The Speed of Dark
Joram Piatigorsky
“The Speed of Dark reveals how the author, his mother the daughter of the French Rothschild banking dynasty and his father a world-renowned cellist, broke the chain of his lineage of art, music and banking to establish an important career in science. ”
Just because you can write, that doesn’t mean you should write. Equally, even if everyone else in your family has written a memoir, that doesn’t mean you need to. There needs to be something unique or exciting, some motto that someone else can gain from your life. This book had none of this.
I started off dead bored with this book, and it didn’t improve from there. First, Piatigorsky describes both his parents – one a renowned cellist, the other an expensive Rothschild. Then, we slowly saw his progression through science, from a beginning scientist through to a renowned lab head. Somewhere in that progression I lost patience with the book offering me something interesting and new, and I just started skipping/skimming pages.
I got nothing from this memoir. I wasn’t overcome by feelings for someone who overcame insurmountable odds. Also, forgive me for saying so, it’s just another “white man” memoir, and that’s certainly not something we need in the current climate. He has money to spare, which although he describes how he tried not to rely on this crutch, it’s blatantly clear that he could do whatever he wanted because he had the family to back it up.
I am a molecular biologist of sorts (mainly I teach), so that’s why I decided I’d review this book. Sadly, it didn’t give me anything interesting. Perhaps I should have gone with his fiction or other non-fiction choices? It’s too late now, I’m completely browned off and too disappointed to keep reading. I’m sad I wasted my precious reading time on this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.
