Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics

by Rebecca Goldstein

A thought provoking novel about the connection between the passion for knowledge and the desire to love from award–winning author Rebecca Goldstein.A New York Times Notable BookA grand gothic novel of the outer reaches of passion—of the body and of the mind—Properties of Light is a mesmerizing tale of consuming love and murderous professional envy entangled within the very heart of a physics problem so huge and perplexing it thwarted even the nature of light. Caught in the entanglements of erotic and intellectual desire are three Samuel Mallach is a brilliant theoretician unhinged by the professional glory he feels has been stolen from him; Dana is his intriguing and gifted daughter, whose desperate devotion to her father contributes to the tragic undoing of Justin Childs, her lover and her father’s protégé. All three are working together to solve some of the deepest and most controversial problems in quantum mechanics, problems that challenge our understanding of the “real world” and of the nature of time. Their shared obsession is full of terrible risk, holding out possibilities for heartbreak as well as for ecstasy. The true subject of Properties of Light is the ecstatic response to reality, perhaps the only response that can embrace the erotic and the poetic, the scientific and the spiritual. Written with, and about, a rare form of passion, this incandescent novel is fiction at its most daring and utterly original.“A passionate love story rendered with dazzling intelligence.” —Award–winning author Maureen Howard“Daring . . . startling . . . breathtakingly surprising.” —New York

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction, Gothic, Physics, Philosophy, Contemporary

260 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein grew up in White Plains, New York, and graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College, receiving the Montague Prize for Excellence in Philosophy, and immediately went on to graduate work at Princeton University, receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy. While in graduate school she was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship and a Whiting Foundation Fellowship.

After earning her Ph.D. she returned to her alma mater, where she taught courses in philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, the rationalists, the empiricists, and the ancient Greeks. It was some time during her tenure at Barnard that, quite to her own surprise, she used a summer vacation to write her first novel, The Mind-Body Problem. As she described it,

"To me the process is still mysterious. I had just come through a very emotional time, having not only become a mother but having also lost my father, whom I adored. In the course of grieving for my father and glorying in my daughter, I found that the very formal, very precise questions I had been trained to analyze weren’t gripping me the way they once had. Suddenly, I was asking the most `unprofessional’ sorts of questions (I would have snickered at them as a graduate student), such as how does all this philosophy I’ve studied help me to deal with the brute contingencies of life? How does it relate to life as it’s really lived? I wanted to confront such questions in my writing, and I wanted to confront them in a way that would insert `real life’ intimately into the intellectual struggle. In short I wanted to write a philosophically motivated novel."

The Mind-Body Problem was published by Random House and went on to become a critical and popular success.

More novels followed: The Late-Summer Passion of a Woman of Mind; The Dark Sister, which received the Whiting Writer’s Award, Mazel, which received the 1995 National Jewish Book Award and the 1995 Edward Lewis Wallant Award; and Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics. Her book of short stories, Strange Attractors, received a National Jewish Book Honor Award. Her 2005 book Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel, was featured in articles in The New Yorker and The New York Times, received numerous favorable reviews, and was named one of the best books of the year by Discover magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Sun. Goldstein’s most recent published book is, Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew who Gave Us Modernity, published in May 2006, and winner of the 2006 Koret International Jewish Book Award in Jewish Thought. Her new novel, Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, will be published by Pantheon Books.

In 1996 Goldstein became a MacArthur Fellow, receiving the prize which is popularly known as the “Genius Award.” In awarding her the prize, the MacArthur Foundation described her work in the following words:

"Rebecca Goldstein is a writer whose novels and short stories dramatize the concerns of philosophy without sacrificing the demands of imaginative storytelling. Her books tell a compelling story as they describe with wit, compassion and originality the interaction of mind and heart. In her fiction her characters confront problems of faith: religious faith and faith in an ability to comprehend the mysteries of the physical world as complementary to moral and emotional states of being. Goldstein’s writings emerge as brilliant arguments for the belief that fiction in our time may be the best vehicle for involving readers in questions of morality and existence."

Goldstein is married to linguist and author Steven Pinker. She lives in Boston and in Truro, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Margaret]

Rebecca Goldstein’s fifth novel, Properties of Light has drawn me in and tangled me up. I see some things it says, but more eludes me than remains with me. Yet I am still convinced that there is much more here than I can currently uncover. I may just have to buy a copy of the book and reread, more than once, most likely.

