NONFICTION - July 2, 1995

MAPPING FATE: A Memoir of Family, Risk, and Genetic Research by Alice Wexler. (Times Books: $23; 294 pp.) Alice Wexler’s memoir of a life spent “at risk,” is actually two books: The first is an emotional story of family dynamics and pain, as Wexler describes her mother’s slow decline due to psychological problems, and eventually Huntington’s disease, a fatal, neurological illness. When she was in her mid-20s, Wexler was told that she and her sister had a 50% chance of inheriting Huntington’s, and no way of ascertaining if they carried the gene. “Words are spoken, but I no longer remember them. . . . There are no tears, no welling floods of grief or anger, but for me only a numb, anesthetized feeling, like being shot full of Novocaine.”

The second book in “Mapping Fate” is a long, well-organized account of how Wexler’s father and sister directed much of the research needed to identify the Huntington gene. It reads like a completely different book. Generally, when words such as homozygote, enzyme and Mendelian trait are introduced into a book, the dreamy images are over, and although “Mapping Fate” thoroughly explores how each discovery affects Wexler and her sister, it remains dominated by science.

Alice Wexler is a wonderful writer. Her ability to present her own family in an objective and moving way is matched only by her knack for explaining complex information.