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A review by aglaia0001
The Discovery of Slowness by s-nadolny
3.0
A novelization of John Franklin's life, The Discovery of Slowness opens with John's struggle as a child to "keep up" with a faster paced world. Early in his life, John accepts what many would consider a disability, and in this acceptance turns it into a strength. Following John through his early career in the military, his struggles to live as a military seaman during times of peace, his journeys North, and his thrust into politics, The Discovery of Slowness never picks up its slow and relentless pace.
Throughout the novel, Nadony sprinkles profound observations such as John's observation that machines (that may work quickly) cannot be amazed or confused and therefore cannot discover anything alien to themselves. Additionally, readers get glimpses into John's mind as he is confronted with new technology and new social situtations. Although the beginning chapters seem appropriately slow, one cannot help but find onself inexorably pulled into the adventure and the misery of John's first journey North. The rest of his life, including his final trek North, pulls at readers' sensibilities. And John's death, from a seizure, seems appropriately tragic and inevitable for a man that lived slowly and accomplished much.
Throughout the novel, Nadony sprinkles profound observations such as John's observation that machines (that may work quickly) cannot be amazed or confused and therefore cannot discover anything alien to themselves. Additionally, readers get glimpses into John's mind as he is confronted with new technology and new social situtations. Although the beginning chapters seem appropriately slow, one cannot help but find onself inexorably pulled into the adventure and the misery of John's first journey North. The rest of his life, including his final trek North, pulls at readers' sensibilities. And John's death, from a seizure, seems appropriately tragic and inevitable for a man that lived slowly and accomplished much.