing the cultural and societal treatment of women through the ages in the form of these inherited diseases. The women through the ages in her family suffer, and they are asked to just simply bare it. There is no fixing it. There is no reason why. It simply is.
"…Ninon thinks that she’d have liked to be a boy but doesn’t mention it, not wanting to upset her mother. And ultimately it’s on that day, when she learns that the men of the family were touched by disgrace too, that she realizes the scope of the curse, that of being born a girl: hormonal chance, genetic injustice."
The disease biology and feminist readings of the novel are not mutually exclusive either, as medicine still routinely ignores issues of female health, of female-specific biology over the male standard. This is evident from issues of reproductive rights, to remaining uncertainties of the hormonal complexities during female development (youth to beyond menopause) and their varied effects on the female body, something society has wanted to simplify and control, not really understand or let flourish. A scene later in the novel where Ninon goes to see a more holistic healer reiterates this traditional view of women being equivalent to a body, to skin:
"I am a body above all else, solemnly repeats Dr. Kilfe, I am a body above all else, and nothing pleases ninon more than this affirmation, I am skin above all else, adds the psychiatrist, I am made of all the sensations that emerge on the surface of the body, the surface of the consciousness is homothetic to that of the body, they have the same surface area, the same reach, the mind isn’t buried in the folds and twists of the brain, it appears on the surface, sensitive to wind and sun, to caresses and blows."
Life Sciences is a powerful and artistic novel, pulsing with the life of language, not just human biology and feminism. The first half of the book, and its close are phenomenal, but my one critique would be that most of the second half starts to feel repetitive and needless. Nonetheless, it is a quick, satisfying read and doesn’t feel insurmountably bloated at all.
For those who enjoy the themes of this novel and want something similar – or in a shorter dose, I’d recommend Sarah Tolmie’s short stories in her collection Disease. Tolmie goes more toward the side of absurd comedy, but the general themes are very comparable to those in Life Sciences.
The onset and unique specificity of symptoms doesn’t surprise her, she’s expected their arrival, only uncertain in the precise form they’d manifest. Her mother Esther was similarly struck with achromatopsia at a young age, an inability to see colors any longer, with no discernable cause or deficiency behind its revelation. Back through the family line, to the earliest recordings in the Middle Ages, women in their family have been stricken with seemingly random disease. A curse. Or a perverse female birthright claimed.
"It’s therefore time for her daughter to stand out, and it’s as though that distinctiveness can only be revealed through her genes, as though uniqueness can only be expressed by a cell line, as though the force of a person’s existence is reabsorbed whole by the transmission of genetic characteristics hoped to be rare and mysterious, as though that force can’t be incarnated, for example, by an act…"
Ninon’s physical discomfort, and the complications the condition manifests for her daily activities – like high school – quickly turn her mind from seeing the disease naively as a rite of passage, membership and individuality attained within her family. She rebels against acceptance and accommodation, seeking answers from medicine, and treatment, starting with basic identification of what afflicts her, for “… a sickness without a name isn’t a disease, it’s just shapeless suffering.” The awful chasm of fearful uncertainty becomes alleviated when professionals diagnose her condition: dynamic tactile allodynia.
"…what a marvelous, beautiful trio of words! wonderfully pompous and complicated, three words when just one would have sufficed, three words that roll off the tongue, and with the diagnosis pronounced, Ninon could almost dance for joy, she’s finally been deemed sick and therefore innocent, absolved of all suspicion, what a relief to know you have something rather than nothing."
The joy from that first step of answers rapidly vanishes as she realizes the doctors have no clue what to do about this monster they have given a name. They throw any treatment they can think of towards her body. And when that fails, her mind. With modern medicine failing at every turn, she turns to traditional, folk practices. But still the pain in her arms continue with the barest brush of touch. Is it perhaps lessening with time? Or is that just her becoming habituated to the pain?
Sorman’s novel thereby works at this basic level as a fascinating study of an individual human body falling prey to biology that we still do not precisely understand. For as far as we may have come from hundreds of years ago, our science sometimes still fails to provide answers or healing, giving less than even religions or faith may have given to Ninon’s female ancestors through the earlier ages.
Sorman’s language, beautifully translated in flowing prose by Lara Vergnaud, spectacularly conveys the feelings of pain and helplessness, of despair that can happen amid inexplicable disease or disorder. It’s something relatable for any feeling human who has felt desperation for finding answers to one’s health, even if one doesn’t have to live with a chronic condition.
At the metaphorical level, the novel becomes something even more, symbolizing the cultural and societal treatment of women through the ages in the form of these inherited diseases. The women through the ages in her family suffer, and they are asked to just simply bare it. There is no fixing it. There is no reason why. It simply is.
"…Ninon thinks that she’d have liked to be a boy but doesn’t mention it, not wanting to upset her mother. And ultimately it’s on that day, when she learns that the men of the family were touched by disgrace too, that she realizes the scope of the curse, that of being born a girl: hormonal chance, genetic injustice."