At the center of the book is an unholy triangle constructed of three physicists. The narrator of the novel (first person at some times, third at others) is one Justin Childs, a young prodigy who studied at Paradise Tech in California, and who has come to the university to work with the great man, Samuel Mallach, thought to be Einstein’s heir, whose brilliant monograph had been forgotten and who now spends his time teaching Physics for Poets. Dana Mallach is both Samuel’s daughter and Justin’s lover. It’s not totally clear which man she loves most. The three of them spend their time thinking about and talking about physics.

At the center of the book is a series of topics in theoretical physics. Is light a wave or a particle or somehow both? Did quantum mechanics invalidate the idea of an objective reality, did it reveal the irrational in matter? Can quantum mechanics and relativity be reconciled? (I am no physicist—there is more than I can say here.)

At the center of the book are three characters whose interpersonal relationships demonstrate the very laws of physics they spend their intellectual energies pursuing. An example very early on occurs as Justin is recounting his childhood. He is an only child and says, “We were what we were, we three, with neatly overlapping interests: my father and I in abstract argument; my mother and I in beauty; my father and mother in me. We all understood one another with perfect accord, which would have been gratifying for a well-disposed outsider to observe as would his observance be disruptive of the very state to be observed. / This is a nuisance very central to modern physics” (5). As I said, I am no physicist, but I had heard about the “observer effect” in physics, which claims that the mere observation of a phenomenon necessarily changes the nature of that phenomenon. And Justin here is claiming that someone looking in on his family’s interrelationships would necessarily shift those relationships, at least for that moment, that that observer would “be disruptive of the very state to be observed.”

Rebecca Goldstein is a philosopher who has concentrated on philosophy of science. And she is a novelist who writes beautiful novels. There is so much more to this one than this review suggests. I imagine if I had the patience and persistence to reread and keep track, I would understand better how she uses the laws of modern physics to define matters of the human heart and vice-versa.

[Miriam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly don't even feel like reviewing this book. Once again I've been assigned something that I never would have chosen for myself and reading it was a drag. After reading the synopsis I actually thought I would enjoy it, but unfortunately I didn't. Half of the time I was very confused and had no idea what was going on. And it wasn't even the physics that was the problem. The main characters really annoyed me and were really cliché. The writing style was really flowery and exaggerated and just really unnecessary. I don't like writing reviews for books that I didn't enjoy, because I don't want to make the author feel bad about the work that they've done, but this book just wasn't for me.

[msleighm · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded down.
 
By page 10, I found the use and placement of words in sentences and paragraphs cunning. I would often find myself go back to savior a well structured turn of phrase.
 
Reading this when sick, perhaps not the best idea.
 
If you enjoy the philosophy of physics, quantum physics, tantric / kundalian sex, or wave function (psi), you will find something in this book. 
 
This will require a 2nd reading when I am "of sound mind". I have determined to add a contemporary philosophy section to my bookshelves, wherever and whenever they are set up.

[Penni · Rating 5 out of 5]

In full transparency (pun intended, given the amount of light in this book), the QM piece, so central to the book, went completely over my head.

In spite of that, I couldn't put it down. It's madness of the mind and madness of the soul, all created and destroyed by love.

A lot of it is almost laughable in its insanity, and some passages had me struggle if i should laugh out loud at its perceived pretentiousness or be in awe of its depth.

I chose awe.



Lovely and insightful Proustian line on p137:
- I thought you learned something about Proust from your mother. Didn't she teach you that lovers make each other up? Every lover is an artist, every love object a construct of the imagination. You've been making me up all along.

Note: based on the real world person: David Bohm

[Eric Aiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is an equation. (Shakespeare - Brilliance) + Contemporary Physics = Properties of Light.

The characters in this book were so freaking dramatic. The situations were so ridiculously serious (without really seeming all that serious). I hated the main character. In fact, the only character I liked, the only character I thought was even a little bit sane was dead.

