Part biography of da Vinci, part neuroscience and, part speculation, this is the last offering of the late doctor who passed away in 2009. The profile of the quintessential Renaissance man, his many accomplishments and some shortcomings, are fascinating. The neuroscience, about the two hemispheres of the brain and the Corpus Callosum which bridges them, are well and truly interesting and, presented in a way that the layman can understand. But the ideas which posit that Leonardo was able to bend/blend time & space, was the first cubist, first scientist, and so on... are just a couple of the many truly incredible claims that the author makes and which ruin the book by relegating it as the work of a crackpot. ( )

At one point in the narrative, Shlain describes some of what he is about to write as possibly in the "woo-woo" category. In other words, weird as all get out. And as interesting as his ruminations on the subject of da Vinci and remote viewing are, I'm not sure he does his book any favors by veering into the realm of psychic phenomena.

It's not the first time he goes there either. This book, which attempts to explain the genius of a rare human being who excelled both in the arts and the sciences, keeps veering off into pseudo-science territory, to its detriment. And for the rest? It's generally rambling, needlessly complicated in some areas, and not awfully interesting overall. In fact it was something of a disappointment to me. Leonardo is one of my heroes, and I don't really feel I got any sort of insight from this book.

I'm glad I read it, I suppose, but I doubt I'll ever bother with it again, and I'm not sure I felt that I got too much from it. ( )

Anything you (or anyone else) can do, Leo can do better

Leonardo da Vinci died nearly 500 years ago, yet Leonard Shlain attempts to examine his thinking through what is known of him and what art and writings he left behind against the backdrop of current left-brain/right brain science. Da Vinci is represented as the greatest and brightest artist that ever lived. In addition, his scientific thoughts and notes were far in advance of anything anyone else had ever thought of at the time. One quote from page 58 is very typical of the recurrent theme of the book:

"Monet strove to capture on canvas the evanescent moment of his first impression, and critics dubbed his technique Impressionism... But should not Leonardo's 1473 sketch of the Tuscan countryside en plein air qualify as the first Impressionist work in Western art history? A full four hundred years earlier, Leonardo had anticipated this great movement of art of the late nineteenth century."

We are told (repeatedly) that Leonardo anticipated nearly every artistic movement or scientific thought that subsequently happened. No one did anything that Leonardo didn't think of first. And it may be true - I don't know enough about him to confirm or dispute - but it certainly didn't make for interesting reading. Especially since all these accomplishments are rarely explained in any kind of depth that would keep you from having to look to a real biography to get more detail and understanding!

By the end of the book Shlain explains his hypothesis - "I realize that what I'm about to make is a highly speculative claim, bordering on the 'woo woo'" - by explaining that Leonardo had ESP and an exceptionally advanced ability to see and comprehend the space-time continuum, and there is some superficial discussion of quantum physics. But by this point he'd mostly lost me and I had to skim some sections just to finish.

I really wanted to like this book. It starts out with a letter from his three children explaining the end of their father's life and how he drove himself to finish the book just days before he passed away. There's also a letter from Shlain himself talking about his diagnosis and illness, and these primed me to sympathize with the family and hope for a reading experience that would be both enlightening and inspiring. But perhaps because of the rush to finish the book, it comes off with a very 'stream-of-consciousness' feel to it - quite well-written, but still. I had really hoped to learn something here, but it was a disappointing experience. (I received a free copy of this book from the GoodReads FirstReads program.)
( )

I enjoyed the book and I especially enjoyed reading about Leonardo's scientific discoveries. While I liked the book, it took me a very long time to read, as the author rambled in a long winded fashion about all of Leonardo's accomplishments and then threw in some theories of his own. ( )