Twin Tracks by James Burke, Simon & Schuster, $24, ISBN 0743226194 Reviewed by Roy Herbert
TWIN TRACKS is a book that you will either throw at the wall in exasperation or find riveting. The formula on which each section鈥檚 two different narratives are based is to start with an event or development and then follow connections to other events and developments and meetings of individuals until they converge in recent time, mostly to our benefit. For instance, two narratives begin with Nelson鈥檚 navy and the battle of Trafalgar and end with the invention of the laser.
The plan for reading is to start with track 1 on the left-hand page, reach the end and then turn back to track 2 on the right. It must have seemed a good idea at the time but all that turning back strains the pleasure of normal reading. In any case, the tales are as complicated as life and chance, and the chummy, slangy style that James Burke employs might prove irritating. Trafalgar, 鈥渋n which Napoleon鈥檚 fleet would be clobbered and Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (hero and lover) would cash in his chips鈥︹�� is a typical example. There鈥檚 plenty of interesting science and technology here, but it needs hard work and fortitude to extract. Read a bit in the bookshop first.
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