A (non-cancerous) BOOK REVIEW

This is not HMS Victory

In fact, it is an Icelandic art form.

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For the good of my soul I continue to labor away at the science of cancer.  I hope my soul appreciates it.  Some of the stuff I attempt to comprehend is, to put it bluntly, pretty dull.  For instance, at the moment I am plodding through a book entitled Life’s Greatest Secret, by Matthew Cobb.  It is a retelling of the science leading to – and following – the discovery of the structure and significance of DNA.  An older book I have reviewed, The Eighth Day of Creation, covers the same territory – and much more readably - but only through about 1980.  I am about half way through Cobb’s book, so I will defer judgment until  later.  In the meantime, I am wrestling with prose structures such as (p. 112) “There is no indication that either Watson or Crick had read Shannon or Wiener, or that they were using the term in explicit reference to their mathematical ideas.  As with the word “code”, “information” seems to have been used as an intensely powerful metaphor rather than a precise theoretical construct.”

Poor me.

So, as you have certainly guessed, I need something fun to read for relief now and then, and that is the point of this little essay. 

I highly recommend the 20 volume Aubrey/Maturin series of naval adventures set during the Napoleonic Wars, written by Patrick O’Brian.  A movie was made recently based on two of the books: Master and Commander.  The Far Side of the Earth, starring Russell Crow.  I thought it was great – I’ve seen it at least three times*.  However, the books are better.  They contain great characters, pulse-pounding naval combat, adventures and misadventures in politics, religion, family life and romance, not to mention a good portrayal of life in the Royal Navy around the year 1800.  Now and then some valuable geography and/or history slips in, but painlessly – you don’t realize you’re learning something until it’s already learned.  O’Brian’s books are sometimes lazily compared with the Horatio Hornblower series of naval adventures but – I’ve read them, too – in the words of Jack Aubrey, “Hornblower ain’t in it.”  Some (wildly prejudiced? ) critics have judged O’Brian’s combined works as the greatest historical novel ever written.  I tend to agree.

But I should warn you- you may have trouble “getting into” the story; several of my  friends have given up in frustration.  Once you get inside the main characters you will be okay.  Just don’t go out and buy the whole shooting match; use the library.  The first book is called Master and Commander.  It pays to read the 20 volumes in sequence.

You’re welcome.

*I watched it again last night.  I loved it.