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Summary
A grand gothic novel of the outer reaches of passion -- of the body and of the mind -- PROPERTIES OF LIGHT is a mesmerizing tale of consuming love and murderous professional envy that carries the reader into the very heart of a physics problem so huge and perplexing it thwarted even Einstein: the nature of light. Caught in the entanglements of erotic and intellectual passion are three physicists: Samuel Mallach is a brilliant theoretician unhinged by the professional glory he feels has been stolen from him; Dana is his intriguing and gifted daughter, whose desperate devotion to her father contributes to the tragic undoing of Justin Childs, her lover and her father's protege. All three are working together to solve some of the deepest and most controversial problems in quantum mechanics, problems that challenge our understanding of the "real world" and of the nature of time.
The book grapples with these elusive mysteries, but at its heart is a fiery love story of startling urgency. Insights into quantum mechanics and relativity theory are attached to the nerve fibers of human emotions, and these connections are alive with poignancy and pathos.
For these characters, the passion to know and understand, like the desire for love, is full of terrible risk, holding out possibilities for heartbreak as well as for ecstasy. The true subject of Properties of Light is the ecstatic response to reality, perhaps the only response that can embrace the erotic and the poetic, the scientific and the spiritual. Written with, and about, a rare form of passion, this incandescent novel is fiction at its most daring and utterly original.
The book grapples with these elusive mysteries, but at its heart is a fiery love story of startling urgency. Insights into quantum mechanics and relativity theory are attached to the nerve fibers of human emotions, and these connections are alive with poignancy and pathos.
For these characters, the passion to know and understand, like the desire for love, is full of terrible risk, holding out possibilities for heartbreak as well as for ecstasy. The true subject of Properties of Light is the ecstatic response to reality, perhaps the only response that can embrace the erotic and the poetic, the scientific and the spiritual. Written with, and about, a rare form of passion, this incandescent novel is fiction at its most daring and utterly original.
Details
- Title Properties of Light
- Author Goldstein, Rebecca
- Binding Trade Cloth
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 244
- Language EN
- Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York
- Date 2000-08-29
- ISBN 9780395986592
Media reviews
"Brilliantly told . . . Goldstein's style is magnetic, with a poetic economy... She makes the physics fascinating."
Boston Globe
"Chronicles the quest of three physicists seeking to reconcile quantum mechanics and relativity theory ... bewitchingly ethereal ... gracefully deconstructs our contradictory impulses." Publishers Weekly
"Goldstein brings . . . an ability to . . . reveal . . . the large and immutable principles that stand . . . behind even the smallest and most intimate gestures." Elle
"Goldstein certainly writes with knowledge of both science and emotion, shining light on both for her readers." Library Journal Starred
"A brilliant novel by a master of the world of ideas, the English language, and the human heart." -- Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works
"Explores the powerful tension between our desire to know and our desire to love, revealing the dangers inherent in both." Memphis Commercial Appeal
Boston Globe
"Chronicles the quest of three physicists seeking to reconcile quantum mechanics and relativity theory ... bewitchingly ethereal ... gracefully deconstructs our contradictory impulses." Publishers Weekly
"Goldstein brings . . . an ability to . . . reveal . . . the large and immutable principles that stand . . . behind even the smallest and most intimate gestures." Elle
"Goldstein certainly writes with knowledge of both science and emotion, shining light on both for her readers." Library Journal Starred
"A brilliant novel by a master of the world of ideas, the English language, and the human heart." -- Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works
"Explores the powerful tension between our desire to know and our desire to love, revealing the dangers inherent in both." Memphis Commercial Appeal
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Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal and Quantum Physics.
by Rebecca Goldstein, Ph.D.
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Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Ex-Library. Hardcover. Very Good. NICE BOOK! VERY MILD SHELF WEAR ON DUSTJACKET, A FEW LIBRARY STAMPS, CLEAN PAGES. Description: This grand Gothic novel is about the outer reaches of passion--of the body and of the mind--and about the betrayals that so often breed in that perilous place. "Properties of Light" carries the reader into the very heart of a physics problem so huge it thwarted even Einstein: the nature of light.
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Properties of Light
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Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. BD6 - A tight, clean, sound copy with very minor overall shelf wear with the usual library stamps and label on the top, bottom, and right outside paper edges, the front free endpaper, and the title page plus there is some very, very light bumping to the top right corners of the front and back boards. The dust jacket shows only very minor overall shelf wear with some very, very light edge wear along the top and bottom spine edges plus it is still in the original library clear plastic sleeve. A gothic novel about passion of the body and the mind. It is about three physicists caught in the entanglements of erotic and intellecual passion. All three are working together to deal with the problem of understanding the nature of light. The author is a winner of two Whiting Awards and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. By the author of "The Mind-Body Problem," "The Late-Summer Passion of a Woman of Mind," "The Dark…
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Properties of Light : A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics
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Properties of Light : A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics
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Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal and Quantum Physics
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Properties of Light : A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics
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Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics
by Rebecca Goldstein
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