The Fifth Mountain

Title: The Fifth Mountain

Author: Paulo Coelho

Publisher:  HarperCollins, 2012 (First published 1998)

ISBN: 978-81-7223-514-7

Pages: 244

This is the fourth review of Coelho’s works here, including The Alchemist, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, and Like the Flowing River. I sincerely wish this is not the last, but the recurring theme in all of Coelho’s collection seems to be the same that reading another book of his doesn’t warrant the loyal attention. In plain language, it gets boring after a certain point. I struggled with Aleph, another of the author’s adventures, but dropped it halfway. Possibly intoxicated with The Alchemist’s phenomenal success, the author appears to have fallen in a groove, which churns out morally uplifting stories and articles for the depressed. The works are carefully designed to accommodate the worries and tribulations of people who’ve erred in the past, and are in search of a paradigm to move forward in life. They find their own anxieties expressed by Coelho’s characters in the book who get them quenched in the ebullient flow of wisdom preached by another set of characters. I have lost track of counting the number of times the phrase ‘Warriors of Light’ appear in his books. It seems to fill his literary yield. The huge number of readers vying to get hold of his works should not deter us from taking a close scrutiny of his writing under the cold light of reason. We would be struck aghast at the pointlessness of some of his creations – some parts of them, at least. The driving theme of his masterpiece, The Alchemist, which runs “When you strongly desire for something, the whole universe conspires to get it to you” is one such idea. It is beautiful and so consoling to the ailing heart, but, what does it mean practically? Absolutely nothing, to say the least. So, the idea revered by many people falls to the level of a candy, which is sweet to taste – for a short time, after which the harsh and bitter reality comes biting back.

The Fifth Mountain is also written and produced in the same mould. It concerns about the flight of Israelite prophet Elijah from his homeland where the foreign-born queen Jezebel has tempted King Ahab to adopt Phoenician gods and kill all Israeli prophets. Elijah flies to Lebanon and reaches the town of Zarephath, which its inhabitants call Akbar. He finds accommodation with a young widow having a boy. The child dies, and Elijah returns him to life, by performing a miracle his god kindly grants him. Though he rises in stature among the society, he falls foul of the machinations of the High Priest who is disgusted with the spread of writing and alphabet. The priest worries that when writing becomes universal, the priests have nothing to memorize about and the knowledge will be shared by all. In his wicked desire to destroy the city, he persuades the governor to intensify provocations against the Assyrian army which was camped outside the city walls. Ignoring the invading Army’s appeal for peace, the Governor kills an envoy and invites the wrath of a numerically superior armed force. They attacked one night, decimated the city’s warriors and torched the houses. All young men fled for their lives, leaving the women, children and invalid to fend for themselves. As the governor also fled, Elijah assumed leadership of the town to rebuilt it in memory of the young widow whom he loved and who was killed in the Assyrian attack. The town prospered beyond recognition under Elijah’s guidance, which he left to go back to Israel according to his god’s command.

Coelho turns the trials of Elijah into an inspiring story of how faith and love can ultimately triumph over suffering and that those two feelings are not mutually exclusive. Elijah’s inner struggle when he realizes that the widow’s love was bothering him in following the path which god had set before him is notable for the reconciliation he achieved in the end. The book is easy to read, though not definitely a page-turner. Being a translation, or in spite of, the text is smooth flowing and appealing to all classes of readers. Definitely, you can have a try of this book, if this is one of your first Coelhos. Otherwise, for those who know his style and work from his earlier volumes, there is nothing much new to discern from this one. Whatever we may highlight against the work, there is no denying that Coelho is an enchanting storyteller, and inspires people all over the world to see beyond the ordinary and into the remarkable.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 2 Star

The Man Who Invented History

Title: The Man Who Invented History – Travels With Herodotus

Author: Justin Marozzi

Publisher:  John Murray, 2009 (First published 2008)

ISBN: 978-0-7195-6713-1

Pages: 326

Justin Marozzi is a gifted travel-writer cum historian, whose book, Tamerlane was one of the very first reviews to be published in this blog. He has written widely on the Muslim world, travel and exploration. Being a former journalist, his acumen to interact with local society wherever he travels stands out in a commendable way. In this book on Herodotus and his book, Histories, Marozzi establishes with the ease of a journalist that Herodotus, widely known as the Father of History, was also the world’s first travel writer and foreign correspondent, a pioneering geographer, fearless explorer, and above all, an irrepressible storyteller. In short, a Justin Marozzi Senior, who seems to be the functional ancestor of the author. Marozzi takes the reader back to the ancient world with travels to Greece, Turkey, Egypt and war-torn Iraq to produce a sensational blend of travel and history in the true spirit of the man who invented it.

