Beethoven's Hair by Russell Martin

Carver County Library, hardcover, 276 pages

This is one of those books that I really should NOT have forced myself to finish. I picked it up about two months ago because it looked intriguing. The subtitle is "An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved."

It really is about Beethoven's hair.

Specifically, a chunk of it that Ferdinand Hiller cut from the composer's corpse soon after he died. This book chronicles the chunk of hair and has more to say about Hiller and his family than it does about Ludwig van Beethoven. The parts that do actually talk about Beethoven make him sound like a hideous human being, rude and self-absorbed. He was chronically ill and incredibly selfish.

Yet the author clearly reveres the composer, including descriptions like this: "the greatest composer Europe ever had known." Mozart who? This book's intended audience seems to be people who already adore the composer and want to know more. For me, it was a turnoff. Now I wish I didn't know more about him . . .

My favorite part was when the author wrote about the work of one of the modern-day scientists who tested the hair. This scientist has done chemical analysis on the hair of prison inmates (and their non-violent siblings), looking for differences in the chemical makeup. Some of his findings sound very interesting for learning more about how chemicals affect behavior.

It was also interesting that they conclude that Beethoven's many documented illnesses were most likely due to lead poisoning. Overall, though, I wish I'd returned it to the library unread a month and a half ago.