Starred review from April 5, 2010
Foden emerged as a formidable storyteller with The Last King of Scotland
, and now he tackles WWII and the beaches at Normandy from an unforeseen perspective: that of Henry Meadows, a Cambridge-educated meteorologist tasked with befriending the reclusive meteorological genius and conscientious objector Wallace Ryman and learning the secrets of the mysterious Ryman number for the Allies, who hope to use it to forecast the perfect moment to launch the D-Day offensive. Questions of turbulence abound as Meadows carries out his scientific reconnaissance amid fascinatingly sketched characters like prescient scientists Brecher and Pyke, Ryman's scheming wife, and the enigmatic Ryman himself, but it is the meticulous fusion of science and military history that dazzles, coming off like an exhilarating fusion of Richard Powers and John le Carré. As the deadline mounts and Ryman takes matters into his own hands, the quickly accelerating plot threatens to overwhelm both the book's methodical pace and the occasionally glutted cast of characters—but, by then, Foden's point, that certainty and probability are values batted about like balloons in the atmosphere, has pierced its target.
May 1, 2010
The fourth novel by the prize-winning author of The Last King of Scotland (1998) considers the application of science to warfare via a young man's journey of expiation.
Foden returns to fiction with a cerebral period piece devoted to two British obsessions—weather and World War II—narrated in hindsight by meteorologist Henry Meadows, whose life's work has been to grapple with turbulence,"the last great problem in classical physics." Meadows' key wartime role, analyzing weather projections to determine the timing of the D-Day Landing, was preceded by a mission to Scotland, to spy on brilliant-but-pacifist scientist Wallace Ryman, whose Ryman number potentially held the key to computing the D-Day forecast. Emotionally withdrawn since childhood, after witnessing his parents' death in a turbulence-created mudslide, Meadows makes an awkward spy and his dubious mission ends in tragedy. Returning to London, he joins the team predicting weather conditions for the invasion. In an oddly cinematic intervention, Ryman's wife delivers the key to the mathematical conundrum, inspiring Meadows to predict the moment of opportunity. Joining the invasion himself, he offers a terrible, half-delirious depiction of the landing, later mysteriously disappearing from the narrative. Foden can't resist concluding with a final variant on his by-now well-worn theme of whirls and eddies.
Well-crafted scientific and philosophical speculation dominates a less consistent plotline, making for thought-provoking if only patchily gripping reading.
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April 15, 2010
The latest novel by Foden ("The Last King of Scotland") is a piece of historical fiction centered on forecasting the weather for the D-day landings of World War II. The story is narrated through the diary of Henry Meadows, a brilliant young scientist assigned the difficult task of finding the reclusive Wallace Ryman, the originator of numerical weather forecasting. A crucial formula for forecasting the weather on the day of the invasion, the Ryman number defines the amount of turbulence in any given situation. With the clock ticking, Meadows must not only find Ryman but also understand his theory to ensure Allied success. A genuinely engaging character, Ryman is based on British scientist Lewis Fry Richardson, an ardent pacifist who applied mathematics to the systematic investigation of the causes of war. VERDICT This work is lively, engaging, and readable, though readers unfamiliar with the principles of physics may find the detailed, scientific language distracting to the pace of the novel. Fans of Foden's historical fiction will not be disappointed. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/1/10.]Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from April 15, 2010
English writer Foden made a popular and critical splash with his 1998 debut, The Last King of Scotland, a startlingly imaginative interpretation of the court of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. His new novel is just as jaw-dropping in its inventiveness. WWII fiction abounds, but this authors entry in that crowded field will immediately rise to the top of the stack for its distinctiveness. Generally, the novel is concerned with the Allied invasion of Normandy, where the Allies hoped to gain a foothold in winning continental Europe back from German control. The specific focus is the role played by English and American meteorologists in determining the exact day that weather conditions would best support troop landings by air and sea. Young Englishman Henry Meadows, a math whiz employed in the British Meteorological Office, is sent to Scotland to meet retired meteorologist Wallace Ryman and learn all he can about the so-called Ryman number, a formula that can be employed to measure the turbulence of weather systems. The militarys interest in the Ryman number is its applicability for use over the stretch of French coast where the invasion is scheduled to occur. Challenging in its intellectualism and impressive in its artistry, this is a magnificent achievement that is impossible to resist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)