The author of last month's book took this quote and decided that it meant that Newton was involved in sinister things (murder, treachery) to get what he wanted.
The whole idea behind this book is awesome---a historian is writing a book about Isaac Newton and his involvement with alchemy. She dies mysteriously, clutching a prism that is said to have belonged to Newton. Her son, Cameron, hires his ex-lover Lydia to finish the book. This premise seems to promise some good history about Newton and some good information about 17th century history in general, with exciting characters and strong female voices. It sounds so promising and I was so, so disappointed with its execution.
The book is basically Lydia telling the tale of the finishing of the book. She tells the story to Cameron through letters or to us in first person. Lydia bounces back and forth between the 17th century and our present time. Some of us found that confusing, as it was sometimes unclear exactly what time we were in. I wasn't so bothered by the time changes as I was by Stott's writing style. It was too sensual for me. At times, it reminded me of some cheesy romance novel. I almost felt like I was a voyeur into some sicko romance. I kinda wanted to take a shower after I read it.
Oh, speaking of sicko romances, none of us could understand Lydia's attraction to Cameron. He was an arrogant, pompous professor who acted like he was better than everyone else just because he was tenured. He was cruel to his wife and cavalierly slept with students---and of course picked back up with Lydia. There was no reason to understand why Lydia was so obsessed with him.
You see, I have a theory in life that says you should never want someone or something so much such that, failure to get it, will ruin you. Lydia failed to heed my good advice, however, and jumped back with this jerk of a married man. She was just too obsessed with this man, hanging onto old memories and reading too much into things, kind of like a lovesick teenager mooning over the guy in her second hour Biology class. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that she was 14 and not a woman with a doctorate. In other words, Lydia's character was almost as annoying as Cameron's. As one book club member said, "I was 200 pages into the book, and I still couldn't identify with any of the characters!"
On the positive side, we liked the discussion of alchemy and the history of Newton. Rather than just exploring that interesting time though, the author attempts to make a mystery out of the events that happened back then. In trying to build a mystery, she uses some ideas that seem to be based on rather flimsy evidence. She also includes a "twist" that was so obvious, you could see it from 300 years away. She also throws in a Deus Ex Machina in the form of a radical animal rights group. This group comes in near the end of the book and might blindside you as it did us. Ghosts also start popping up, and that is about when she lost most of us. In trying to make the pieces all fit up neatly at the end, Stott instead throws the puzzle at us, leaving us to pick everything up and try to make sense of it.
The book did make me want to know more about Newton (whom I had previously only thought of as that dude with the apple that fell on his head), and alchemy sounds interesting. I hope that someone else writes a fiction book based on him and his time because I'd like to know more about this man who stood on the shoulders of giants and accomplished some of the most astonishing things in our history.