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A review by craalm
Travelling to Infinity: The True Story Behind the Theory of Everything by Jane Hawking
3.0
I really did enjoy this book as although I've had an interest in Stephen Hawking and he's work, I've never really known much about the man himself. So to read this book, after watching the film The Theory of Everything, was definitely an interesting experience. The reason why I've only given this book three stars is because I feel that quite a lot of this book is quite biased towards Jane - obviously because she wrote it. I can imagine that Stephen could be a difficult man to live with, and I'm not saying that the various difficulties that they had over the years wasn't difficult. In fact, I totally believe that it must have been very hard raising two small children of a similar age while caring for a man declining physically and then to later raise another small child when said man is in an even greater steep of decline. But I cannot believe that Stephen was always so insensitive to Jane's problems. I mean, I don't know, I wasn't there, obviously. But I would love to hear Stephen's side of those latter years. Though that's never going to happen...
I also knew that she had written this book quite a while back and later edited it and added a few postscripts. I'm glad she did this, because the book itself ended on such a sad, abrupt note, and it would have been a shame if that had been the official ending of the book. I'm glad that the postscripts mention that Stephen is once more integrated with the family, even though I already knew this. But after reading them, I couldn't help but think that the book itself, unlike the postscripts that were added later, was written in light of the negative ending of their relationship when the book was first written. I guess that's natural, but now that things are better, it would have been nice to see a bit more positivity behind the words that were written. That's not to say that this book wasn't positive in places, because it was. But I just think the balance was a little off sometimes. But that's just my opinion :)
I also knew that she had written this book quite a while back and later edited it and added a few postscripts. I'm glad she did this, because the book itself ended on such a sad, abrupt note, and it would have been a shame if that had been the official ending of the book. I'm glad that the postscripts mention that Stephen is once more integrated with the family, even though I already knew this. But after reading them, I couldn't help but think that the book itself, unlike the postscripts that were added later, was written in light of the negative ending of their relationship when the book was first written. I guess that's natural, but now that things are better, it would have been nice to see a bit more positivity behind the words that were written. That's not to say that this book wasn't positive in places, because it was. But I just think the balance was a little off sometimes. But that's just my opinion :)