The Discovery of Slowness

Today, on the anniversary of the Battle of Copenhagen, it seems appropriate to review The Discovery of Slowness , by Sten Nadolny, Dave Algar's recommendation for the next El Grupo Libro's meet.

This little corker charts the amazing life of John Franklin, runaway, Midshipman, Veteran of the battles of Copenhagen and Trafalgar, Arctic Explorer, Governor of Tasmania, Knight of the British empire and finally, missing hero. However, the really extraordinary part of his life is that he managed all this with what the author calls ‘slowness’.

From the beginning of his life, it became apparent that he was not like the other people. He could not catch a ball, or the ideas of people who spoke quickly. He was teased, and bullied repeatedly in each new situation until his peers began to notice his strengths. It seems that once he had committed something to memory, there it would stay, he could master detail that others could not, and was able to analyse problems and come to clear, usually correct, solutions. How he set about altering his life to cope with this difference, and to overcome obstacles forms the core of the book. I will leave it to you to discover his explanation for this part of his personality, and how he came to terms with it.

I thought that Nadolny spun a series of well-researched facts into an engaging novel. The early parts of Franklin’s life were fascinating and compelling. The middle part of the novel, and the end slowed down (no joke intended) for me, and left me wanting to know more. Maybe this part didn’t interest the author so much. I found that the writing was a bit two dimensional in places, with not much characterisation of the supporting ‘cast’, but I suppose that in a factual novel, many people drift in and out of importance during a lifetime, and perhaps there isn’t time for more detail. In a pure novel the author can concentrate on a small ‘cast’, so perhaps this isn’t fair. The translation may also have had a part in this clunkiness, and perhaps the book would read differently in the author’s native tongue. How the author discovered Franklin’s ‘slowness’ I am not sure, and how much of his descriptions are based in truth, but he paints an intriguing portrait of this trait.

In summary, I found the book a compelling read, looking at a fascinating time in our history from a very different perspective.

you can read more of the mystery of his final voyage here : - The Sir John Franklin Mystery