Living in 5^th century BCE Greece, Herodotus compiled information from all corners of the human world known at that time and presented it in a delightful way through his book Histories, which heralded a new era in prose-writing. His book is not admissible now in a compendium of made-to-rule history books on account of numerous tall tales, unsubstantiated facts and simple hearsay contained in its pages. But, as the founding source of the great river that is historical knowledge, it is worthwhile for enthusiasts to read it and get carried away on its wings across an ocean of time. Herodotus is not to be believed in his entirety. There are folk tales, hearsay, wild imaginations and prejudices, but it also brings forth a beacon of cultural tolerance rare in so early a sample of writing. He advocates peace, as “only a fool will take war for peace, for in peace sons bury fathers, whereas in war, fathers bury sons”. Acceptance and toleration of other people’s beliefs and religions is imperative in the work, as “every man thinks the religion he was brought up in to be the best, hence only a mad man will go about rubbishing other faiths”. While bestowing such anachronistically enlightened thoughts on the one hand, Herodotus writing style is often titillating and is often of a salacious character. He leaves no chance to write about weird sexual practices in other countries which are clever ploys to get the attention of his listeners riveted to his work.

The war between Persia and Greece forms the backbone of Herodotus’ narrative. Great emperors Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes tried to bring the Greeks to submission, but failed. Darius’ mighty army was defeated at Marathon by a miniscule Greek force and sent packing along the Aegian. Xerxes attempted a land-based attack in 481 BCE. Though he won a Pyrrhic victory over the Spartans led by Leonidas at Thermopylae, he suffered heavy setbacks at Salamis and Mycale prompting a hasty retreat back home. Persian ambition vaned and Greeks were free – to continue infighting among the city states. Marozzi argues that Greek victory over Persia in 479 BCE marked the beginning of the concept of ‘West’ as we know it today. Democracy and freedom of Greece is said to have triumphed over despotism and emasculation of Persia. Readers are free to contest such outlandish assertions.

Marozzi begins his journey from Bodrum, Turkey which was the ancient Halicarnassus, Herodotus’ native place. Today’s Turkish population in the city seems to have lost track of their old compatriot. The historian has become history in his own land and the only things which remind a traveller about the great historian now is an obscure traffic junction and a bust in front of the city’s archeological museum, which holds some remains of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, which was an architectural wonder of ancient times. Then comes Babylon, now in Iraq, the cradle of civilisation described by a starry eyed Herodotus, though appreciated more for the peculiar customs of the Babylonians – read sexual. The author’s travels to Baghdad and Babylon coincided with the aftermath of the second Gulf War which overthrew Saddam Hussein. There were general looting during transitional period to new regime, the antiquities then came into the hands of allied troops. Unfortunately, the Polish troops which had Babylon under their command damaged several sites irreparably, to make way for a vehicle parking lot. Apparently, heritage is being damaged in modern times too, even by Western forces.

Herodotus was dumbstruck when he saw Egypt. The pyramids simply fascinated him and the Nile beseeched him for attention. He gives accurate dimensional details of the Great Pyramids and waxes eloquently about mummification processes, which seem to be a faithful copy of the ancient processes. Regular flooding of the Nile annually which ensured fertility of the land, beguiled him to speculate about its possible sources. Herodotus had long talks with temple priests and he reports about the oracle at Siwa, which Alexander visited a century after he did, to ascertain whether he was indeed the son of God. Naturally, the oracle acquiesced.

Marozzi finally turns to Greece, whose virtues even the cosmopolitan Herodotus extolled. Amidst the island-hopping crisscrosses on the Aegean, he travels far and wide to visit remains of ancient monuments described by the historian. On the journey, the author notes with mild astonishment at the loss of toleration to neighbouring Turkey and its culture, witnessed among the modern Greeks. It may be true that Greece was under Ottoman rule from 1453 to 1821, and the war of independence with the Turks was violent, but the religious prejudice which colours the deals between modern-day neighbours is so wide a chasm that can be crossed easily. Islamophobia is actually fostered by the Greek Orthodox Church, the state religion, so that not a single mosque is allowed to be erected in Athens. This is indeed a blot on the glorious heritage the modern nation purports to uphold, but such are the times.

