A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane is a biography of J. B. S. Haldane, British-Indian geneticist, communist and writer; written by Samanth Subramanian and published by Simon and Schuster in 2019.
Publication
A Dominant Character is a biography of J. B. S. Haldane who was a British-Indian geneticist, scientist, innovator, author, writer and communist philosopher. The book was published on 10 December 2019 by Simon & Schuster UK and has 384 pages.
Summary
J.B.S. Haldane was a scientist who was born in Britain yet was spiritually inclined towards India. He saw action in the two World Wars, was engaged in the most radical politics of his day, conducted scientific research, and wrote with flair and conviction. The book describes his intellect, vision of society, philosophy, and scientific progress. In the latter part, the book mentions his journey to India and within India, from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar.
Reception
Jacob Koshy, over the review in The Hindu, wrote that work is "exquisite literary expedition" into J.B.S.’ boyhood, his family history, his schooling. Koshy wrote that much facts of Haldane's life are well documented in the book and concluded that Subramanian gave compelling context. Shobhit Mahajan wrote that book is a "comprehensive account" of Haldane's life in writing review for Outlook magazine. He noted that the biography grapples well with great life and found that extensive use of Haldane's diaries and private letters make book more researched. He categorised the writing of author as "lucid writing" and noted that it makes book "page-turner" with brilliant asides. He further wrote that book does a decent job in explaining the complicated scientific work in simpler terms but points out that author leaves more details about works done by Haldane. Vineetha Mokkil, writing for The Hindu Businessline, has praised the work and called it as "major contribution in modern intellectual history as well as an insightful and moving biography". She wrote that author did a "fine job" in bringing alive Haldane in this time. In a review for The Wire, T. N. Avinash also wrote that author did "admirable job" describing Haldane's life at this time and how political scenarios formed his worldview. However, he criticised that book omits some of the scientificresponses to Haldane's work such as Ernst Mayr’s critique of ‘beanbag genetics’. R. Prasannan, writing for The Week Magazine, called the work as "honest biography" and found the each chapter is phase of intellectual colossus. But he noted that there is not much details about Bhubaneswar, a city where Haldane settled in later life, and also noted "no index" of book as other flaw. Firstpost listed it in the Books of Week on 11 January 2020.
