Sharply written fiction ably capturing primitive emotions and boundary-breaking research.
Lightly fictionalized studies of envelope-pushing science and its consequences.
Much like Chilean author Labatut’s excellent When We Cease To Understand the World (2021), this novel turns on brilliant minds leading troubled lives. First in its triptych of profiles is Austrian physicist Paul Ehrenfest, who killed his son with Down syndrome before killing himself. (Labatut notes that among Ehrenfest’s scholarly interests was turbulence.) The second and most substantive concerns Johnny von Neumann, a prodigiously brilliant Hungarian physicist and mathematician who worked on the Manhattan Project and spearheaded a host of developments in quantum mechanics and computing. The book’s title refers to MANIAC, a successor to the pioneering computer ENIAC, though as von Neumann’s broken relationships and decline become clear, the title becomes double-edged. The third section moves closer to the present day and concerns Lee Sedol, a Korean master of the notoriously challenging board game Go; in 2016 he was defeated by AlphaGo, an AI program, leaving him so devastated he retired from the game. In each section, but especially the latter two, Labatut elegantly captures the sense of geniuses outstripping the typical boundaries of intellectual achievement and paying a price for it. In Sedol’s case, his matches with AlphaGo are characterized not simply as man-versus-machine battles, but a hint of what an AI–driven future might look like; they were “casting a new and terrible beauty, a logic more powerful than reason.” Labatut can approach this with a certain optimism about the magic of unfettered genius. (Sections narrated by physicist Richard Feynman lighten the tone.) But the prevailing mood is dread; as Labatut tracks the ethical debates regarding the A-bomb and the impact of AlphaGo’s triumph, he sounds a concern that humanity is engineering its undoing.
Sharply written fiction ably capturing primitive emotions and boundary-breaking research.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780593654477
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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