The Signature of all Things

I enjoyed Elizabeth Gilbert's popular book "Eat, Pray, Love" in which she compared the power of food, spirituality and love as recovery strategies for her break-up. Sadly, the movie which starred Julia Roberts was disappointing, as was her follow up novel "Committed". So I was ambivalent when lent her latest 500 page novel "The Signature of all Things". It was well recommended and reviewed, so while it took me a while to get into, it certainly delivered an amazing escape from about page 150 onwards! This is unlike anything else she has ever written; a historical family epic with contemporary resonance conveyed in an engaging and chatty style. The story spans the 18th and 19th centuries through the lives of Henry and his daughter Alma Whittaker and their interactions with all the good and great from Captain James Cook to Charles Darwin. The writing is dynamic, descriptive and remarkably informative, suggesting an enormous amount of historical research across an amazing breadth of topics. Yet the big themes of the power of science and faith coupled with women's roles and contributions are sensitive and very well developed.

The English colonial plan to collect and collate plants from across the world provides an unifying function and many powerful metaphors across the years. While Henry moves on to harvest key plants in order to develop and sell pharmaceuticals, Alma stays focussed on understanding mosses; apparently one of the most resilient and ignored plant forms. They seem to demonstrate both a fatalistic acceptance of destiny and an ability to resiliently adapt and survive despite all obstacles. In turn, Alma mirrors the universal twists of love, science and missed opportunities through her idiosyncratic and vaguely eccentric life. In all, a captivating read...