Genius and buffoon

Press, 22 June 1985, Page 20

Genius and buffoon

“Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman!" Adventures of a Curious Character. By Richard P. Feynman. W. W. Norton/Whitehall Books, 1985. 350 pp. $4?.50. (Reviewed by John Hearnshaw) I recently saw the film “Amadeus” and was amazed that the musical genius of Mozart could be portrayed as a clown with an insatiable appetite for mischief and buffoonery. Whether the real Mozart fitted this description, I am quite uncertain. However no reader of “ ‘Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman!’ Adventures of a curious character” can ever have any doubt that genius and buffoon represent a possible combination. In Richard P. Feynman we have one of the most powerful analytical minds in theoretical physics in the last half century. His Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 should be testimony enough for this assertion. And this book leaves no doubt about his extraordinary proclivity for practical jokes. Richard Feynman was born in 1918 into a Jewish family living on the outskirts of New York. Nearly all his professional life has been as a professor of physics at Caltech. This autobiographical book was transcribed from tape-recorded conversations with a friend over a period of several years. It is certainly not a text-book of theoretical physics, nor is it even a scientific biography in the normal sense. Instead, Feynman presents an anecdotal collection of the many

hilarious incidents and outrageous acts which % have occurred in his astonishingly varied life. As the dustcover of the book explains, Feynman is probably the only person in the world to solve they mystery of liquid helium, to be commissioned to paint a naked female toreador, to crack many of the most secure safes at Los Alamos (where he worked on the atomic bomb project during the war), to accompany a professional ballet company on the bongo drums, to be judged mentally deficient by the United States army, and yet be awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. The result is a book which is very light and entertaining reading; in spite of occasional references to concepts in theoretical physics, no background knowledge of this subject is required. I found Feynman’s style delightful and invariably amusing. His zest for living and enthusiasm for practical jokes are quite infectious. If we had any preconceived notion of the absent-minded professor at the outset, this image will certainly have been shattered well before completing this book. Whether he is dancing in a Las Vegas night-club, playing in a Brazilian samba band, or performing feats of mental arithmetic as a party trick, all these facets of Feynman’s character leave us incredulous when we remember he is also one of the greatest living physicists. Feynman’s book about himself is tremendous fun, very stimulating, yet intentionally frivolous. I enjoyed it and can recommend it.