The book is well endowed with excellent prose. Marozzi’s superb diction is dazzling when compared many other titles in the same genre. The style is so humorous, so easy flowing and demanding so untedious an attention from the reader. As well as recounting the excellent structure of ancient architecture, Marozzi excels himself in structuring long sentences without batting an eyelid, yet we find it impressive. An example is, “Herodotus’ first-person comments and asides reveal an educated, enlightened, adventurous, endlessly curious man with a dancing intellect and a felicitous turn of phrase, someone with a powerful sense of wonder and an all-encompassing humanity, brimming with relentless wanderlust and an irrepressible storytelling zeal, revelling in his fizzing sexual curiosity and fierce tolerance of other cultures, buoyed along on the currents of historical inquiry by his continent-spanning humour, ranging wit and questing wisdom” (p.9). Wow, seems to be another Toynbee is in the making! Good photographic plates interspersed with the text is quite relevant and adds a touch of reality to the whole endeavour.

Some very negative points must also be indicated. In order to make the venture appealing to readers, Marozzi follows the same approach followed by his ancient friend – resort a lot to references of a sexual nature. It must be mentioned sadly that the author has crossed the limit on at least two or three occasions where I find the text inappropriate for young readers (of course, taste or tolerance to such matters are purely subjective!). It is very sad to realize that Marozzi has denied our young readers the services of a very informative and interesting book with one or two of his indiscretions. Besides, the section on Greece appears to be somewhat purposeless. The sites he visited are uninviting, and narration drops to the level of a bit tedious, probably as an echo of the mediocrity of the subject.

The book is highly recommended, subject to the caveat on the above paragraph.

Rating: 3 Star

The Incredible Human Journey

Title: The Incredible Human Journey – The Story of How We Colonised the Planet

Author: Alice Roberts

Publisher:  Bloomsbury, 2009 (First)

ISBN: 978-0-7475-9839-8

Pages: 333

Alice Roberts is a qualified medical doctor and has been a lecturer in Anatomy at the University of Bristol in U.K. She is interested in paleoanthropology and evolutionary anatomy. She has a PhD in paleopathology – the study of diseases in ancient bones. She writes and talks about science and works closely with the BBC. This book is the story and lessons obtained when she traveled around the world, retracing the footsteps of our ancestors who toddled out of Africa in the dawn of prehistory and went on to establish empires of adaptation to hostile environments and social networks around the globe. Even without the convenience of technology propping them up on artifacts custom-made for their ventures, the forefathers crossed imposing seas, navigated mighty rivers, and beachcombed to reach all the continents except Antarctica. Roberts tells the epic story from the source in Africa to the destinations at many places around the world by visiting the prominent locations where archeological record has materialized fossils and stone tools to provide clues about how the ancient people lived, worked and died.

Roberts presents the book as easily approachable by any class of readers. Unlike most other books, the fundamental concepts are not taken for granted as something they already know about. Instead, each is given a brief, but adequate explanation. In the introducing chapter, she prepares the groundwork by listing out the ages of paleontological record, evolution of hominins and the methods by which archeologists measure the age of artifacts. We learn that a new method called Luminiscence Dating has been invented to assess the age of interesting objects buried in the ground. This is much accurate and gives the age of the sample after it was last heated. Crystals of natural quartz release electrons as a result of being subjected to ionizing radiation from other radioactive materials or cosmic radiation. These will be trapped in crystal faults and will be released only when they are heated. When it is buried, heating is no longer possible and electrons continue to accumulate in faults. By measuring the amount of electrons, we get the age of the sample. The method works best for items which are a few years old to millions of years.

Though hominins were in existence for the last two million years, modern humans are thought to have originated as a separate species in East Africa around 200,000 years ago. Being in the Pleistocene era, it was a time of glacials (Ice age), with few warm intervals called interglacials in between. Human fossils of this period have been found in the Omo valley in Ethiopia. Then, probably due to climatic fluctuations, they moved on to Asia, by two possible routes through Egypt or across the Red Sea to Arabia. Being a glacial period, the deserts were very arid, and sea level was about 80 m lower. The early people could cross over to Arabia by sailing across the waters which was only 11 km wide. Roberts visits India, Malaysia and Australia to trace the probable route our ancestors must have taken in colonizing the world. The migration might have occurred along the coast, since that way, people could continue with their essentially marine food sources. However, the sea level has considerably risen from the levels 60,000 or 70,000 years ago. The earliest settlements, if there were any, would probably be under the sea, several kilometers outward from the present coastline. Very few fossils had been discovered from Asia for this period, though plenty of stone tools were recovered. The possibility of coexistence of modern humans with other hominin species also may have to be suspected, as evidenced by the discovery of Homo floresiensis, a sub-species of dwarf-people identified to have lived in Flores Island of Indonesia until as late as 10,000 years ago. Such finds give credence to the much supported, but academically unsupported hypothesis of ‘muti-regionalism’ as against ‘Out of Africa’ theory. Its proponents argue that humans evolved separately from different homo species in several parts of the world and it accounts for the differences between various races.

