Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Life After Genius

by M. Ann Jacoby

     

Somehow, against all odds, M. Ann Jacoby is able to make a story about a young man who sets out to prove a math hypothesis strangely and utterly fascinating. While Theodore Mead Fegley, the main character's, focus on proving the Reimann Hypothesis* may be over a majority of readers' heads, the complex familial and interpersonal relationships between Mead and his family members, professors and college classmates, will resonate with many who may begin reading this book as a curiosity.

From the moment the academically talented Mead and his cousin build a maze to test the behavior of mice, I was hooked. Perhaps readers who consider themselves nerds or who prefer academics to sports will be able to identify with Mead. Any young person who has ever felt socially inadequate, picked on or ostracized because of above average intelligence can relate to the experiences in this book. Ms. Jacoby also does a more than adequate job of portraying the miscommunications and misunderstandings that occur between generations and within families, as she chronicles the adventures and misadventures of Mead and his cousin Percy's trials in growing up. Overall, I found Life After Genius an entertaining and compelling read and look forward to further efforts from Ms. Jacoby.

 

 

*According to Wikipedia, the Reimann Hypothesis is an honest to goodness real life conjecture about the distribution of the zeros of the Reimann zeta-function stating that all non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function have real part 1/2.

The Book

Grand Central Publishing / Hachette
October 2009
Paperback
978-0-446-19972-8
Fiction
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE: subject matter deals with brief homosexual relationship

The Reviewer

Donna Ross
Reviewed 2010
NOTE: Reviewer Donna Satterlee Ross is the co-editor of That's Life with Autism: Tales And Tips for Families With Autism and is currently working on a new book about autism and humor.
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