![]() ![]() What was the most interesting book you read while researching “The Gene”? And what was the best book you read for “The Emperor of All Maladies”? If chemists can write like Levi, then God help the writers. ![]() He has a particularly charming essay about why scientists can be good writers because they distill and clarify, because they boil questions down to their tar, because they understand the Silly Putty-ness of language. Without a doubt: Primo Levi’s “Survival in Auschwitz.” Levi, notably, defined himself first as a chemist and then as a writer. ![]() Was there any book that influenced your decision to become a writer? And Ian McEwan’s “Enduring Love,” a novel spun out of an obsessive psychiatric syndrome. Randy Shilts’s “And the Band Played On,” about the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal,” about how systems of care can affect the way we die. What are your favorite books about medicine? John Currin Lisa Yuskavage Cindy Sherman Sarah Sze Olafur Eliasson. I look at artists and find that they connect to the marrow of writing. There’s a final line in one of her essays - I’m paraphrasing here - “I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I did a little of both.” I frequently find myself doing a little bit of both after reading a Zadie essay. I’ve also been reading Zadie Smith’s essays. She has the most intense psychological acuity, as if she’s always carrying a scalpel. ![]()
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