I would never have read this if not for a book club. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. But that isn't to say it's a great novel. Like I implied in the beginning, it's a Shakespearean drama (without the Brilliance of Shakespeare) that involves quantum physics. I enjoyed it for its dramatic tone, but I think that this amount of drama might be better suited for a more serious subject matter. I don't know. Maybe the world of physics is full of depressed, megalomaniacal, borderline insane scientists who are so far removed from human society that they come across as being almost alien. Hmph.

[Marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really got engrossed in this book after I got used to the references to quantum mechanics and relativity. But, as happens often to me, I was baffled by the ending of the book. I finally read a review from the NY Times only to find that the things that baffled me were, in fact, left unresolved. http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/09/17...

[William Kirkland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The great hope of the three principle characters is to reconcile quantum mechanics with the bed-rock theory of relativity — the holy grail of physicists since Einstein. Goldstein’s great effort is to unify an often poetic diction with the thorny vocabulary and concepts of physics. If velumen, ergodic, relativistic, pyrophoric are words you’d rather not grapple with, then don’t. If references to Schrodinger’s Cat or the wave function psi leave you baffled then reach for lighter stuff.

If hatred as the motive force of a novel is not interesting to you, or if the syntax of this paragraph if difficult, let it go by.

My hatred is my cause: material, formal, final… Such hatred as mine might be described as obsessive, although the description would be false. Would an obsessive even pose the possibility of his own delusion? The stance of objectivity required in order to ask of oneself whether one is obsessing is unassumable for those who, in, fact, are.

However, as with much in life, effort repays. It’s just that we, in our early 21st century zone of polished thrillers, historical fictions and fine tales of adventure and discovery, are not used to working at what we read.

- See more at: http://www.allinoneboat.org/#sthash.D...

[Cheylin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of beautiful prose and conceptual ideas. The blend of philosophy and physics provides a very unique style, yet at times it may be very difficult to follow. I know there are many elements of the book that went way over my head, but Goldstein's writing is such that I want to read this over again and see what else I may pick up on. I highly reccomend for those looking to bend both sides of the mind, as well as those familiar with both Bohr and Blake.

[Zefyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

--I've been thinking about quantum nonlocality.

--So have I, Daddy. What about you, Justin? What have you been thinking about?

(p 123)

I'm rather mixed on this book. Goldstein has amazing writing technique. I wanted to like this book. I kinda didn't, but I liked it in pieces. The real story in here is about Dana, a brilliant physicist, unrecognized for it due to being a wife, daughter, lover of male physicists, who variously ignore her, patronize her, stew in wild jealousy of her. At times this recalled Frankenstein, in which Dana herself is Frankenstein's monster: utterly human and complete in herself, racing to get out from beneath those who would objectify her.

The physics itself? Eh, it's fine. I'll be honest, I find the jump from physics to metaphysics usually cringey, so while I appreciated that the physics was generally good and that the jump to metaphysics was generally used not as a proposed solution but rather as an exploration of a fraught character, I tended to find a lot of it just frustrating to read. The nonlinear narrative could be good, but Justin jumping between first and third person was more of a confusing stylistic touch than something that appeared to contribute meaningfully. But the interpersonal interactions were engaging.

--I thought you learned something about Proust from your mother. Didn't she teach you that lovers make each other up? Every lover is an artist, every love object a construct of the imagination. You've been making me up all along.

I felt at a loss at her words, I felt a loss. Something essential was being stolen from me, snatched out of me before my eyes, and a shadow of my hurt must have shown itself. A softness moved over her face, despite the brutal impact of her words, that slight hard hiss:

--It's all right to make me up. You have my consent. You have my active support.

(p 138)

[Mark Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure I understood all the subtleties in this pioneering novel. Goldstein's smooth familiarity with Quantum Physics left me behind sometimes. That could be so because I was merely an observer to this novel and not as much a reader--my presence tainted the experience of the characters, who never quite connect and not just because of the post-Modernist dialogue and time shifts. But the character Dr. Mallach fascinated me. He taught a course for non-QM students at a small private College in New York state called Physics for Poets and I would be in that class if I could squeeze myself into a novel.

Blake and Yeats and me. The character of Mallach was inspired by the Physicist, David Bohm, Goldstein admits in her Afterword. Another benefit of reading this novel is that it steers me to reading Bohm (I have a book about him, an interview with him, that now I must read). I confess I did not understand all of the nuances of this novel. I'm a busy guy and I should have given this better attention in my reading. But I ended with a great respect for it and I will read more Goldstein. She's good!

