Review of Proof: The Art and Science of Certainty by Adam Kucharski

Every so often I need to dip into philosophy, mix in some math, and sprinkle on some science. Give me that interdisciplinary trip, please and thank you! Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty, by Adam Kucharski, seemed like just what Dr. Kara ordered for herself. Indeed, it’s illuminating enough, though it has a few flaws that prevented me from enjoying it more. I received an eARC from NetGalley and publisher Basic Books in exchange for a review.

Beginning with ancient mathematics, Proof is basically a subset of epistemology writ large, seeking to answer not “how do we know what we know?” but “how do we know what we know is what is?” But it doesn’t stop with math: Kucharski takes us from math to law, medicine, and society at large. This is what makes the book so fascinating and relevant, I think. Given the rise of misinformation or junk data, which Proof touches on, it’s more important now than ever to be able to evaluate what we should or should not believe—and to remember we can’t always trust our senses.

While there is plenty in this book I knew already, I also learned a lot. Kucharski has a great talent for diving deep into a subject and then only extracting the parts he wants to show the reader, like a diver who knows exactly how to pluck the best pearl or lobster and bring it up to the surface for onlookers. He doesn’t make you go down the rabbit hole with him, and that’s awesome. Proof is quite readable in that way despite its interdisciplinary nature.

Where it stumbles, in my opinion, is honestly the editing. As a copyeditor (mind you, that’s different from structural, or developmental, editing), I’m loath to criticize my own, but … Kucharski, my guy, someone needed to tell you no more often. Or maybe you needed to listen. See, Proof’s chapters are long. Like, I would hit a new chapter (and this is one of those rare eARCs that were actually formatted as ebooks rather than converted PDFs, woohoo, so my ereader detected chapters), and my ereader would be like, “This chapter will take twenty minutes to read,” and I was like, “Um, what?” because, look, I am no slouch in the speed department, so my ereader knows how fast I read. Sure enough, however … yeah, those chapters are long. Because Kucharski likes to digress, likes to ramble, likes to pack in as much as he can, and it seems like not a single person cared enough to stop him! Moreover, the chapters lack sProof: The Uncertain Science of Certaintytrong organizational structures, such as stories linked to individuals or any sense of narrative.

The result is a paradox of a book: the information is interesting, yet the writing is dull and ponderous. It’s a great example of why science and science communication are two different fields of study, and why being good at one doesn’t make you good at the other. Kucharski clearly knows his stuff, yet his storytelling skills aren’t a match, and it shows.

Proof is fascinating in its own way, and you would probably learn a lot if you picked up this book. But it’s not going to be one that sticks around for me.