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Loading... The Hormone Factory: A Novelby Saskia Goldschmidt
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Businessman Mordecai, reflects on his long illustrious career as a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and businessman. Although this description is accurate, it doesn't really do the book justice. It doesn't describe the humor and irony that kept me reading throughout the night. Mordecai and his relationships were just fascinating to read about. If anything, I wanted to know more. The book briefly described his later adult life, which should have been included. Overall, a great read! ( ) I got a free copy of this book from Netgalley. This book was translated from Dutch and is not yet available in North America. So the reviews to date on Goodreads are mostly in Dutch. I wish I could understand them because I am curious to see why The Hormone Factory gets so many low ratings. I found this book clever and well written--well worth the read. There is no doubt that Mordecai -- the first person narrator and protagonist -- is a despicable character. But that's the point. Goldschmidt does a great job of making Mordecai a three dimensional character, depicting his self delusion and self justification with occasional flashes of insight and remorse. Her Afterword may be worth reading before starting the book because it gives context to her motivation for writing this book. Also, it's worth mentioning that this is an excellent translation -- in fact, the quality of the writing does not suggest that this is a translation. no reviews | add a review
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Literature.
HTML:"The Hormone Factory is a dark, fascinating exploration of man's nature set during an era of exciting scientific discovery and geopolitical turmoil.".
"A story written with color and momentum.".
"A beautiful novel about the proud tyrant De Paauw that is based on imagination, but probably contains a lot more truth than we would like.".
HTML:A disturbing story that describes how the alliance between science and capitalism can lead to disaster when the people in charge lose track of their humanity Mordechai de Paauw was the Dutch cofounder and CEO of the first pharmaceutical company to invent the contraceptive pill and hormonal treatments. Hitler's invasion of Holland and the threat he poses to the survival of De Paauw's family and the Jewish scientists working for him doesn't affect De Paauw's urge to test his treatments on his female workers and exploit them sexually. Even after the war, which he survives unscathed, De Paauw will continue his mischief until a catastrophe that he himself couldn't have imagined allows him to come to his senses long enough to tell us his story. The Hormone Factory weaves questions of scientific integrity, sibling rivalry, and sex into a narrative that is as troubling as it is thought provoking. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)839.313Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Other Germanic literatures Netherlandish literatures Dutch Dutch fictionLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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