The MANIAC

Labatut's first novel, When We Cease to Understand the World, was a favorite of the New York Times, Barack Obama, and most important, me. This one is even better than its predecessor. Like the earlier book, The MANIAC can be read as pure truth, but the factual narrative Labatut assembles is as artfully composed and strikes to the heart as powerfully as fiction does. His main protagonist is the polymathic scientific genius John Von Neumann, who fathered most of the important technologies of the 20th century, including the hydrogen bomb and the computer (the novel's title derives from the acronym for one such early device). The range of his accomplishments is vast, but their cumulative effect is terrifyingly amoral. The tantalizing promise of artificial intelligence that Von Neumann pioneers appears in the end more like an existential threat. Nevertheless, one man, filled with a hopeless heroism, defends humanity as bravely as an anonymous protestor facing down a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square. Altogether unique, The MANIAC is both direct and deep, a novel of astonishing intellectual heft that moved me nearly to tears. It's a masterpiece. —James (from the Madison Books newsletter) New Book of the Week