The original emigrants from Africa seems to have split into two groups in India, with one branch going north through Khyber Pass to Central Asia and Siberia. The other group went east along the Himalayan valley to South East Asia. They further diffused north to China and invented agriculture by planting rice. Roberts finds in modern China a government clinging dearly to the notion that Chinese people have descended from a unique lineage of Homo erectus, and not from Africa. Ideas of patriotism and racial superiority underline such extravagant and baseless claims. The author points out fossil evidence and also scientists from China itself who oppose this theory. Migration to Europe started side by side with this development. People who went there seem to have run the chance of sharing the land with Neanderthals, our closest homo cousins. Though not conclusively proved, it is widely believed that the two species lived alongside each other in Europe. Increased competition for the same resources, inter-species conflicts, and failure in adapting to fluctuating climate would have resulted in the extinction of Neanderthals. Modern humans took over Europe thereafter and development of social networks are seen in cave art demonstrated in many French caves like Lascaux. Meanwhile in Levant, agriculture developed as indicated by a recent find in Gobekli Tepe in Turkey. Initially, it brought about a decline in life expectancy due to restricted diet and epidemics, but increased growth rate of population offset the down trend. Agriculture gradually spread around the world.

People from East Asia crossed over to the Americas around 20,000 years ago and spread there. Bering Straits, which separates Alaska and Siberia today, was a vast landmass in those times of glaciation, so crossing over was not an issue. The diffusion across the continent are attested by remnants of Clovis cultures at various locations in the continent. Extinction of mega fauna like mammoth, mastodons and the like also occurred with the human spread. Probably our ancestors might have killed them off, or devastating climate change might have taken its toll. There is another curious theory explained in connection with the extinction. Around 13,000 years ago, a comet of small asteroid is believed to have exploded over North America, evidenced by a layer of black ash seen in many places on the continent. The extinction seems to be contemporaneous with this. However, this is only a hypothesis which requires extensive proof to be taken into the corpus of knowledge. Roberts ends her journey by traveling south to Chile, to the coast known as Mont Verde.

The book is neatly written, with a distinct thread of readability presented by every page in the volume. The most likely reason for this seems to be the fact that the author is not a diehard paleontologist who usually measure time in ­–zoic eras. The volume is immensely made attractive by a large collection of good quality colour plates collected across the author’s journey around the globe. Since the travel was sponsored by BBC as a part of television series, the book is not really meant to be taken too seriously.

This volume is in fact a mixture of the author’s travelogue of her 6-months old journey as part of a BBC television series and the paleontological content was developed mainly for the show. The ambitious title don’t do justice to the content. As a consequence, it lacks the grace of a travelogue and the punch of an anthropological work. However comprehensive was Robert’s attempts to develop the glossary, there are some ideas which she has left undescribed, such as human haplogroups like L1, M and N, which were never elucidated in detail. Towards the end, the author muses on the future course of action in front of humanity. To mitigate human-induced climate change, she advises to aim for ‘low-tech’, less energy-hungry life styles (p.332). Nonetheless, the concept that low-tech is energy efficient is plain wrong. On closer examination it may be seen that it is energy-wasting. What we should aim for is energy-efficient solutions, which would obviously be high-tech.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Like the Flowing River

Title: Like the Flowing River

Author: Paulo Coelho

Publisher:  Harper Collins, 2011 (First published 2005)

