An entertaining memoir that sheds light on a powerful yet little-known invention.
A physician recounts his journey from working in the academic world to running a medical device company that revolutionized cancer diagnostics.
Elizabeth Holmes made headlines when she revealed that her company, Theranos, had created a device she claimed could use a single drop of blood to diagnose hundreds of diseases. Holmes turned out to be a fraud, but debut author Grogan was the real deal. In the early 1980s, he was employed as a pathologist at the University of Arizona, where he and his colleagues began developing a device that could automate the labor-intensive process of diagnosing cancer cells. Through trial and error over many years, the author and his team created a functional device and then proceeded to build a highly successful company, Ventana Medical Systems, which was eventually acquired by Roche, as he recounts in this gripping memoir. Grogan turns what could be a dry, dull story of tinkering in the lab and meeting with investors into compelling drama by weaving in personal anecdotes from both his youth, when his father was a CIA operative stationed in the Middle East and Africa, and his own career. Stories of real-life patients helped by Ventana’s device clearly illustrate the impact of the author’s invention. The book opens with the doctor sitting in a hospital with his elderly mother, who had just been informed that her breast cancer had returned. As she convalesced, her son regaled her with stories from his life and shared the tale of the company he helped found. The author’s accomplishments are impressive, and he doesn’t hesitate to tout them, likening himself or the Ventana team to Darwin and Edison. But he gives credit to the many people who contributed to the company’s success, from the highflying venture capitalists who took a chance on Ventana to the lab techs and other employees who helped build the business and keep it running smoothly. Eventually, Grogan’s engaging odyssey comes full circle as the machines he helped create are used to correctly diagnose both his and his wife’s cancers.
An entertaining memoir that sheds light on a powerful yet little-known invention.Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63393-943-1
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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