Review by Choice Review
Few educated people in today's world have not heard of Stephen Hawking, the physically handicapped scientific genius whose writings ranged from the most esoteric themes (cosmology and black holes) to popularizations such as A Brief History of Time (1988) and his own mini-autobiography, My Brief History (CH, Aug'14, 51-6807). But few know about the obsession of this renowned physicist with scientific glory and immortality. He wanted to be another Isaac Newton, an ambition perhaps not as uncommon as was his striving to achieve it in awkward ways. In this fascinating book, Seife (NYU) narrates Hawking's life and doings, including his marriage, complaints about fellow scientists, and wrecking the reputations of other physicists. In so doing, Seife exposes the "dirty linen" behind Hawking's well-deserved fame as an unusually brilliant mind. Readers get to know about Hawking's petty rivalries, paltry complaints, and pampering of the rich and the mighty to "hawk" his own reputation. Aside from covering Hawking's interactions with the press and his publishers, the text also presents a few scattered but intelligible expositions of technical physics. This is a fascinating biography of a truly great (intellectually speaking) human being. Sadly, it is perhaps the only biography in this reader's experience that brings down a hero from the pedestal he occupied until now. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Varadaraja V. Raman, emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Hailed as a new Newton, Stephen Hawking stunned colleagues when he agreed to accept a popular bookie's invitation to make a prediction on England's chances in the 2014 World Cup. In Hawking's headline-grabbing venture as a sports prognosticator, Seife discerns just one of the deeply problematic consequences of the brilliant scientist's zealous pursuit of celebrity. To be sure, readers learn of Hawking's pathbreaking achievements as a theoretical physicist pioneering the big bang theory and advancing conceptual understanding of black holes. But Seife's focus is not on Hawking as a powerful scientist but, rather, on Hawking as a dazzling public image, a cultural icon. Readers see how that image develops, becoming that of a secular saint, as millions begin to view the wheelchair-bound ALS sufferer as a superhuman mind defying his body's physical constraints. However, in Seife's view, that image of quasi-sainthood actually obscured a flawed human being, one whose arrogant callousness destroyed his marriage and family. Seife even avers that Hawking's celebrityhood interfered with his scientific work as it weakened ties with colleagues and drew him into mass-media venues, where he could promulgate sensational doomsday musings on aliens and artificial intelligence. The outrage this book will generate among Hawking's admirers will pique the interest of the curious.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Seife (Virtual Unreality) takes a convoluted look at the life of physicist and renowned science communicator Stephen Hawking (1942--2018). Seife makes the case that despite the glowing press Hawking received, he was neither the world's preeminent physicist nor a particularly talented writer. Instead, "he was a brand." Nodding to Hawking's passion for theories of time travel, Seife tells his story in reverse order, beginning with Hawking's death and rewinding to his birth. Seife covers Hawking's education at Cambridge University, his first wife Jane's memoirs, and tabloid coverage of his "sexual outings in California." Unfortunately, Seife's telling in reverse is more gimmicky than instructive, despite Seife's claim that "the life of Stephen Hawking becomes clearer as time moves backward, as the accumulated layers of celebrity and legend are stripped away." That Seife recognizes the problems with this approach is clear from the frequency with which he alerts readers that pertinent information will appear in later chapters, from earlier in Hawking's life. Seife also isn't always successful in translating high-level physics into accessible terms ("The Feynman path integral method works in a manifold that has a Euclidian geometry," for example). Readers will gain a glimpse into the life of a larger-than-life scientist, even if Seife doesn't bring a lot new to the table. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
There are few scientists whose public fame and renown can compare to that of Steven Hawking (1942--2018). His contributions to science led to his being one of three scientists buried at Westminster Abbey. His contributions to physics include the singularity theorem, which was a catalyst for igniting his storied career. He was also diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 21. At the time, doctors told him he had two to three more years to live, but he lived to be 76. Seife (Arthur L. Carter Journalism Inst., New York Univ.; Virtual Unreality) provides a singular exploration of Hawking's life, starting with his famous adulthood and then moving back in time to his childhood, in order to assist readers in separating the celebrity from the scientist. Along the way, the author explores Hawking's personal life, including his two difficult marriages and his sometimes-complicated relationships with his children. Seife writes accessibly and succesfully creates a nuanced portrait of Hawking that balances his successes with his flaws. VERDICT This thorough biography reveals Hawking's life beyond his celebrity, and is recommended for anyone interested in learning more about the scientist's legacy and life.--Gary Medina, El Camino Coll., Torrance, CA
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) was the world's most famous scientist for the last 30 years of his life. This engrossing, sometimes unsettling account shows why. NYU journalism professor Seife writes that Hawking converted cosmology from a backwater to "the most exciting field in physics, an area that was (and still is) generating Nobel Prize after Nobel Prize for transforming our understanding of how the universe came to be." In his 1965 doctoral thesis, Hawking proved that the Big Bang, which gave birth to the universe, had to be an infinitely small point where the laws of physics don't apply. This "singularity theorem" ignited his career. During the 1970s and '80s, he produced spectacular, highly mathematical discoveries on black holes and the early universe that dazzled colleagues. Due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, his strength began declining in the 1960s, and by the '80s, he was entirely paralyzed and unable to talk. Britain's National Health Service paid basic medical expenses, but only a rich man could have afforded the army of attendants that allowed him to live at home, work, communicate, socialize, and travel the world. Fortunately, he had become an international celebrity and author of the blockbuster 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time. This eased his financial troubles at the time, but they persisted for the remainder of his life. Many of his subsequent books were "carelessly edited" knockoffs designed to make money, and Hawking often endorsed products in exchange for cash. As Seife demonstrates, the public and a worshipful media ignored his discoveries but obsessed about his disability, personal life, and his "pronouncements." Any scandal, such as his "yen for strip clubs," added to the legend. The last of many movies about him, The Theory of Everything (2014), was "a tear-jerker of a love story." The author's excellent explanation of Hawking's science makes this a top-notch biography of a significant scientific figure, but Seife also produces a uniquely disturbing portrait of deliberate mythmaking. An unflattering yet outstanding biography of a giant of 20th-century physics. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