The disease biology and feminist readings of the novel are not mutually exclusive either, as medicine still routinely ignores issues of female health, of female-specific biology over the male standard. This is evident from issues of reproductive rights, to remaining uncertainties of the hormonal complexities during female development (youth to beyond menopause) and their varied effects on the female body, something society has wanted to simplify and control, not really understand or let flourish. A scene later in the novel where Ninon goes to see a more holistic healer reiterates this traditional view of women being equivalent to a body, to skin:
"I am a body above all else, solemnly repeats Dr. Kilfe, I am a body above all else, and nothing pleases ninon more than this affirmation, I am skin above all else, adds the psychiatrist, I am made of all the sensations that emerge on the surface of the body, the surface of the consciousness is homothetic to that of the body, they have the same surface area, the same reach, the mind isn’t buried in the folds and twists of the brain, it appears on the surface, sensitive to wind and sun, to caresses and blows."
Life Sciences is a powerful and artistic novel, pulsing with the life of language, not just human biology and feminism. The first half of the book, and its close are phenomenal, but my one critique would be that most of the second half starts to feel repetitive and needless. Nonetheless, it is a quick, satisfying read and doesn’t feel insurmountably bloated at all.
For those who enjoy the themes of this novel and want something similar – or in a shorter dose, I’d recommend Sarah Tolmie’s short stories in her collection Disease. Tolmie goes more toward the side of absurd comedy, but the general themes are very comparable to those in Life Sciences.
February 16, 2024
Esta novela me resultó un poco difícil ya que al ser médica, me sentí identificada en muchos momentos e impotente en muchos otros.
El realismo mágico que emana al contar la historia de las muchas generaciones de mujeres aquejadas por esta maldición le otorga un poco de magia a la tragedia, lo duro y demasiado abstracto a la historia de la enfermedad.
Porque más allá de todo, esto es la historia de una chica con una enfermedad rara, contra la que no puede luchar, por lo que aprende, a su manera, a vivir con ella.
La enfermedad es egoísta, es absorbente y la autora describe muy bien las consecuencias no físicas de su dolencia, que termina ocupando el lugar central en su vida.
El final (del que no voy a desarrollar mucho porque no quiero spoilearlo) es muy atinado y aunque sencillo, cierra la historia de una manera mágica y real a la vez.
Más allá que siendo médica no fue una lectura facil, me resultó fascinante
El realismo mágico que emana al contar la historia de las muchas generaciones de mujeres aquejadas por esta maldición le otorga un poco de magia a la tragedia, lo duro y demasiado abstracto a la historia de la enfermedad.
Porque más allá de todo, esto es la historia de una chica con una enfermedad rara, contra la que no puede luchar, por lo que aprende, a su manera, a vivir con ella.
La enfermedad es egoísta, es absorbente y la autora describe muy bien las consecuencias no físicas de su dolencia, que termina ocupando el lugar central en su vida.
El final (del que no voy a desarrollar mucho porque no quiero spoilearlo) es muy atinado y aunque sencillo, cierra la historia de una manera mágica y real a la vez.
Más allá que siendo médica no fue una lectura facil, me resultó fascinante
September 11, 2017
Le livre part d'une idée intéressante (une adolescente soudain frappée par une maladie mystérieuse, une famille où toutes les filles ainées sont malades...) mais nous balade deci delà sans vraie logique. On est touché par la douleur de l'héroïne, sa lutte contre son corps, mais la résolution (elle guérit mystérieusement) tombe à plat. L'auteure évoque rapidement la difficulté de revenir à la normalité après avoir été définie par la maladie, de trouver une nouvelle identité, mais trop rapidement à mon goût.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2020
Entre 3 et 4 étoiles, difficile de noter ce livre, difficile même de savoir si je l'ai vraiment aimé ou pas. Dévoré c'est sur, mais est-ce que l'intrigue ne retombe pas comme un soufflet ? Somme tout l'écriture est belle, le style efficace.
September 9, 2019
"Esther (...) considère que le noir et blanc convient à toutes les œuvres, comme il convient à la vie qui n'a pas tant besoin de couleurs et de lumière que de mouvements et de sentiments."
March 22, 2023
life sciences
joy sorman
I really enjoyed the {translated from french} poetic prose, the run-on sentences and beautifying descriptions of minutiae. I felt like I was on a journey with our main character, Ninon; sometimes even in her shoes. beautiful quirky poignant study of pain (not bread, but the chronic ouchie). Three-point-five stars!
