MixedNew York Journal of BooksThough she often depends on facile academic stereotypes, Stern reveals the ways in which scientists may try to deploy objective methods, but are ultimately human. Our ability to describe and understand the world at an intellectual and theoretical level, is not always transferable to ourselves as individuals nor in our relationships with others ... The book is further sustained by a set of diverse characters, including an insightful, but flighty father, a smart, seven-year old niece, typical university colleagues and a misbehaving parrot ... [the] lack of Prue’s character description and development weakens the novel’s core themes. The feeling throughout is that the author’s intention was to craft Ivan as an unreliable narrator. It is questionable whether the moves throughout the novel substantiate this kind of complexity in narrative voice and plot. Nonetheless, this is a smart, entertaining and highly readable novel, one that should appeal to a diverse audience.
