Reviews

Feynman by Jim Ottaviani

bibliokris's review

4.0

Terrific book; I still didn't understand much about physics but appreciated this version of Feynman's spirit and intelligence. A lot of fun to read, and I'm looking forward to watching a video or 2 of him in action.

jchant's review

4.0

It's been quite a while since I've read any graphic literature, so it was a nice change of pace to read this book. Richard Feynman lived a fascinating life, and, with the exception of a lot of the science, which was way over my head, I thoroughly enjoyed this delightful book.

armaget's review against another edition

funny informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

I think every so often you should pick up a nonfiction book about a truly epic person. Someone whose achievements are just kind of unreasonably excellent- I mean, maybe we can't begin to aspire to have such a life full of knowledge and discovery but reading about it sure is cool.

Richard Feynman seems so cool. I really want to read his books now. At the end of the book they mention they had over a meter of evidence and stuff about Feynman for the book- Now that's epic. I love it when we get to read something that's so beloved and researched by the creators.

On to the actual book- What illustrations! I loved this art style so much and and am definitely gonna be trying to incorporate parts of it into my own drawings. The art is also consistently good and stylistically really aesthetically pleasing. The color palette is... even science-y? It's really good.

Overall a pretty good setup too- for a biography/science textbook of a graphic novel, it read really smoothly. At some parts it got a little dense with page spreads and page spreads of electrons and such, but I literally can't complain because that's the source content.

Lastly, I think I learned some good stuff about learning- or at least figuring it out. There's a part where he figures out hydrogen theory or something. He talks about how he just gives the idea little pokes. I don't know why but- that's just really appealing imagery. I like it.

secrethistory's review

3.0

Feynman is a smart, slick graphic novel composed of strung together snippets of the life of Feynman. The set up was unexpected, probably meant to mirror the set up of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! but occasionally distracting. Despite some comments stating otherwise here, I really enjoyed the art, and I enjoyed that the authors tried to capture that happy go lucky Richard Feynman tone. I did wish there were less science and more actual biography, though. If I wanted Feynman's scientific discoveries laid out for me, I would have picked up one of Feynman's books/lectures on the subject.

Overall, the book was enjoyable and well researched. I do wish the biographical bits didn't have direct quotes from other books quite so often--this is a biography, after all, and a little more of a third party lens would have been welcome. I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a brief overview of Feynman's life, funny anecdotes, and an overview of Feynman's science.

emason1121's review

3.0

The storytelling is a bit choppy and relies on the reader to have some knowledge of Feynman's life and work. It had interesting points, but jumped around and left a lot unsaid. Overall, a decent introduction to further reading about Feynman, but maybe not about physics or his projects.

lisamquinn's review

4.0

Sometimes I feel bad that I only recognize the names of scientists because I watch Big Bang Theory or Hank Green songs...but even though my true knowledge of physics is minimal, my enjoyment of Feynman was vast.

natep's review

2.0

Drawing style made it hard to tell which man was Feynman at times. Really cool the way Feynman inspired his sister to be a scientist. Author darted around from event to event barely mentioning marriage number 2 while essentially fully quoting two of his lectures which wouldn't be understandable to anyone without a good amount of physics knowledge. Good job showing the deterioration of Arline.

ursulamonarch's review

3.0

This was a fun biography; my favorite part was when his lectures were (finally) illustrated. In my opinion it too too long to get to the science. I don’t think Feynman’s flirtations/womanizing age well, but the portrait of his first wife was lovely, and he seemed to hold scientists in high regard without consideration of gender. The illustrations were a bit bland and hard to follow at times; many people weren’t distinctive!

sarahsponda's review

4.0

I didn't get all the math in here (and there's only two major chunks) but I went from having no concept of QED to ... wherever I am right now!

The art is great, I enjoyed the narrative, and the annotated biblio at the end is fantastic.

neven's review

2.0

Nice, but not as lively as Feynman's own recollections in his books.