You are at a wedding, graduation drink, the farewell of a colleague or other official occasion, someone raises a glass and says: ‘We have prepared an ABC for the occasion.’ Then you already know: this afternoon is ruined. In the hands of inexperienced storytellers, the 26 letters of our alphabet can feel nigh endless.
Fortunately, it turns out to be a quick book in all senses DNA to Z by journalist Jim Jansen and comedian Dolf Jansen – indeed, they are brothers – the exception that proves the rule. While brother Jim opened a drawer of well-known Dutch researchers – think of people like Robbert Dijkgraaf, Marcel Levi and Ionica Smeets – and interviewed them about scientific current events, brother Dolf wrote a column for each interview that, very loosely, deals with the same subject.
Of course not every column, every interview and every letter hits the mark, but when a book can switch freewheeling in two pages from journalism, to Donald Trump, to cartoon character Barbapapa and finally to small cocks, it just does a lot of good.
Jim Jansen and Dolf Jansen: DNA to Z. Fontaine; €12.50.