ISBN: 978-0-00-724630-4

Pages: 232

Paulo Coelho is one of the most sought-out authors in the world. Difference in languages does not seem to pose a hurdle between the gifted writer and his enthusiastic fan be it in Chile, in Sweden or in India. There is always a hidden strand of comprehension running across the barriers of religion, language or culture, which binds the writer firmly tied to the readers. Perhaps we need not wonder at the sturdiness of the relationship. Man, being the same everywhere, the path and the vehicle to ride into his inner depths are the same – what a shrewd one needs to do is learn to ride the vehicle which bestows him the talent to disregard the make or brand. Coelho wields the supreme talent to directly speak to the inner selves of the readers. The subtle signals which emanate from one individual to make sense to another defy common sense, logic and the rules of semantics. That may be why Coelho exerts such a pull on book lovers everywhere on the planet. Like the Flowing River is a collection of thoughts and reflections of the author, published through his syndicated columns in news papers published in many languages. It consists of about 100 essays on various topics from self-improvement to community living to international peace. Always a conservative, the author treads cautiously and along with established religions whenever any of his utterances might seem to ruffle the feathers of established wisdom.

Spirituality is a double-edged sword. It leads enlightened souls on the path of rectitude by shining brightly before them on their arduous trail which is narrow and winding. The promise of this guiding beacon to transcend physical mortality to become one with the supreme being, or creator, or whatever we may call it keeps them straightforwardly riveted to the correct path. Atheists and agnostics, who are the beacons for quite a different route to truth, have no bones of contention with these straight souls who live a life of spotless clarity. However, there is another, dark, and sinister side of spirituality which is surprisingly rampant and eclipses its benevolent twin-brother. How else can we account for the fanatical and murderous tirades being enacted in many places of the world against the screening of a film which is supposed to have ridiculed the founder of one of the major religions of the world? Coelho’s spirituality and message thankfully belong to the former category which could provide solace and confidence to many individuals who falter in their steps without knowing the right thing to do.

The book abounds with pearls of wisdom and very practical ways for dealing with seemingly impossible tasks. In one of the essays, titled Statutes for the New Millennium, two of the author’s sixteen points deserve mention here. They are, 1) Every human being has the right to search for happiness, and by ‘happiness’ is meant something that makes that individual feel content, not necessarily something that makes other people feel content and 2) Every human being should keep alive within them the sacred flame of madness, but should behave as a normal person (p.115). Another essay, Charity Under Threat (p.127) describes how a swindler obtained money from Coelho’s wife posing to be a foreign tourist who has been robbed by local thugs. Even when it became clear that her generosity has been exploited by an unscrupulous guy, she says, “Well, that’s not going to stop me helping anyone”! It proves how the inner light that guides us from within is and should be unperturbed by the storms that may upset all external considerations. Since I was also personally a victim to such a gimmick 18 years ago in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, it touched a cord with me. Essays like The Second Chance, which says life always gives a second chance after the failed first is very encouraging for depressed persons.

The greatest thing we can find unappealing in the book is its overzealous dependence on spirituality and power of belief. Coelho seems to cross the line in promoting these vague ideas to the hilt. How could rational people be on the same page as Paulo Coelho when he says that “I have seen the weather being changed, for example; I have seen operations performed without anaesthetic. Believe me if you like – or laugh at me if that is the only way you can read what I am writing – but I have seen the transmutation of base metal; I have seen spoons being bent; and lights shining in the air around me because someone said this was going to happen (and it did)”? (p.129).

Even with the unfamiliar terrain of spirituality and belief, the reading experience was altogether a good one. With a positive outlook on life, many of the recommendations and Aesop’s fables-like moral stories are redundant to our personal lives. The book is easy to read and serves its purpose to impart a sense of belonging in the readers’ minds. The author has been immensely successful in achieving his aim.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

The Double Helix

Title: The Double Helix – A Personal Account of the Discovery of The Structure of DNA

Author: James D Watson

Publisher:  Touchstone, 2001 (First published 1968)

ISBN: 978-0-7432-1630-2

Pages: 226

The transmission of heredity from parent to offspring was a mystery that long baffled thinkers and scientists over the ages. The clever mechanism by which many traits were passed on, while maintaining differences too, eluded them all. Several options were cited as possibles, but each one was more outlandish than the one it tried to replace. The form of man, reduced to a micro-scale was once thought to reside in a sperm cell which acted as a prototype for zygote development. Even as science, read physics, paced like a steam roller in the first half of 20^th century, biology was far behind in sophistication and technique. Immediately after the second world war, things began to change. The transfer of heredity was suspected to be through proteins first, which was later clarified to be the DNA. Touted as the secret of life, a structure for it had to be found out. The search was eagerly carried out by biologists, chemists and physicists. The race for top spot in biology ended in 1953, when Francis Crick and James D Watson, the author of this book, discovered it to be a double helix and proposed schemes for how it was conveyed from father to son. This event is considered to be the most exalted moment in biology after the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Unlike most scientists, Watson was a gifted writer too, giving us his first-hand experience of the major events and personalities involved in the cut-throat race to the prime spot. In a witty account of what went through the scientific world at that time, Watson describes the milestones on the road to discovery.

