I read Maniac during the holidays, and When We Cease to Understand the World (a title I jokingly disagree with for professional reasons) about a year ago. As a theoretical physicist, I am often of two minds about Labatut. On the one hand, I agree with your read of him and highly appreciate his writing, on the other I can't avoid feeling he overly dramatizes his subjects, But then I stop myself and think that the reason I have that opinion is because he writes from an outsiders perspective about math and physics and reading him renews my sense of wonder (and a bit of fear) about science. Definitely a thought-provoking author.

Book Buyers! Love that place. And the subgenre of Biographical Thriller is something I didn't realize I needed.

Wonderful reviews. :) Both books were my favorites of all the ones I read in the respective years they were published. I was absolutely blown away by the opening part of When we cease [..] and its wonderful use of association and scientific facts. The Maniac I found even better. