Customer Reviews

Menachems Seed

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Carls Djerassis novel Menachems Seed tells a complex story about people who have to face moral dilemmas created by reproductive technology. Carl Djerassi, the creator of the birth control pill, is very familiar with this theme. The fact that the book was written by a biochemist is clear from the beginning. His digressions on scientific matters are sound throughout the whole novel. Djerassi also raises interesting questions about ethics in science and also about ethics in relationships between men and women. His purpose in writing this book was to bring these issues to public attention, but unfortunately his literary talents do not reach the same level as his scientific achievements, and his lack of artistic imagination renders his prose dry and the characters stiff and lifeless. As a result he may lose many of his readers in first chapters of the book.
Menachems Seed raises serious ethical questions about human reproduction by weaving them into a love story between an Israeli nuclear physicist, Menachem Dvir, and an American biochemist, Melanie Laidlaw. The protagonists meet at an international scientific conference and fall in love with each other. Melanies work allows her to learn about the newest achievements in fertility science. Recently widowed, she decides to use new biotechnology in order to become a mother. But does Menachem have right to know that Melanie is going to use his sperm? Slowly the story becomes a great cooking pot into which the author adds more and more ingredients. If biotechnology is not yet as developed as it is in Djerassis novel, it may soon reach that level, and the questions which the author raises will be faced in real life. From this perspective, the book is a great achievement.
Yet if we think of Djerassi as a cook he has definitely ruined the stew. The cooking pot of Menachems Seed was a great opportunity for the author to create serious food for thought. The ingredients are quite flavorful: science, politics, history, love, sex, and religion. The basic recipe was good too: a story with an ethical dilemma. Anyone reader who reads such a recipe would feel hungry. However, the disappointment comes after the first bite. Djerassis vocabulary is too small and frustratingly repetitive. For example, the word murmur appears eight times by page 142, and three times in the same five pages. Finally, the bland character development and insipid eroticism in the sex scenes make this meal unappetizing.
This book may be interesting for those who really care about ethical issues in science and who have enough patience to finish it. In general, I would not recommend this book to anyone. Djerassis attempt to draw public attention to an important problem fails completely because of his shortcomings as a writer.

Djerassi opens a world unseen by most, the world of the scientific elite. This is the first Djerassi book I've read, but it most certainly will not be the last.

This book has a strong female lead with impressive professional drive and a male lead just as passionate about his own beliefs. I found the scientific and cultural digressions much more enjoyable than the political asides. Not that the political asides were all bad, but many of them did supply the book with most of its unappealing aspects and I found the reading became a bit laborious during those segments.

MS is full of moral dilemmas and ethical quandries, and Djerassi displays an impressive ear for dialogue as his characters voice those issues to each other. This book is sort of like an army stew which has many varied ingredients but one undeniable discernible feature. The focus of MS is the world of the elite scientists, engineers, and doctors of the world, but there is enough romance, intrigue, and suspense thrown in to keep you happily chewing along.

All of Djerassi's novels feature compelling plots and I'm eager to read them all.

"Googeling" for information while I've been engaged in a start up developing a new NO (read En Oh) donor drug that should have been used for heart failure prevention but ofcourse had the famous erectile side effect, I've stumbeled upon Djerassie's book.
The story of the early days towards helping us males to avoid erectile dysfunction, is told by a master stroy teller, spinning the tale from medical laboratories in the USA to Israel and back. Could have been true.