Joselin Linder

“You should fight to live long and well, you should experience meaningfulness as often as you can, and the rest of the time you should just ignore death completely.” – Joselin Linder, The Family Gene

Non-fiction memoir about a family with a genetic variant. Joselin Linder inherited a unique gene from her father, which causes a currently unnamed disease that has resulted in the deaths of five family members. In this memoir, the author documents her family’s pain and suffering, the genetic research involved in tracing the source, and the medical analysis involved in discovering a treatment. She talks about what it is like living with a potentially fatal condition.

This book covers a good amount of medical science in a manner easily understood by a layperson. It shows how this family turns tragedy into an opportunity to work in partnership with doctors and scientists to understand and reduce the impact of this unique disease. The author intersperses information about the history and recent advances in genetics into her personal story. The writing style is colloquial, with humor sprinkled throughout, as a respite from the weighty topics. Linder only touches the surface of the genetic engineering debate, instead offering her personal insight from a perspective of someone with a significant stake in the outcome.

Recommended to those interested in medically-oriented memoirs, hereditary diseases, and genetic research. I think fans of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Brain on Fire, or Lab Girl may also appreciate it.
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The Family Gene by Joselin Linder is everything I wish for in a medically-oriented memoir. Linder blends the science of genetics deftly with her own family’s story. It was so compelling that I flew through the book in just a day or so.

When Joselin is just fifteen, she and her family begin to watch her father die a slow, painful and frankly horrific death. He literally never received a diagnosis for this fatal disease. The family begins to realize that his condition was very similar to two other members of his family, now also deceased. Then his brother dies. Sounds overwhelmingly sad, doesn’t it?

Full review at http://thebibliophage.com/book-review-family-gene-joselin-linder/… (more)