[John Fredrickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strangely curious story. In it, a father, daughter, and a young man, all scientists, explore and develop love for each other while cooperatively solving a riddle of quantum physics. This is an interesting book, but I found myself wanting a little more clarity at the end.

This is a challenging read. The story unfolds in a non-linear time sequence which leaves the reader struggling to make sense of where he is. The characters interact in a very obscure reality. It is not clear at times whether the narrator is alive or not, though he is clearly in love, a love which is somehow out of reach.

Intermixed in the story are interesting references to spiritual themes in poems of Blake and Yeats as well as a more obscure Francis Thompson. Tantric sensuality is also woven into the plot, which we now see to be a mixture of science, spirituality, and eroticism.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a brilliant book, employing carefully-crafted prose to embody the concepts of elementary particle physics in the intersecting lives of the three major and eight minor characters. Along the way, there is the suggestion of a fundamental unity of quantum mechanics and tantric sex. I almost put it down before reading it; the book is marred by one of the worst, over-the-top jacket-flap book descriptions I’ve read in a long time. On the other hand, I enjoyed the unusual layout of the first page of each chapter.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel the author started this story rather pretentiously and the language patronizing. If you can make it past the first chapter, you will find the poetic nuances throughout are absolutely beautiful. I found the character's interesting, as well as the writing style.
Purposefully, you are sometimes at a loss because the scenes jump around so much, but I think this adds to its intrigue. It didn't make it in to my top 20 (used to be 10!), but it is worth reading if you are not stuck to format writers.
Oh! And the love scenes are amazing and tender.

[Eric Lawton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for first reading. This was my second and I didn't like it quite as much.

The novelty of all the clever allusions to physics, academia, poetry and use of language in general wore off a little.

So I recommend for a first reading if you know enough of physics and physicists at a popular level to get the allusions. But not otherwise.

[Adani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish. This is a really weird book. Imo, the author tries way too hard to be poetic and basically gives up on the story's coherence in doing so. The super abrupt intro and many weird jumps in time didn't help either – even about 100 pages in, I still wasn't sure who was who and what was going on. Might give it another try in the future.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the most uplifting book I've ever read, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Typically I don't love gimmicky, overwritten, "I've got an MFA and here's the proof" books---this one managed to be a hard read but also to be awesome.

[Charles Collyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel about scientists in academia, written in a carefully poetic literary style. The author’s understanding of egotism, jealousy, and intense intellectual effort is that of an intimate. The language is beautiful but difficult in places.

[Bonmcmurray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually finished this book some time ago and missed entering it here. I do not recall much about it now, which says something….
I remember that it seemed cold, not warm, even when describing sex and love.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a story of love, it was an incredibly difficult read. Very clever but the science (quantum physics) was overwhelming at times (and I have a technical degree!).

[Hannah Cartojano · Rating 4 out of 5]

The entanglement of physics and poetry: beautifully expressed.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be wise to know a little physics before you tackle this book. If you do, it is quite a read.

[Anna Feshchenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We are things that would know and we are things that would love, and oh how fused is that entanglement, how fused and fierce and forever in our entangled passions."

[Izzi Trindade · Rating 5 out of 5]

literally never misses

[Ari Landa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this one four stars, even though it's more about science and philosophy than fiction, because upon further reflection, I found more and more complex ideas deftly hidden within the storyline. This isn't a novel in the traditional sense, it's a philosophical novel--through and through about science, which means that the primary purpose of the events and characters is to make philsophical points (raise philosophical questions) about existing philosophical arguments and not necessarily to raise artistic, social or humanitarian ideas (though with all philosophy, those issues inevitably flow from it).

The book revolves around quantum mechanics, specifically whether it's recommended to pursue a more rational but less obvious scientific model of QM (e.g. The Bohmenian hidden variable model), or a more obvious but more superstitious model (The Heisenberg superposition based uncertainty model). By analogy think of creation--should we go the more obvious but more superstitious model that God created the universe (via the big bang or whatever) or the more rational but less obvious model that the universe, through its own scientific cause, must exist by its own nature (hidden variable model). The philosophy within the story touches on Spinozism, the mind body problem (e.g. do we think independently of the way we feel--are all our arguments just verbal explanations of our feelings), the value of emotional intellgence versus rational intelligence, the prevalance of supersitition or emotional biasis in science and whether it's a flaw or not. Some lesser topics include the value of positive and negative emotions such as love, anger and hatred and its effect on thought and finding meaning in life.

