The Bourbaki Gambit [Paperback]

Carl Djerassi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

At the age of 68, distinguished Princeton science professor Max Weiss is bribed into taking an early retirement. He takes an ingenious revenge in the form of "Doctor Diana Skordylis"--a pseudonym for a partnership among Weiss and three aging colleagues. Their soaring success is unanticipated and professional jealousy soon threatens Diana Skordylis's life. "A beautifully ingenious, funny, brilliantly inteligent and moving tale of very human scientists. A splendid novel."--Iris Murdoch.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author, a chemistry professor and inventor of the oral contraceptive, presents a novel about a group of scientists who inadvertently make a breakthrough discovery in the midst of perpetrating a hoax.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Djerassi's latest novel, a love story with a clever scientific twist, concerns a practical joke played by four scientists, who create an imposter to take credit for an important biomedical discovery. Seeking professional revenge, they create Professor Diana Skordylis, a composite of themselves, in order to make a statement about age discrimination, peer recognition, the plight of women scientists, and the conflicts of collaboration. Readers should not be deterred by the scientific subject matter; Djerassi's plot line is understandable as well as enjoyable. This prolific author, a respected professor of chemistry at Stanford University, has won numerous scientific awards while at the same time producing absorbing, eminently readable fiction (e.g., Cantor's Dilemma, LJ 8/89). Recommended for public and academic libraries.
Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140254854
• ISBN-13: 978-0140254853
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,918,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent premise, but not as well crafted as "Cantor's Dilemma", March 1, 2009

By 

Timothy Chow - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bourbaki Gambit (Paperback)

Djerassi is once again to be commended for writing an entertaining novel to educate the general public about the forces that really drive scientists as individuals, and the world of scientific research in general. If the public is to make intelligent decisions about how to fund, teach, and promote science, then this kind of insight into the (sometimes messy) realities of the research world is a must. For this purpose, a well-told story is worth a hundred dry, factual reports.

The premise of "The Bourbaki Gambit" is excellent. (The title of the book comes from the pseudonymous mathematician Nicolas Bourbaki, although only one character in the book is a mathematician.) An older and highly successful biochemist, feeling that he has been prematurely put out to pasture, seeks revenge by recruiting three other like-minded colleagues to form a pseudonymous and anonymous collaboration. Their goal? To expose the ageist prejudices of the scientific world by publishing outstanding research under a pen name and then, after the kudos roll in, to reveal their true identities. The plan seems perfect---until paradoxically, they become victims of their own success.

In a world where people are living increasingly long and healthy lives, and where collaboration is becoming increasingly important even in traditionally "solitary" fields (as I write this, the renowned mathematician Tim Gowers is experimenting on his blog with "Polymath," a large-scale pseudonymous---but not anonymous---wiki-style collaborative research entity), the premise of "The Bourbaki Gambit" is extremely relevant. Scientists themselves (and not just the general public) would do well to grapple more directly and openly with the problems and issues that are highlighted in this book.

I must confess, however, that I found "The Bourbaki Gambit" to be less well-written than Djerassi's more famous book, "Cantor's Dilemma." One gets the feeling that the author overindulged himself by inserting a lot of trivia about his favorite hobbies and pet interests. These details can be interesting if you happen to share the same interests---for example, even though I am a mathematician and know about Hy Bass, I did not know that he contributed to Bourbaki---but too often they fail to enliven the characters or plot, or contribute to the underlying social commentary, and thus they cause the book to drag. The characters in "Cantor's Dilemma" are more believable, three-dimensional, and likable. So if you have never read Djerassi before, I recommend you start with "Cantor's Dilemma."

By the way, the characters' main scientific discovery in the book is in fact a real piece of science, and the true story of its discovery is quite fascinating in its own right. Be sure to check it out after finishing Djerassi's book.

3.0 out of 5 stars Issues in science and mathathics: age, gender and originality, August 2, 2008

By 

R. Bagula "Roger L. Bagula" (Lakeside, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bourbaki Gambit (Hardcover)

The collective Individual of the French mathematical community Nicolas Bourbaki is the inspiration for four people in biochemistry: they form the collective individual Diana Skordylis and publish research papers under that name. What breaks up the association is not failure, but success.
The book is slow and almost too literary, but the character development is better than many faster or more interesting novels.
Had they developed a biotoxin or a weapon of some kind, it might have
had spies and intrigue that would
have gained the book a wider audience.
Instead it became a polemic against sex and age discrimination in the
scientific and educational community.
The fact that one gets paid more for getting more published under an individual name and that individuals can't get published without some recognized sponsorship makes the system system somewhat secure
from raging originality and not all an open form. It is not at all clear why older successful people would be threatened by being retired
so that younger people can get at least a chance
should be much of an issue:
a more important issue is the voices who are never heard or even allowed to speak or publish their work or ideas.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Djerassi did not win a nobel prize., September 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bourbaki Gambit (Paperback)

This excellent book explored the collaborative process of science in the framework of an interesting story. It is a must read for scientists who should learn lessons from this book. It should be noted however that the author is not a nobel prize winner as the first review would have us believe.