It is now close to two years that I have been away from the blogging even though I have read great many books during this time. Now I have decided to resume writing once again and hopefully I will be more regular this time. Starting now with “The Signature of all Things” by Elizabeth Gilbert that I read sometime back. Even though the book said that it is work of fiction, I did search Internet a few times to find if indeed there was such a character of Alma Whittaker or known by some other name in history that has inspired the author here. It is due to the fact that the book feels so close to reality owing to its details
The main character Alma is bold and brilliant in her field of study and spends her entire life in study of Moss. Her story not only gives us glimpse of botanical research in that time but also the life in general for people and specifically for women of that century. The story takes a dramatic turn with her marriage at late age where emotions take over rational mind of Alma. Her husband is seeking spiritual union where Alma is looking forward to physical intimacy along with cerebral union that attracted her in the first place.
The story follows Alma to Tahiti where she goes to search for answers of life. I found this part of the story most interesting. It is raw, provocative and extremely appealing. I would have really liked the book to end in Tahiti.
I was left wondering whether the game played by Tahitian women is precursor to American football in any way but did not find any link during my search on Internet. Her use of language and words that were in use during that time provide authenticity to the narrative. I find the comparison to Darwin a bit stretched out but the author manages to make it plausible as well.
I and Books 