However eagerly the people searched for the secret, truth lay hidden in the mist of uncertainty and technological incompetence. Microbiological entities being extremely small, no amount of intuition or intellect would reveal its structure until X-ray crystallography and diffraction methods came along. The spark came from an illuminating book by Erwin Schrodinger, noted physicist, published in 1946, titled What is Life?, in which he argued that in order to understand life, genes should be studied in detail. Many books attribute to Schrodinger the credit for identifying genes behind transfer of heredity, but we may suspect that he had copied the idea from the prevailing wisdom of the times. James Watson, an American, went to Europe to study biochemistry, but found it to be uninteresting. He gravitated to DNA research, after coming to know about progress being made in the search for its structure in Britain, particularly by Maurice Wilkins, a physicist himself.

An important scientific discovery is bound to astonish us by the ingenuity of the scientists involved. But on closer inspection, we get to know that subtle moves in the right direction had begun much earlier and he was lucky enough to stand on the shoulders of his colleagues and predecessors in getting a first glimpse of the goal. Linus Pauling, a Nobel laureate in Chemistry and Peace, had discovered at that time that many proteins, which are synthesized with instructions from DNA, had a helical structure. The crystallographic reports of fellow scientists at London, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin had confirmed it. In fact, for a time, it was thought unethical for two of their fellows to work on the same problem. Wilkins had gone much further along the path that Watson humorously declares that such considerations were unquestionably irrelevant in America or elsewhere, but in England alone.

Watson met a fellow British physicist-turned-biologist, Francis Crick at the Cavendish Lab in Cambridge and put together a team. It was true that they were not considered serious workers by even their colleagues at the lab. However, it struck upon them to attempt to create physical models of molecular structure to unravel the internal arrangement of DNA. This method was considered to be too simplistic as against analysis with X-ray crystallography by Wilkins and Franklin who were the leaders in the field at that time. They first hinted that sugar-phosphate backbone of DNA was external to nucleotide bases. This was a crucial step in correctly deducing the double helical structure. Also, Watson was greatly aided by an X-ray image called ‘B-form’, of DNA taken by the team. Unfortunately for Wilkins and Franklin, the continued bickering between them ensured that they couldn’t complete the chain of argument to its logical conclusion. Franklin did not come around to helix until it was too late.

Crick and Watson were stung into rapid action when Linus Pauling announced a three-chain helical model for DNA. However, his model contained a very basic, but serious error overlooked by the great scientist. Watson noted the error, but was afraid to point it out on the apprehension that once Pauling realized his silly mistake, he would leave no stone unturned in racing to the correct solution. Exactly at this point, the B-form photo prompted the lucky pair to arrive at the –thereafter much celebrated – double helix model in 1953. Crick and Watson, along with Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962 for the achievement. Rosalind Franklin died in 1958 due to cancer and hence uneligible to be considered for the prize.

As earlier noted, the book is outstanding for the first-person account of the proceedings. No biographer could include the zeal and enthusiasm of the protagonists in a brief account such as this. It is an excellent memoir, made more exceptional by including some exclusive photographs of major scientific get-togethers from the author’s personal collection. The book is endowed with an excellent introduction by Sylvia Nasar, the author of A Beautiful Mind. She comments that the book is an affectionate paean to a rare friendship and a joyous celebration of the importance of being playful while pursuing a Nobel. The approach of the author is quite candid, as regarding Crick, he says, “most people thought that he talked too much”! Writing on the character of scientists, he says that “One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid” (p.14).

However well intentioned the illustrations are, many do not suit the point under discussion. The molecular diagrams given for aiding comprehension directly go above the heads of most readers. The group portraits of odd international symposia on genetics in which the author participated, look like they were put there just to oblige the author in order to exhaust his stock of images. The description in the main text is also drab to the extreme. Even Watson’s frequent references to how pretty girls enliven the scholarly Cambridge atmosphere turn out to be dutiful remarks to keep the reader in good humour. The narration is competent, but lacks vitality and interest. This is quite unlike Watson’s other book, DNA – The Secret of Life, which was reviewed earlier in the blog, and given a 5-star rating.

The book is recommended for serious readers.

Rating: 2 Star