Cantor's Dilemma

By Carl Djerassi

When Professor Isidore Cantor reveals his latest breakthrough in cancer research, his promising research fellow, Dr. Jeremiah Stafford, has only to conduct the experiment and win Cantor the Nobel prize. But how far will Stafford go to guarantee the results? Carl Djerassi draws from his career as a world-famous scientist to describe the fierce competition driving scientific superstars in this gripping novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Release date: Nov 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9780307819086

Reviews for Cantor's Dilemma

[raizel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The politics of trying to win a Nobel Prize and, secondarily, of young women trying to get tenure. The dilemma did not seem that difficult to me. The ideas explored seemed more interesting than the story or people.

[joeydag · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The author has a major idea about "science in art" and this is a fine example. The novel is set in in contemporary times (it was written in the 1980's, so the computing and telephony technologies are dated.) The story centers on two research scientists that collaborate on work that wins them the Nobel prize in medicine. One learns quite a bit about the prize and the ceremonies. Quite a bit of scientific thinking is involved, but the drama involves issues of honesty and trust between individuals of unequal authority and recognition. There are parallel plots involving the friends and lovers of the central pair. I learned quite a bit and was quite entertained, finishing the book quickly. I look forward to other writings by Djerasi.

[keebrook · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

mostly well-written snapshot of academic life for scientists mashed with a little intrigue and a kind of "whodunit" for researchers. the book takes off slowly and divulges its secrets slowly but i ended up being engaged by the politics surrounding the attempted assault on the Everest or K2 of scholarship: the Nobel Prize (all metaphors borrowed from the book).

i did find the treatment of the female characters a bit stilted and perhaps a little heavy-handedly portrayed as strong and independent women. one character in particular struck me as a very 2-dimensional depiction of a single adult female. this was Djerassi's first novel, however, and the training wheels show. even within the course of the book, the storytelling improves and yet never really seems to pull story threads together to weave a single whole. at the end, i wasn't sure what it wanted to be and there were several unanswered questions.