SOURCE: "The Cosmic Questions," in Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 80, No. 103, May 22, 1988, pp. 19-20.

In the following review, Cowen praises A Brief History of Time but warns that understanding its ideas will require some effort on the part of the reader.

"Where have we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" These fundamental questions, which inspired Gauguin's famous picture, also give Stephen Hawking his theme. Gauguin expressed them in the imagery of painting. Dr. Hawking explores them through the concepts of physical science.

The great problem of being—its source, nature, and destiny or(to put it in physical terms) the origin, evolution, and fate of our universe—that's what [A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes] is about. Time, which figures so prominently in the title, comes into it only because time and our universe are inseparable. Our universe evolves through...