Puzzle of Fate

Kamarei explores a scientific basis for fate in this debut work of nonfiction.

Part pop-science inquiry, part self-help guide, this book seeks to determine whether there is such a thing as personal fate—and if it is within people’s power to alter it. Through original investigation and research into the works of others, Kamarei has synthesized what science has taught the world so far: “I did not actually discover any NEW factor about fate. Instead, I pinpointed, elaborated and classified all factors and subfactors that contribute to building and shaping our fate in a systematic way.” The factors break down into six groups. Some are outside of the individual’s sphere of influence (genetics, prenatal development, birth conditions), while others are partially (environment, chance) or firmly (freely made decisions) within people’s control. By better understanding what aspects of life are within one’s power or outside of it, Kamarei argues that readers can work to bend their fates toward their own preferred outcomes, a state that the author terms an individual’s “Unique Summit.” One’s Unique Summit is reached via finding an individual balance of tangible circumstances (“Quality of Life”) and intangible ones (“Happiness”). Jargon aside, the book is less a belief system and more a mélange of statistics and genetic factoids that explain much of life’s unpleasantness, from the likelihood that twins will share various handicaps to the conditions that affect IQ to a ranked list of the most common causes of divorce. Kamarei writes in a clear, upbeat prose that lends every sentence a sense of cheerful vitality. So much of people’s fates (according to the author’s model) is determined before they are out of infancy that the book arguably serves as a more useful primer for how people should raise future children than how to fix their own lives. Even so, the author eagerly points out those places where agency is possible. Readers looking for a motivational work that is heavier on science than on aphorisms (though there are some of those as well) may find this volume appealing. If nothing else, it succeeds in making fate a little less frightening.