Books

REVIEW: Samantha Sotto shows us another side of Isaac Newton in ‘Love and Gravity’

By GEO CABRAL

We know Isaac Newton as one of the biggest names out there, not only in the scientific community, but throughout history. We know him as the guy that discovered gravity, and formulated the three laws of motion. We know him as one of the brightest minds to ever walk this earth. But in her book Love and Gravity, Sotto tells us the story of how Andrea Louviere would come to know Isaac Newton, for the person that he is behind the legacy he left behind.

This book takes us jumping between centuries, from Andrea in the present, to the 17th century where Isaac was. It is a classic love story, filled with drama, adventure, passion, and suspense. It even has a love triangle.

The story has a really good beginning. The first chapter gives us enough information to ensure us that Isaac and Andrea will one day meet, and the entire story is an unfolding of how this comes to be. It begins at the age of 7, when Andrea plays her cello and makes a crack appear on her wall, through which she sees a boy. She would then make it her mission to once again find the boy inside her wall in the years to come, as Isaac would as well on his side. But as this is a classic love story, young Andrea also finds a friend in Nate, the boy who would also claim part of her heart as she grows up.

What comes next is a rollercoaster of events, as Andrea bounces back and forth between the boy in her wall and the boy that makes her life easier. This build up to the meeting is slow and dragging in a way, though is still able to retain some of the intrigue and excitement, because of the riddles and mysteries written in Isaac’s letters.

The ending is in some ways predictable, despite the interesting twist that I already considered a possibility, as it was nagging at me throughout the story. As classic as any tragic love story, their love burned bright with passion, but fell short of becoming permanent, and what remains is a promise that they will always be a part of each other.

Despite the story being a classic story however, the theme it is built around on has made it a different love story, and a more interesting one. All throughout the story, we are shown how their love is literally breaking the laws of nature, the realm of logic. Samantha Sotto provides us a story in which the usual sentiment that love defies logic has an actual physical representation, in the way it makes the meeting of Andrea and Isaac possible. But more interesting to note, is that it is revealed that it is by playing by the very rules of nature itself, that it became possible for Andrea and Isaac to meet. Music, magic, math, and even love, may very well respond to the very laws of nature that make it possible for them to seemingly defy it.

All in all, Samantha Sotto gives us a story, a possibility on the person behind the great legacy of Isaac Newton. She succeeds in presenting him more as a person, rather than simply the figure of greatness that the world has come to know him as. And she has shown us that love surely brings people together, just as sure as gravity does to everything around us.

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Love and Gravity is available at National Book Store.

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