notes:
- [ ] the idea of pain being something that transmogrifies, that forces one to shift their self image
- [ ] pain produces acute self-awareness
- [ ] somatic conversion of emotional distress - it is believed by some that the origin of most pain is due to chronic stress, anxiety, depression, etc. caused by a hypo- or hyper- ly dysregulated nervous system
- [ ] "of course all life is a process of breaking down"
- [ ] "health is life lived in the silence of organs" p174
- [ ] we can lose ourselves in our chronic illness, let it consume us
- [ ] "there is a thin line between medicine and the occult"
- [ ] pp 193 - disturbances of reality that echo inside us, the somatic halos then produced, disease as disruptive power that breaks harmony with nature {i disagree--disease is a naturally occurring element of existence} healing isnt the annihilation of pain but a negotiation to reestablish the broken pact, the lost understanding
- [ ] p. 224 - "suspended time has closed in on itself, a small and dense ball, to be preserved like a relic"
- [ ] ending words: "life, clearly" --- this idea of all the possibilities and opportunities and vibrancies of life opening up once the obsession about and fatiguing of illness is over
joy sorman
I really enjoyed the {translated from french} poetic prose, the run-on sentences and beautifying descriptions of minutiae. I felt like I was on a journey with our main character, Ninon; sometimes even in her shoes. beautiful quirky poignant study of pain (not bread, but the chronic ouchie). Three-point-five stars!
notes:
- [ ] the idea of pain being something that transmogrifies, that forces one to shift their self image
- [ ] pain produces acute self-awareness
- [ ] somatic conversion of emotional distress - it is believed by some that the origin of most pain is due to chronic stress, anxiety, depression, etc. caused by a hypo- or hyper- ly dysregulated nervous system
- [ ] "of course all life is a process of breaking down"
- [ ] "health is life lived in the silence of organs" p174
- [ ] we can lose ourselves in our chronic illness, let it consume us
- [ ] "there is a thin line between medicine and the occult"
- [ ] pp 193 - disturbances of reality that echo inside us, the somatic halos then produced, disease as disruptive power that breaks harmony with nature {i disagree--disease is a naturally occurring element of existence} healing isnt the annihilation of pain but a negotiation to reestablish the broken pact, the lost understanding
- [ ] p. 224 - "suspended time has closed in on itself, a small and dense ball, to be preserved like a relic"
- [ ] ending words: "life, clearly" --- this idea of all the possibilities and opportunities and vibrancies of life opening up once the obsession about and fatiguing of illness is over
January 8, 2023
4.5 stars
A beautifully written novel that looks at family dynamics between a mother and daughter, women’s history through the genealogy of one family, the medical establishment and disability, illness and chronic pain. Ninon, a teenager has been told by her mother of her family history where the women are often afflicted with a mental or physical illness/abnormality/phenomenon so when it happens to her one day, she isn’t surprised. Knowing something could happen however doesn’t make it any easier and in her case the searing pain when anything touches her arms surprises even her mother who thinks she has prepared her for this. As Ninon attempts to discover why she has this pain, she soon becomes only concerned with the how of obtaining relief as she runs on a hamster wheel of conventional doctors to shamans and expensive ice treatments.
As we read, we too become less concerned with the why and instead, simultaneously want the pain to end for her sake but also, not. It becomes more about the journey than the result. There is a part towards the end which unfortunately felt incongruous with the rest of the book, but other than that, this was a pitch perfect read.
A beautifully written novel that looks at family dynamics between a mother and daughter, women’s history through the genealogy of one family, the medical establishment and disability, illness and chronic pain. Ninon, a teenager has been told by her mother of her family history where the women are often afflicted with a mental or physical illness/abnormality/phenomenon so when it happens to her one day, she isn’t surprised. Knowing something could happen however doesn’t make it any easier and in her case the searing pain when anything touches her arms surprises even her mother who thinks she has prepared her for this. As Ninon attempts to discover why she has this pain, she soon becomes only concerned with the how of obtaining relief as she runs on a hamster wheel of conventional doctors to shamans and expensive ice treatments.
As we read, we too become less concerned with the why and instead, simultaneously want the pain to end for her sake but also, not. It becomes more about the journey than the result. There is a part towards the end which unfortunately felt incongruous with the rest of the book, but other than that, this was a pitch perfect read.
January 17, 2024
Realistically a 1.5 stars. I unfortunately could not get through this book, so maybe the end would have brought the rating up. While I appreciate the concept of a teenage girl battling an unexplained illness that generations of women in her family suffered from, it was extremely repetitive. The 3/4 of what I read solely talked about how extreme pain couldn’t be communicated. The genre and description was super enticing to me but just fell short. I also didn’t appreciate how healthcare professionals were portrayed, most specifically that occupational therapy was described as a quack science (I might be biased because that is the field I am going into).
June 15, 2023
so disappointed. another ableist author using chronic illness as a plot device. I thought that because sorman highlighted medical gaslighting, that this would be a more accurate representation of a character living with a chronic illness, but she went in so many weird directions. the last 50pgs felt like drafts of potential plot directions & was not executed smoothly. frankly, it failed to make a point. chronic illness doesn’t go away in most cases. it isn’t a curse. ugh. I could go on but this isn’t worth the time. I’d rather start researching novels with more accurate representation.
July 25, 2022
This was my first illness narrative, and though it took me 2 months to read, it was a book I loved dipping in and out of. It really lent itself to this mode of reading though. The prose was poetic at times in a way that made me wonder of she writes poetry as well. A wonderful used book store find that introduced me to a new publisher I intend to keep my eye on.
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