Simon Winchester’s The Breath of the Gods is a study of wind and humanity’s long effort to measure and understand it. Rather than focusing on a single dramatic event, the book traces several key facets of the interaction of wind in everyday life, often positive but sometimes disastrous.
The Breath of the Gods is a book that blends scientific research and man’s quest for innovation over time while dealing with a subject all of us face. Winchester probes the study of measuring wind, how wind matters in war and in peace, as well as how nature and man have fought a long battle that often centered around harnessing and controlling wind. When Winchester focuses on storytelling, the book shines. At moments, however, the author strays off from simply telling the story to interjecting his belief systems. These moments, which have become far too common in nonfiction writing in the 21st Century, can detract from a well-written book and turn it into a piece better suited for The New Yorker or National Review, depending on the expressed opinion. It’s an unfortunate trend that arguably needs to calm down a bit in today’s writing.
I wish I could have loved this book and for a while, I was sailing through and enjoying it. However, those occasional gusts of commentary blow the book slightly off course and detract from what could have been a much more enjoyable breeze of a read. That said, the story of wind and our quest to harness and understand it is arguably worth reading about.
MY RATING: 3.5
