Official Review: An Immigrant's Journey into the Cosmos

[RussetDivinity]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "An Immigrant's Journey into the Cosmos" by Dr. N Y Misconi.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

I’ve heard that this is an era of memoirs. Sometimes it seems as though everyone wants to have their story told, from former US presidents to average people with the ability to piece together a story out of their lives. Despite what other people think, I don’t believe this is a bad thing at all. Even people no one has heard of before have interesting stories to tell, and I found that to be the case with N. Y. Misconi’s An Immigrant’s Journey into the Cosmos, which tells how he studied astronomy in Iraq before coming to the United States to work as a university professor. It’s an engaging story, and I give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Misconi wastes no time in telling his story. He starts out with a bit of brief information about his parents and when he was born before moving on to a story of a time in his childhood when he developed an abscess in his tooth. While this may seem to have nothing to do with astronomy, it does give us a picture of what his childhood in Iraq was like. Little historical details throughout the book, such as when penicillin came to Iraq, help to keep the reader grounded in a solid time and place rather than being unable to tell when or where something occurred.

For the first half of the book, these historical and biographical details are balanced well with his talk about astronomy, but the strongest part of this took place in Iraq. It’s during those chapters that the balance comes through the best, such as when he describes going onto a TV show to talk about stars despite being held at gunpoint due to a revolution occurring at the time. When Misconi reaches the United States, the sections about astronomy and the sections about his personal life grow very disparate, to the point where his personal life felt almost like an afterthought when compared to his work.

Luckily, the astronomy is very interesting. Misconi directed his focus on interstellar dust, a subject which I had never considered much before but which proved to be very interesting. I learned a great deal about it while reading this book, along with learning about how scientists can get their funding and what it’s like to teach at a university. While the science can be rather dry at times, Misconi never makes his book too technical, and I very rarely had to pause and reread something to fully understand it.

This book would appeal most to people interested in astronomy, as that quickly becomes the main focus after Misconi leaves Iraq, but those interested in history (particularly the history of the 1970s in the Middle East) will find the first half interesting and may even be intrigued enough to read the whole book through.

******
An Immigrant's Journey into the Cosmos
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Like RussetDivinity's review? Post a comment saying so!

[zeldas_lullaby]

Great review! This book does not sound like it is up my alley at all.

-- August 2nd, 2015, 11:35 pm --

Which seems odd, given my avatar...

[Levi]

Good job, Russett. Sounds like a hard book to review, but your thoughts came across very clearly!

[Tanaya]

Nice review. I especially liked the introduction. I thought it was a good setup and I agree that everyone has an interesting story to tell, no matter who they are.

[chytach18-]

Great review, Russet. Reviewing a memoir, especially one which includes so much scientific information, is not easy and you`ve done a great job. It seems that the author is also not a bad writer at all.

[bookowlie]

Great review. The subject matter seems very interesting. I agree that there is an explosion of memoirs in recent years.