Book Review. Kepler, By - John Banville

Four Star Book, Simply superb

Johannes Kepler, master mathematician and astronomer, developed his theories in 16th century pre-Renaissance Germany. His work laid the foundation on which his successors, notably Isaac Newton, built the modern picture of the universe, that held until Einstein. This book is part of the Revolutions trilogy.

To say that this book is a biographical account of the life and the times of Kepler, would be to dilute the sheer power of the written word that John Banville has unleashed here. In essence, yes, it is a biography, but the moving imagery and the workings of a scientific mind have been crafted in words, that elevate the reader into an understanding of an age and time when 'astrology' and 'astronomy' coexisted without any boundaries of separation.

The author makes a bold attempt at presenting matters scientific on a mosaic of art and the psychological workings of the human mind. It is almost like learning 'science' solely by means of a 'prose text book'. With goals, as grand as these, strangely, the author wins, triumphantly. It may be that my excitement at reading this book was out of the sheer joy of discovering a topic that I had been drawn to, over the years, since, as  a child I had seen the life of Kepler being covered in an episode of 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan. Kepler's life fascinated me, so, finding this book was like finally coming upon the treasure of simple words, strung together, especially for me, as if he had me in mind when he wrote this book, just one reader.

The story itself is quite straight forward, dealing with the life and times of Kepler, his unhappy family life, his failure at steady paying employment, his often looked down upon hobby of astronomy, his astrological fancies, his Lutheran roots all set in medieval Germanic Europe, where events themselves are no more exciting than what the Wikipedia page on Kepler summarizes in a few pages. One has to say that the author has enriched the biography, with obviously unverifiable dialogues and monologues, the thought process of characters etc. which relegates this work to Fiction rather than researched historical biography. There could be an audience out there who does not find this whole topic of journey towards scientific pursuit interesting, and, for them it will be arduous plowing through this book, but, there would be others who would marvel at the life of a man who simply looked in the sky and asked 'God has an order by which celestial objects move?' An order, that he unravels in his lifetime, to an accuracy that modern means and methods have been unable to refine or even add to. To those readers, man's pursuit of science, will become a new area of fascination.

The biggest triumph of this piece is the use and the sheer audacity with which the author has exploited the English language. It draws you to new medieval words that one does not encounter often, but, if often forces you to stop and re-read a passage, before the economy of words which you encounter helps further the objective with which I believe this book was conceived with - presenting matters scientific on a mosaic of art. It is not an easy read, but, one that forces the reader to re-examine how a language can be used. Fans of David Mitchell will love this.

Hope you like it as much as I do.