- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Little Brown and Company (April 14 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0316525901
- ISBN-13: 978-0316525909
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 962 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,350,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Still working more than 50 years after he won the Pulitzer for The Caine Mutiny, and more than 30 years after The Winds of War, Wouk, now nearly 90, has license to write what he pleases: in this case, a light, sprightly story about lost love, high-energy physics and the machinations of Washington. At 60, physicist Guy Carpenter is happily married and the father of two, including a new baby. In the late 1980s and early '90s, he worked on the Superconducting Super Collider, a gigantic federally funded project in Texas aimed at finding the elusive Higgs bosun subatomic particle. Congress pulled the plug on the SSC in 1993 in real life as well as in the novel professionally stranding Carpenter and leaving the Higgs bosun undiscovered. Ten years later, Carpenter has gotten his life back in order, but when a group of Chinese scientists publish a paper claiming to have discovered the Higgs bosun, his quiet existence is upended. Not only was Carpenter a key staff member on the SSC, he has sustained a secret romance since graduate school with Wen Mei Li, the chief scientist on the Chinese team. This confluence of circumstances puts Carpenter on the spot with his wife, the media, Congress and possibly the CIA. It also introduces him to a former movie star congresswoman, who's charmed by his intellect and sympathetic to his plight. The plot is busy but secondary to Carpenter's banter and romantic escapades. Occasionally corny but also playful, thoughtful and passionate, this first novel by Wouk in 10 years will charm fans with its companionable warmth and wry humor.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
""Wouk constructs a tidy atom of a story....A quick read that serves double duty as an entertaining contemporary romp a gently compelling argument for taking the Superconduct Super Collider project out of mothballs."
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
engaging work of a master,
By
This review is from: A Hole in Texas (Hardcover)
It's very difficult to write a great "light" book - this one is a thorough delight - don't miss it -
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engagingly light reading on a heavy subject,
By Ecologist (San Marcos, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Hole in Texas (Hardcover)
I am a serious book collector. Paperbacks are for amateurs, so to speak. This novel is certainly not of the caliber of earlier works by Wouk, but, that is more a reflection of the times, not the author. Living in Texas through the SSC fiasco I appreciate that it is lost but not forgotten. As a published scientist I relate to the troubles in funding, partcularly in reference to pure, hard, science. The need for long term research has been expounded by the National Research Council, although the commitment is great and the rewards tenuous, it is a fundamental need, no longer suited to academia. Quick, often flawed research is the only feasable route today. I appreciate Wouk's grasp of the politics involved in science and the short-sightedness of policy makers. This is more than enough to make the novel worth reading.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Almost Bad,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Hole in Texas (Hardcover)
Boy, I have to tell you this book was bland. Weak plot, not much of interest happened. References to the SSC were a stretch sometimes. Another reviewer's comparison to Dan Brown was laughable. Dan Brown's works are head and shoulders above this one.I guess if you just want to spend a coupla hours exercising your eyeballs, then go ahead and get it. Otherwise, save your money.
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