My first book from Walter Isaacson was the biography of Steve Jobs and after reading that book I even got an opportunity to meet him in Delhi. His writing style is so intriguing that one cannot put the book down. My last read from him was the code breaker about the work of Jeniffer Doudna’s life story and on CRISPR. So, I thought let me explore more titles from the master writer. Writing about someone who is living and around might be easy but writing about someone who is enshrined in history can be too easy or too difficult. To find something original that has not been written before or documented is probably difficult. Since then I have read all works of Walter Issacson and the Da Vinci biography stands out amongst all.
Walter Issacson has done wonderful on the literary part and through his writings it shows that he must have enriched himself greatly to culminate the amalgamation of Italian context and its history to showcase the Italy of 15th century. It is an interesting book that gives a perspective into the life of Da Vinci.
The book demonstrates the amount of labour and effort that Leonardo has to spend on the human body (dead and alive) to get the perfect curves for his sketches. It seems that he was continuously improving his work to learn human anatomy immaculately.
It is a life story worth observing and I wonder if it could be part of the medical school curriculum.
I remember one of my trips to Italy to a small island near Venice called Morano, where glasswork is the main art and someone quoted Da Vinci in the verses. It takes seven years to learn how to draw and then maybe more years to forget / unlearn that you can draw something original. It is a life story worth observing and I wonder if it could be part of the medical school curriculum. As it could inspire many would be doctors to look at the natural systems and appreciate the complexity in a new dimension.
Reviewed by Sachin Gaur, Executive Editor, InnoHEALTH Magazine
