Customer Reviews

Memoirs

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book bordered on the surreal due to Sakharov's irony free style. He would describe some craziness involving KGB interference in his life or Soviet life in general and then suddenly break off to describe theoretical quantum physics for three pages. This juxtaposition between the irrational and rational makes the book unexpectedly comic at times.

The history and personalities are fascinating.
The science is informative.
The horrors that the author describes were more than I could continue reading.

I read this book some time ago now, but the recent BBC adaptation of Grossman's Life and Fate (which I've not read yet) brought it back to mind.

I'm not a physicist but I worked in a non-scientific capacity at CERN for a couple of years, hence my interest.

The history that this book uncovers, and the dispassionate integrity of its author, makes it to my mind one of the most important books I have ever read. I knew almost nothing of Stalinism when I read it; so it shocked me to the core. It was like looking at an upside-down topsy-turvy world.

In his childhood the arts were seen as deeply threatening - playing a piano sonata could have you 'disappeared'. In adulthood, one of his sweetest moments was the simple act of toasting his wife with a glass of coca-cola.

It's interesting to read this book, and then lift one's eyes back to the Britain we live in today.... what do you see?