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The Human Touch
Our Part in the Creation of a Universe
by Michael Frayn
Author and Tony Award Winner Michael Frayn sets out to make sense of humanity's place in the scheme of things and explores critical questions: What do we really know? What are we in relation to the world around us?
Metropolitan Books, 512 pages
02/06/2007
$32.50
ISBN: 0805081488
Nonfiction
Philosophy
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Troy Patterson
Frayn motors through the universe in this fantastic series of essays...and he describes all these mind-teasers with a clarity that inspires trust and fondness.
Los Angeles Times Seth Lloyd
[Frayn's] difficult ideas are effortlessly dealt with, leaving the reader with a sense of mild intoxication.
Daily Telegraph Noel Malcolm
[Frayn] produces a large book about life, the universe, and everything, which is just as clever and twice as stimulating as any professorial tome.
The Guardian John Banville
The breadth of [Frayn's] reading is awesome and he is fearless in interpreting, and in some cases attacking, the philosophical or scientific dogmas of this or that revered savant.
The Independent
Today, a novelist can still round off a chapter with a grand pronouncement about life…without fear that the reader might demand evidence or argument to support his claim...It is about time that a writer fought back, and few could hope to do so in as eloquent and well-informed a fashion as Michael Frayn.
Booklist Bryce Christensen
Frayn finally discerns the remarkable magic of the human imagination here and now. A rare work illuminating both the syntheses of art and the rigor of science. [15 Nov 2006, p.8]
Kirkus Reviews
An inviting introduction to modern cosmology and philosophy with no prerequisites other than the willingness to entertain counterfactuals, imponderables and leaps of faith. [1 Nov 2006, p.1110]
Publishers Weekly
Frayn's ecstatic embrace of a human-made universe is a fascinatingly persuasive ride. [23 Oct 2006, p.40]
The Observer Adam Mars-Jones
This very seductive side of Frayn is familiar from his fiction and drama. For much of The Human Touch, though, the humour comes close to being grating, since so much of it takes the form of reductio ad absurdum.
The Spectator Ian Garrick Mason
Frayn's wellhoned skill at introspection and his training in philosophy make him the perfect guide to the subjective world of a human being. [28 Oct 2006]
Daily Telegraph Nicholas Blincoe
Frayn proceeds to give an elegant and lucid account of where science has got to, post-Einstein...It is to Frayn's credit that he not only has a go, but does it well.
Library Journal Jason Moore
At times the content is overly tedious, but given the subject matter and depth, this is easily overlooked. [1 Jan 2007, p.112]
San Francisco Chronicle William S. Kowinski
Characterized by close analysis and an insistent pursuit of exactitude in sometimes terrorizing detail.
The New York Times Book Review Jim Holt
Philosophers these days rarely write fat tomes taking on the whole gamut of philosophical themes...But this is what Frayn has done, with immense erudition (especially linguistic) and more than a dash of wit.
The New Yorker Stephen Metcalf
I am as starved as anyone for a philosopher to defy the flyspecking of the tenured specialists, to light the collective mind on fire. But The Human Touch took me to a most unexpected place: It left me longing for peer review.
Boston Globe Richard Eder
Frayn's intention is to use his gift of language and imagery to make these scientific frontiers understandable to the nonspecialist?. [But his] flourishes are at best frosting on a cake that remains resolutely indigestible.
Sydney Morning Herald Robyn Williams
Some of the musing is fun; some of it is wearisome...The big question about this book, though, is who is it meant for? Professional philosophers will shrug. Ordinary browsers may find it a slog.
The Economist
At more than 400 pages, plus 60 more of dense footnotes, the book is too long to be saved by whimsical interjections. More focus would have helped: there is not enough theme, and too many variations.
Washington Post Colin McGinn
Frayn covers a lot of ground in a chatty, avuncular style designed to appeal to the general reader. But his amiable ramble makes no serious contribution to philosophy, is quite unconvincing in its main thesis and seems to rest on some obvious errors.
London Review Of Books Jerry Fodor
There is...a gaggle of fallacies that generally get committed when a philosopher tells it, and Frayn’s book is no exception.
 The average user rating for this book is 4.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
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