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bel45 's review for:
The MANIAC
by BenjamÃn Labatut
this book had many of the same elements that made "When We Cease to Understand the World" really good. after this second book drawing on the existential horrors at the heart of math and physics, which leave anyone who truly understands them a hollowed out shell of their former self, I'm starting to think it's a good thing I dropped out of physics, and am in no danger of truly understanding anything (except Ancient Greek). unfortunately, this book was much longer than the other one, and added a lot of elements that were less successful. The voicing of the multiple narrators was clumsy, achieved by cramming each sentence chock-full of identity specific slang that often verged on unintentional parody. The prose was generally less crisp, and I wonder if that's because there's no translator credited, which means this was written directly in English (unlike the first, which was translated from Spanish). finally, the two sections (Von Neumann and Go) of the book, while enjoyable on their own, didn't really complement each other as well as I hoped. looking forward to reading whatever he writes next!