Contact by Carl Sagan – A Review

https://www.mothersprucefarm.com/contact-by-carl-sagan-a-review/#:~:text=Contact%20seems%20to%20break%20all%20of%20the%20rules,is%20open%20minded%20and%20humble%20in%20our%20lives.

I finished Contact by Carl Sagan earlier this week. It was surprisingly beautiful and exciting.

We have a tiny little library in Bay City. They have a limited selection, but the atmosphere is cozy and welcoming. I try to take the kids there once a week – whether they want to go or not. While my TBR pile is a few hundred books high, I’m always drawn to hang out in a building dedicated to books.

Hanging out on the floor, looking through the sci-fi and fantasy section, I came across Contact by Carl Sagan. I watched the Jodi Foster movie back in the ’90s. And as a lover of space, I knew the name Carl Sagan but didn’t realize he had written the book the movie was based on.

It was a hefty hardbound book. I opened it up to read the first page. This is how I determine if I want to read a book. If the first page doesn’t hook me, I’m out. This one grabbed me, and it left with me, safe and snug in my library bag.

At 480 pages long, it took me two weeks to read. I read it before bed, during lunch, and while riding my stationary bike. Sagan had a knack for dumbing down physics enough for the layperson to understand. This book has a whole lot of science in it, but it’s easy to comprehend.

I have not watched the movie since it came out on video. I couldn’t remember much of what happened in the movie –  what I read was fresh and thrilling.

The book took a long time to wind up. There was a whole lot of backstory on the main character. That being said, the pacing was good until the middle of the book. I almost skipped a few pages but managed to resist.

While reading this, it was as if I was reading Sagan’s personal beliefs versus reading a fictional story. I imagined his faith. His trust in something more. A lifelong search for answers to his questions on what space held, and why we were here. With every page, his deep respect for the cosmos is apparent.

At times the fact that a scientist wrote a work of fiction was obvious. The main character Ellie was often emotionless. Contact seems to break all of the rules of a story while following others to the T. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would read it again.

I like the message I took from it – that was, we may not be alone, and we don’t have all the answers. What we need to be is open minded and humble in our lives. We need to more open to change and different opinions. People rarely get good things from pushing their opinions or beliefs on others.

Have you read the book or watched the movie? What did you think?