The protagonist's name is Justin Child, and we're left wondering, at the end of the story, if his super rational, weak feelinged, poetry hating non-superstitious perspective makes him "Just An Immature Chid", or "Pure In Mind Just as a Child." I think the book's author, intellectually, argues the latter but emotionally leans to the former. From a historical perspective, the book makes us upset at the scientific community for not giving David Bohm his fair shake. To think what could have been.

[Whitney Archibald · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm glad I read this book, mostly because it was so unique, but I wouldn't really recommend it. As it says on the cover, it really is about love, betrayal, and quantum physics -- heavy on the quantum physics. It was really slow reading, especially at first, probably because it's written from the perspective of a physicist. Even the sentence structure is complicated.

I did appreciate the way the author made up words such as “deloonied” (as in, proved to not be loony) and “entragicked” (as in, embroiled in tragedy).

Here are a couple of quotes I liked from the book.

“We each carry our own designated end within us, our very own death ripening at its own rate inside of us. There are insignificant people who are harboring unawares the grandeur of large deaths. We carry it in us like a darkening fruit. It opens and spills out. That is death.”

“It was one of Dotty's last projects, to break her house open to transparency, so that there is a dazzling eruption of unloosed light, of photons streaming reckless into night, summoning from out of the nearby woods the hosts of fragile creatures, beating furious wings in light-fed frenzy, while others, immobilized by love, are flattened on the glass as if painted there, wings outspread, a breathless attending upon the blaze from within.”

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I like this book, a romance and mystery around physics and the nature of reality? Yes and no, like a wave/particle. The wowzer physics didn’t move or intimidate me. Not that I understood it more than in gestures and outlines, but the presence of wacky quantum mechanics and debates over its counterintuitive conclusions seemed gimmicky. So too the discussion of tantra yoga and the hasty references to cosmic theology. I was surprised that the pot brownie connections between Eastern thought and physics were being made by Rebecca Goldstein and not, say, Ram Daas. The characters in the various overlapping love stories were cardboard cut-outs, as clipped as abstracts. Yet, the novel was an interesting exercise in the pursuit of knowledge: the overlap of poetry and physics, of memory and experience, theory and practice. There are some shocking twists that save the story from being a mere device for ideas. The novel might prove a worthy text to spark undergrad interest in abstract physics.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

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For nearly every book I have picked up, where I was whilst reading it comes back to me easily. Where the reading (or trying to read) this book took place makes me laugh now. I cannot recall any shuddering passages of literate genius, but I can remember the freshly-flattened skunk on the side of the 99 just beyond my walking path. Expecting a grand and sweeping story of science was too much for me to not be disappointed, but something tells me I should go back to judging a book by its publisher. I don't boast extraordinarily wondrous spelling skills (any eagle eye could see all my reviews cannot refute that). But I do know when the author should cut the reader some slack, and use of the comma is not unheard of.

[Elise Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one, not only because it harkened back to my undergrad physics days, but because I met David Bohm (aka Mallach in the book). It was only to shake his hand and say "it is all about perception" as he looked at me, wise and amused, like I was some kind of puppy sliding awkwardly on a linoleum floor. But he wasn't nuts or miserable. He was busy talking to eastern mystics and writing about it. I didn't know he was bitter about the fate of his hidden variable theory. Anyway, the book plays with time and light and love and betrayal. Fascinating.

[Jgknobler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the physics had been clearer in this novel about a depressed, neglected and unappreciated physicist who briefly comes to life again under the solicitations of a young faculty member who not only "gets" his concepts but falls in love with and brings out the genius in his daughter. I found the writing overwrought and the psychological explanations pat and unbelievable. I did like learning about Tantric sex, which somehow had escaped me previously!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed reaction to this book. The beginning was hard for me to get into. In the middle I was intrigued and by the end I was getting bored again. The book explores the tension between the mind/soul and the brain. Is there something separate from the brain? Does the soul/spirit have a place in science? Unfortunately, the characters are all pretty irritating. And the main character is very undeveloped.