Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby was a book I picked up because it was on an endcap at the library. The description on the book jacket reminded me a lot of the book An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, so it piqued my interest. Plus, it was described as an "academic mystery", which reminded me of Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons, another book I enjoyed. So I gave this book a chance.
The book is about a boy named Mead, who at 18 years old, is about to graduate college with a degree in mathematics. He's made a significant discovery about a mathematical concept called the Reimann Hypothesis, and he's due to give a paper on it. However, the day before he's due to give a presentation on his work, Mead leaves school and heads back home for reasons unknown to everyone but himself. The novel switches between flashbacks of Mead's childhood and life at college and present day, where everyone is trying to figure out why Mead dropped everything and came back home.
I'm a little torn about what to think about it. I was interested in the story, but not enough to block out a whole afternoon to marathon the rest of the book (which is what I usually do). The beginning and middle of the book are really strong, but in the last 50 pages or so, the story sort of fell apart. Not the whole story, but parts of it.
I think the key issue here is that I felt that a lot of the conflicts didn't necessarily match their resolutions, either in depth or scope. For instance, a significant part of the end of the book is dedicated to people confronting the death of Mead's cousin, Percy. Percy's mother, Aunt Jewel, has had a mental breakdown--but the way that aspect of the story is written definitely downplays the significance it has at the end of the book. It's hinted at throughout the story that Mead has some mental issues of his own--so it's perfectly reasonable for you as the reader to think that Mead is just imagining things about his Aunt Jewel. In the end, of course, we find out that Aunt Jewel really is off her rocker and it's this huge big thing--but up until that point in the story, it's never been THAT big of a plot point. So in comparison with the rest of this plotline, the resolution of Aunt-Jewel-is-crazy seems way out of proportion.
Mead also has HUGE issues with his mother--but they all seemed to get magically resolved when he finds out she kept a science report of his from grade school--the only thing he ever got a C on. The explanation is sweet and meaningful and motherly and all, but it seems to magically resolve Mead's issues with his mom (who he is very close to outright loathing by the end of the novel), and that's just not believable.
The biggest thing, though, is the academic part of it all. The WHOLE book, you are wondering why the hell Mead ditched school just before he graduated. You know it has something to do with a guy named Herman Weinstein, and you can guess it has something to do with blackmail, but you don't know exactly WHAT happened until the very end of the book. They build up this "Why did Mead leave" thing for over 300 PAGES. When you find out what happened, it is the most anticlimactic thing you've ever seen. I'm thinking that Herman threatens Mead or does something to him...but no, not really. He just kinds of pressures Mead into making him a co-author of Mead's work on the Reimann Hypothesis. Nothing particularly dangerous about it. Mead just kind of lets it happen. And you're like "Really? You're painfully awkward, yet you can ask a girl out and feel her up, but the next night you can't stand up to a simple schoolyard bully? ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU KNOW THAT HE SLEPT WITH A TEACHER AND THEN BRIBED SAID TEACHER?!?!" Seriously, Mead had more than enough ammunition to bury Herman--and Mead had reason to believe that people would trust his information. And nothing in the rest of the novel suggests that Mead is the type to take the moral high ground. Ever. Mead is supposed to be a genius here, and in this particular scene (the big revelation scene, when you find out what it was that precipitated Mead's leaving school), he comes off like a fucking idiot. And sadly, this scene kind of caused me to lose respect for Mead, so by the tail end of the novel, I didn't really care what happened to him.
As I mentioned earlier, Mead at times seems like he's a bit cracked in the attic. So when he mentions things that Herman does to him, you think that Mead's just a sucker or he's just being paranoid. You don't think Herman really is as bad as Mead thinks he is--or, if Herman is really that big of an evil dick, then he must be one twisted fuck. Nope. Herman is just a guy who was ignored by his father growing up. He's an ass, sure. And in the last 20 pages of the book, you find out that he really is crazy (you find out that in the 3 years he's known Mead, he's stolen Mead's girlfriend, slept with a professor, bribed a professor, stalked, kidnapped, and tried to kill Mead). Now, all together like that, Herman sounds like one sick fuck. But this is stuff you have already suspected throughout the whole book. So it's not exactly relevatory, except for the killing Mead part of it all. I expected Herman to be REALLY twisted, but instead, he's kind of a generic villain.
The book just ends with a bunch of loose ends. You have no idea if Mead's going to go back to college or work in the family business. You are terribly unsure where things are left between him and his mother. And he has this pseudo-girlfriend by the end of the book, but that story is dropped like it's hot and never mentioned again. There really was no closure by the end of this book, and I remember getting to end and thinking "that's it?"
I liked the first 300 or so pages of this book. The characters, setting, and story were all very rich and I was interested in seeing how all the conflicts were going to be resolved. But the conflict resolution itself fell very flat. The ending felt rushed, and a lot of things in the last 50 or so pages felt very tacked on. I don't want to say I didn't like this book, because like I said, the beginning of the novel is well done. I guess the best way to put it is that I was disappointed by this book. I expected the end to be as interesting and engaging as the rest of the book, and sadly, my expectations were not met.
Books Read: 6/100
Currently Reading: Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
