Customer Reviews

Kepler.

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John Banville takes his astonomical fiction "Doctor Copernicus" to the next stage in "Kepler." Both books are powerful feats of the imagination, in which Banville attempts to re-create that curious and pregnant stage in history when the medieval world was giving way to the first stirrings of modernity. Amid the tumult of the Thirty Years War, which would have have such a large impact on the future of Europe and indeed the entire world, an equally momentous change was taking place in the sciences. Alchemy and astrology still rule, but the natural sciences and astronomy are gradually coming into their own. Johannes Kepler builds on the insights of Copernicus and the observations of Tycho Brahe to create new theories of planetary motion that reinforce and are themselves strengthened by the work of Galileo. Banville has created a multi-dimensioned work, part picaresque, part epistolary novel, part flashback, in which Kepler struggles past politics, religious discord, family distractions and war to seek out the celestial harmonies that he is convinced are there for the discovering. "Kepler" is not the greatest of Banville's novels, but that still makes it a very good one indeed.

This earlier historical novel in the scientific series Banville wrote in the 80s sparkles with detail. Especially in the first section, you feel the damp of a castle, the gloom of a chamber, and smell the slops and suds. It's slow going at the start, "Mysterium Cosmagraphicum," as Kepler squares off against Brahe, and tries to gain favor with the Emperor. But this part, in hindsight, dazzles the most for the density of texture, in the prose and what it describes. You glimpse the tension between teaching schoolkids basic skills and Kepler's longing to plunge into elevated research--certainly I could relate to this as a teacher! Banville sketches easily the battle between living in a decaying world and pondering in an ethereal realm timeless (so Kepler thinks) truths.

Part II lacks a title but shows how Kepler the husband must deal with the mundane among an increasingly perilous era when witches are burnt and Protestants are expelled, and how he must make a living thanks to the formidable tension created by his relationship with his father-in-law and his wife. The household and domestic strife both ring with recognizable scenes, despite the superficial differences in decor and diet, and show Banville's ability to capture drama in the everyday affairs that we too share, if in less fraught situations. Throughout the novel, a loved one's loss and the ebb and flow of intimacy within a family as expressed through Kepler's ruminations make for eloquent, yet unadorned prose that convinces you of its truth.

Part III, "Dioptrice," focuses upon his mathematical ambitions and the possibilities and competition opened up by Galileo and his telescope. Here again, the exile from favor he endures balances well with the cosmological theories he seeks to verify slowly and painfully.

For "Harmonia Mundi," part IV takes the form of not only letters to colleagues and friends relating his discoveries, but these letters, from 1605-11, form themselves an arc or an ellipse! I've never seen this before in a book. The letters start in 1605, progress chronologically to 1611, and then slowly retreat again from the verification of his contention that planets move elliptically back gradually to 1605.

For part V, fittingly titled "Somnium," the later years of Kepler are movingly described as once more he must wander out of favor with the imperial contenders within an ideologically divided Central Europe.

This book moves at an uncertain pace, mimicking its protagonist. At times, it drags, perhaps intentionally illustrating the frustrations frequently felt by Kepler within a society that does not understand his devotion to the stars or his introspective fits and starts of genius. You get--to my surprise--few of the details of Prague parading itself that I had expected, given how in the non-fictional "Prague Pictures," (also reviewed by me on Amazon) written two decades after "Kepler," the struggles of Kepler and Brahe are grippingly told by Banville in exactly this Czech context.

The prose does not leap out as vividly in later sections as the former ones, but one quote remains in my mind. Banville provides Kepler's recollection of the loss of his virginity to a teenaged girl he meets at a pub. "Yet beyond the act itself, that frantic froglike swim to the edge of the cataract's edge, he had found something touching in her skinny flanks and her frail chest, that rank rose under its furred cap of bone." (38) The female body and the sexual act have been depicted millions of ways perhaps in literature; at this late state, Banville still can make such familiar scenes vivid again.

Kepler experienced, on the most personal level, the difference between astrology and astronomy. His initial theories, based on geometry but not yet algebraically sensible, seemed to fit the amazingly-accurate measurements of Tycho Brahe, but there was a deeper elegance to discover in the elliptical orbits. Since infinite theories fit any finite set of experimental data points, and science (as Popper observed) "tells us when we're wrong but never when we're right", any lack of rigor or verification leads the scientist into numerological games in search of elegance whenever he lacks peer pressure to force him to real rigor. Banville's Kepler spirals in to the ellipse in an incredible chaos of personal stress, forced to rigor by the many competing theories of existence that seem to dominate his own psyche and the fate of his family. He never abandons his own quest for personal truth, even as the personality of the planets is revealed to be as mathematically simple as any clockwork. In the end, his process is himself, repeatable only in the mathematical sense, never in the experience.

The "spiralling in", as dozens of irrational but elegant theories battle for attention, on the way to the single simplest almost-obvious truth, will be familiar to anyone who has done basic science. The search for truth through personal chaos will be familiar to anyone who has ever had a family!

There are only a few writers, in my experience, that are able to express melancholy and madness with a twist of humour. Even fewer who must have devoted as much time in reseach as in writing. John Banvilles' words have he ring of truth about them, his utterances are masterpieces. This is a book of treasures.

