MEETING AT A FAIR MERIDIAN

by Mitchell Wilson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 2, 1961

Mitchell Wilson's biggest book since Live with Lightning (1949) also popularizes and dramatizes the problems of the working physicist. Since that time when science was ""not yet politics"", they have somewhat changed and Wilson has kept up with them (a refresher course at M.I.T.) A popular American writer in Russia, he was also able to spend six months there meeting with Soviet scientists, exchanging ideas, and acquiring an authentic background for this novel which should cement the friendly collaboration.... Nicholas Rennet, still a research man (although his old colleague had given up the laboratory for diplomacy) has lost the early excitement- even exaltation- of his work. His marriage also has come to an end, so that now he is in a thoroughly joyless and non-productive state of mind when he is invited to the U.S.S.R. by Goncharoff, working on parallel problems. At first in Moscow there is the affair with Annie Robinson but this disintegrates (Annie is afraid to love; Nicholas is unable to love). Then there is Valya, a Russian girl, Goncharoff's associate, and Goncharoff runs a fairly highhanded interference (Russian women are for the Russians). But during a last meeting at an installation high in the mountains, where they test their theories and each other, greater mutual understanding and tolerance is reached- and Nicholas finds a new direction to his life.... Even though cosmic ray physics is the frequency, Wilson beams his story at an anything but abstract market; along with the rather glib lesson in international communication, there is the glossy romance and sympathetic annotations of Russian life (food, clothes, etc.).... Publisher support seems likely.

Pub Date: March 2, 1961

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1961

Categories: FICTION