false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176663396m/15056.jpg 15056 13 Physics seems to have become the new language of love in the 1990s, and Jeanette Winterson is not the first writer to make a major character a physicist. Jonathan Lethem mined similar territory earlier this year in his delightful book, <I>As She Climbed Across the Table,</I> and now Winterson enters the lists with not one, but two physicists populating the pages of her equally wonderful book, <I>Gut Symmetries</I>. If you think about it, physics <I>does</I> make a good metaphor for love, encompassing as it does the principles of attraction, the exchange of energy, and unification. At the center of this meditation on "the intelligence of the universe" and "the stupidity of humankind" are Jove, a married physicist; Alice, a single physicist who becomes his mistress; and Stella, Jove's wife and later, Alice's lover. They meet on the <I>QE2</I> and from there the three participants in the story take turns telling their versions of it. <P> <I>Gut Symmetries</I> is a collage of memories, snippets of scientific theory, meditations on abstract concepts like truth, and the events surrounding Jove, Alice, and Stella's affair. This is a book that demands your attention, jumping as it does from one seemingly tangential topic to another; but whereas physics still seeks a grand unification theory (GUT) to explain how everything in the universe fits together, Winterson actually finds one of her own in this satisfyingly complete fictional world. 864736 1997 Gut Symmetries total:1095|5:282|4:367|3:323|2:95|1:28| 1095 4065 1445 64 5 2 false false Thu Feb 28 18:00:10 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 05 18:46:10 -0800 2008

"Do you fall in love often?

Yes often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, with friends, with complete strangers, with nothing at all. I love widely, indiscreetly. I forget it is myself I am ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Jun 15 11:33:01 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 13 12:36:19 -0700 2007

favorite excerpt:

"Stella turned towards me and crumpled my heart in her hand.

'Do you fall in love often?'

Yes often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, wit...more...]]> 3 0 true false Mon Feb 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 12:15:05 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 12:25:47 -0800 2009 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jul 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 10:56:48 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 04 20:27:40 -0700 2009
Quote: "Walk with me. Hand in hand through the nightmare of narrative, the n...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon May 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri May 02 02:44:26 -0700 2008 Mon May 12 14:58:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 17:07:17 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 05 07:45:26 -0800 2007
One of my favorite excerpts:
“My feelings dismay me. I so rarely control them. They are their own kingdom, too pri...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 13:18:23 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 15 17:49:28 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Tue Mar 18 08:31:24 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 18 09:06:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Tue Mar 24 08:25:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 08:33:19 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Apr 07 17:58:28 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 09:36:42 -0700 2009 1 0 false false Mon May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Thu Apr 02 00:50:49 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 02 00:51:51 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Feb 10 16:23:10 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 16:24:15 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 20:24:18 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 20:25:29 -0700 2009 1 3 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 15:11:13 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 15:02:56 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Fri Aug 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 05:29:32 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 28 08:28:11 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri May 01 02:56:47 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 02:57:42 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Wed Jan 21 07:00:37 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 07:01:02 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Wed Sep 12 09:07:43 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 12 09:11:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 11:22:05 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 20:29:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 02:07:24 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 02:08:13 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=15056