The second book that I’ve finished reading this year is Jane Hawking’s “Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen”. Written by the first wife of Stephen Hawking, this poignant memoir recounts the plights of the Hawking family under the glamorous veneer of Stephen’s academic career, lending me further insight into the personal life of the renowned physicist whose book “A Brief History of Time” I had just recently read. Before their marriage, Jane was already well aware of Stephen’s motor-neurone condition. Although it wasn’t really clear how Stephen developed feelings for her in the initial stages of their relationship, and despite the clear conflict between Stephen’s strong belief in scientific principles and Jane’s inclination towards faith, they still came to the decision to marry. Undeniably, Jane has shown great courage when she tied the knot with Stephen, driven by her na?ve, young optimism in face of an incurable degenerative disease. In the coming years she is to find herself juggling the piece of her self identity, her PhD thesis, with miscellaneous domestic tasks, from the top priority of Stephen’s care to accommodating the interminable string of dinners and parties, as well as bearing successive pregnancies and childcare. Several logistic issues had to be dealt with, involving housing, securing funding, as well as ensuring reliable nursing care for Stephen after his tracheotomy operation deprived his power of speech. It seems no longer surprising, then, that Jane would need to find an emotional outlet in Jonathan, a talented musician, who developed a platonic relationship with her and offered tremendous support for the Hawking family. As I read long outbursts of her shattering emotions, my attitude towards her shifted from the slight skepticism of her self-victimisation to a more profound empathy of the gargantuan demands of her from her surroundings. Not only did she live in the shadow of her husband’s fame beneath the daunting lights of media, she also had to withstand Stephen’s stoic reticence and his insistence in combating his physical degeneration alone, reluctant to share any of his vulnerable feelings with even his family members. Privacy was lost to public exposure, and there was nowhere for emotional respite. Despite such circumstances, Jane still wanted to remain loyal to Stephen, only to discover that Stephen has been coaxed into a sweet trap that marked the end of their marriage. In reality, many of the hardships that Jane faced are relevant to families caring for the severely disabled, as well as for the immobile elderly. Reading these made me reflect on the future of elderly care, since most nurses that Jane had come across, albeit with professional qualifications, were ill-suited to the psychological side of the job. Furthermore, Stephen’s frequent travels also revealed the mobile nature of an academic career, where the scholar’s family members are often treated as satellites who have no choice but to uproot when the scholar is appointed to a different institution. Similarly, housing is rarely permanent, and disruptions to normal life are unpredictable. The conventional housewife is already burdened by domestic work dismissed as trivial by outsiders; Jane’s burdens are further multiplied by the unconventional circumstances of her family. It may be a great honour to have a genius husband, though it may not be the most practical when it comes to dividing the shares of work among the family. Furthermore, Stephen’s children, albeit most of which are also Oxbridge graduates, also live under pressure of their father’s exceptional achievements. Indeed, family life with a genius is not at all as glamorous as it seems. Nonetheless, some of the travel described were moments of peace where the family took a respite from their constantly stressful environment and genuinely enjoyed each other’s company. Some of Jane’s solo adventures, during which Stephen was involved in conferences, also whisked me back to my unaccompanied travels in the exact locations, especially in Switzerland and Israel. Those halcyon times were gratifying to reminisce, especially since the last three years of my life have involved no foreign travel at all. I am longing to resume this past lifestyle again in the years to come. Overall, this book has been a thoughtful read, though at times spurring. Jane’s use of vocabulary and sentence structure are rather advanced, with lots of compound-complex sentences that need to be read more than once to glean the full and accurate expression. Scattered across the 487 pages are many words that seem familiar but of which I am not 100% sure, resulting in frequent dictionary checking and google image searching. Nonetheless, I did achieve my goal of reading 100+ pages per day consecutively (unlike my failed attempt for The Count of Monte Cristo) and even managed to find some pleasantly surprising familiarities such as Alhazen (Al-Haitham) and Ad Astra (Abyssosque). That said, I would recommend it to readers interested in Hawking’s personal life, as well as the true sacrifice and struggles behind fame and disability.