| Author: |
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Alan Lightman
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| Title: |
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GOOD BENITO: A Novel |
| Moochable copies: |
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No copies available |
| Amazon suggests: |
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| Recommended: |
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| Topics: |
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| Published in: |
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English |
| Binding: |
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Hardcover |
| Pages: |
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215 |
| Date: |
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1995-01-15 |
| ISBN: |
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0679436146 |
| Publisher: |
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Pantheon |
| Weight: |
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0.7 pounds |
| Size: |
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5.5 x 1.0 x 7.75 inches |
| Edition: |
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1st |
Amazon prices: |
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| Description: |
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Product Description
Throughout his life, Bennett Long pursues a vision that compels him to become a scientist and that transforms the everyday world into one of purity, beauty, and order, whose very allure lies in its unattainable ideal. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Tour.
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| Reviews: |
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chris (Japan) (2010/07/05):
As a physicist, Bennett Lang prefers the elegant purity of scientific equations to the inevitable messiness of human life. Warned by his mentor to avoid any questions that cannot be answered with mathematical certainty, Bennett finds himself repeatedly involved in problems that defy such solutions. His friend becomes hopelessly addicted to drugs, his uncle gambles compulsively, his father silently suffers the traumas induced by World War II, and his wife is a talented but fiercely self-destructive artist. Lightman's narrative is brief and episodic, leaving haunting gaps between events. Since the story covers more than 30 years of Bennett's life, characters appear and disappear with sparse development. Much less cerebral than Einstein's Dreams (LJ 11/15/92), this second novel remains equally elegant in style. Recommended for general collections.
chris (Japan) (2010/07/05):
Alan Lightman has written a series of vignettes about the passage of an idealistic youth into not-very-rewarding adulthood. Although Benito (as his best friend John dubbed him) has success in theoretical science, it is not matched when it comes to his personal encounters later in life, where relentless bad fortune is visited upon him as he grows older.
Possibly because I grew up similarly in the warm grasp of science, I thoroughly enjoyed Bennett's childhood experiences and his close friendship with John, who shared his interests. Later, Bennito was most at home in the detached world of mathematics, where a clean sheet of white paper and a pencil opened the magical doors to his creativity. He naturally was led to a career in science, which provided him with all the satisfactions and rewards he seemed to need.
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| URL: |
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http://bookmooch.com/0679436146 |
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