Charles Davis (4) (1960–)
Autor(a) de Standing at the Crossroads
Para outros autores com o nome Charles Davis, veja a página de desambiguação.
Obras de Charles Davis
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
Membros
Resenhas
Prêmios
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 14
- Membros
- 87
- Popularidade
- #211,168
- Avaliação
- 4.2
- Resenhas
- 33
- ISBNs
- 81
- Idiomas
- 3
Freedom always comes at a price of course, be it political, romantic, scientific or geographic. In a time of shifting political freedoms, in a Europe of geographic uncertainty, and against a background of scientifically non-standard “feet,” there might be many prices to pay for defining the length of a meter.
The story is told with a pleasingly self-deprecating first person voice. Excellently and frequently humorous dialog brings scenes of human absurdity to enthralling life. Science and social science both include enough detail to convince, inform and entertain, while the protagonist’s gentle musings provide thought-provoking delight, as relevant today perhaps as they are to the time of the story—plus ça change , plus c'est la même chose? Great nuggets of wisdom abound, and “Men always prefer a worse way of knowing to a better way of learning.”
Luckily today we don’t risk being burned at the stake, challenged to a duel, or imprisoned in foreign jails for measuring fields and love—at least, not in general. But this story’s filled with historical detail, personal observation, unexpected excitement and enticement, a thoroughly old and thoroughly modern faith-science-politics trichotomy, and a well-drawn measure of life’s imperfection. “Our world is warped and we are bent out of shape” is as true now as then.
“Triangulating the absurd,” surveying grounds and relationships, and presenting a world of very different maps, romantic, entangled, magical and prosaic, the story measures values and absolutes, and the author succeeds in keeping the reader entertained and enticed, even through the distractions of entirely relevant rumination, making the novel a surprisingly fast read and surprisingly hard to put down. It’s the sort of novel that stays in your head when you’ve finished as well, and you’ll never look at a meter rule the same way again.
Disclosure: I was given a preview edition by the publisher and I offer my honest review.… (mais)