Review by Todd I. Stark, 12/22/08

I've followed Jim Brody's forum for a number of years and remain fascinated by his unique and profound insights into the human condition. Although I find that his ideas are too rich to capture in a single book like this, it does give the flavor very well. I don't always end up agreeing with his ideas but they never fail to intrigue me and make me think deeply.

Brody's thought provoking comparisons between phenomena at various levels from mathematics and physics through animal and human behavior and group behavior reveal the grand unity of nature in a way that scientific explanations rarely mange to capture. His view of evolution has only a little in common with the usual treatment, often focusing on the way organisms take an active role in the construction of the environments to which they adapt and emphasizing our commonality with fruit flies as much as with apes. This doesn't excuse us from understanding our biological legacy, (on the contrary, it makes it all the more important) and it does change the rules by which we have often applied evolutionary theory to human beings. He then applies these kind of unique insights to the dramas of everyday real life.

This is a much needed and often brilliantly narrated picture of human life as part of the grand picture of nature arising over the eons, using the modern storytelling tools of mathematics and biology rather than those of ancient mythology.

Take a rare glimpse into the fascinating richness of the human soul as part of nature and treat yourself to this fascinating journey. I reccommend this book to anyone interested in human biology and psychology and wanting something really special to sink their mental teeth into.

It would be hard to read this book and come away seeing yourself and the people around you in quite the same way.