Rating: 3/5
Review:
Rather disappointing
I was rather underwhelmed by Conversations With Galileo. It’s not
a bad insight into some of the man’s character and discoveries, but
for me it had some pretty big flaws.
William Shea plainly
knows a great deal about his subject and has a real enthusiasm for
both Galileo and the times in which he lived. The book is structured
in a series of brief chapters, each with a brief introduction and
then in the form of some rather open questions from Shea and
Galileo’s supposed answers. It’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t
really come off for me, largely because Galileo’s voice is
completely unconvincing. He describes events from his life and some
of his work in very understandable terms, but it’s all about as
natural as the 123-metre spire stuff about Salisbury from those two
Russian...er...gentlemen. It’s stilted and rather awkward to read,
and it’s not helped by a lack of focus in places. For example, the
plague from 1630-33 was a catastrophic and influential event in
Galileo’s life, but in such a short book the amount of time devoted
to the plague itself rather than its influence and effect on Galileo
was a real distraction.
I don’t mean to be
too critical, but I did find the book unsatisfactory. Even the
introduction by Dava Sobel (whose knowledge I respect greatly) was
rather overblown for my taste. I think this would have been better
as a simple, brief explanation of the man and his work, which I think
Shea would do very well. The structure of imagined conversations
didn’t do it for me and I can only give this a very qualified
recommendation.
(My thanks to
Watkins Publishing for and ARC via Netgalley.)
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