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Labatut's 'Frankenstein' - by Ananyo Bhattacharya

ananyo.substack.com · 4,363 words · saved by 1 readers

'The MANIAC' reveals more about the author than about von Neumann

To remove any possibility of misunderstanding, this is not a review of Benjamin Labatut’s book. The MANIAC is an excellent novel and anyone that has not got their hands on a copy should do so because I can assure them that they will devour it in a couple of nights, just like I did. Since the book is, however, ostensibly about John von Neumann, a mathematician whose life and work I could reasonably be expected to know something about, people have, equally reasonably, asked me if I had any thoughts about Labatut’s portrayal of him. And the very fact that this question arises, reveals that…

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