Close on the heels of finishing Banville's novel Doctor Copernicus, a story based on the life of Nicholas Copernicus, I started reading this novel on the life of Johannes Kepler. I had enjoyed Mr. Banville's book on Copernicus but I found that I enjoyed this book on Kepler even more. In terms of structure and power of prose, the two books are much the same but in Kepler Banville seems to know his man much better.

Doctor Copernicus powerfully evokes its time period and setting but it does so at the expense of the main character in some ways. Here, Kepler and his story seem to be more the driving force which made for an even more interesting read. Many of the main conflicts of Kepler's life are here--his struggles with Brahe, his problems with his wife, his mother's trial for witchcraft, his endless search for riches & fame along with truth--and they are brought out well through the eyes of the main character.

Banville's mastery of beautiful prose my still lie in the years following this early novel; however, he was a writer of incredible power from his earliest books. For someone interested in science as I am, reading this book is a no-brainer: it needs to be read. However, any reader will find much to enjoy here.

I love this book from start to finish. It is a little know book about Kepler and the trials and tribulations he had to endure in his dogmatic era. The workings of brilliance shine forth in this novel. A must for history lovers also.

A short review, for a change: I agree with the other reviewers that these "scientific" novels of the early Banville do not hold an early Renaissance tallow candle to his later work.--Please see my review of Doctor Copernicus in re this lack--but just to reiterate, Banville is still Banville, in a celestial sphere above the scrum of other writers.

Yes, as one reviewer has noted, the letters in Harmonia Mundi, the fourth part of the novel, form a chronological circuit of some sort. Call it an ellipse if you must, but methinks this is a wee bit of preciousness on Banville's part.

The other reviewers have covered all the other, ahem, shall we say, foci? - Good period detail (q.v. C.V. Wedgwood's account of the Thirty Years' War if you want more horrors from this ghastly period of history.), interesting insights into Kepler's moods, states of mind etc.

And, most of all, Banville's elegant prose in embryonic stage. How would you describe a layer of fallen snow? Banville describes it thus:

"Cold it had been that morning, the sky like a bruised gland and a taste of metal in the air, and everything holding its breath under an astonishment of fallen snow."

Even in these early works, Banville can still astonish.

Kepler is a well written historical novel written during a time when Banville was attempting to write what he considered 'European novels of ideas'. In writing about the mind of a great scientist, has found a way to write about creativity without going down the established, oft cliched route of writing about writing, or painting. However it is fundamentally a poor book, which Banville has subsequently admitted. It artfully chronicles the ideas of Kepler, his struggle, but fails to invoke this in a passionate or beautiful manner.

Banville's best novels are works of art. As Beckett said of Joyce, his work is not about anything, it is about the work itself. Kepler is a novel about something, a novel of ideas. It does not work well.

John Banville's, "Dr. Copernicus", was excellent in its entirety, and sections of the work were exceptional. "Kepler" which is a sequel in a Historical sense, may not match the former for its consistency of excellence, however it is still a very good novel, it takes the work of Copernicus another step, and is a piece of work that is 5 star material when compared to much of contemporary writing. The four star ranking is only relative to, "Dr. Copernicus".

The idea of whether these early stargazers believed their work documented truth or merely supported what they observed is taken a step further with Kepler and his work. When Kepler and his peers were working, mathematical proof was becoming the essence of what they would eventually publish. Work that appeared to explain what was seen was no longer enough, proving it to oneself and one's peers was the new test. One of the great enigmas that Kepler sought to solve was the orbit of Mercury. His findings were to change the Copernican view of the Universe, while Galileo was extending the very reach of it.

The science, and the math employed are raised a couple of steps from the previous novel, and are part of why I liked this work less. Understanding complex ideas should not be brought down to such simplistic levels so that no effort to understand is required, and whatever is learned is of little use as it relates to the true and complete idea. I always enjoy a writer that can explain complex theory in a manner that allows an inquisitive mind to be challenged, and the science enjoyed. In "Kepler", this did not happen the majority of the time. So the reader must just take on faith what is said, or study some pretty advanced geometry.

"Kepler" also does not have characters that gain your empathy, and at times you may struggle to find them interesting. Money, position, prestige, all conspire to intrude upon the greater goals, and I found them distracting. However the treatment of the Church and the Schism, and the effect on Kepler and his work, was very well done, interesting, and demonstrated the Church's constant interference with the scientists they were terrified of, for their work would undermine the Church's long taught fictions.

Mr. Banville is a writer of remarkable skill. I am reading the fourth of his books, and the quality of writing, his skill with a pen is never an issue. How he presents his story may or may not be enjoyable to a given reader, but all will appreciate the skill with which he writes.

I picked this book up from the library after reading that Banville won the Booker Prize for "The Sea". Plus, I love reading history books about 16th and 17th century science. So I figured: How could I go wrong?

Well, the good thing about "Kepler" is that it was short. If it had been more than 200 pages, I just wouldn't have made it through. I liked the beginning part of the book, when Kepler meets Tycho for the first time, but after that it went downhill. Simply put: The last half of the book was a snoozer. Nothing much happens. Which is a shame, because Kepler was an extraordinarily interesting historical figure. I was waiting to be riveted, and it just didn't happen.

I really tried hard to like this book, but it just didn't do it for me.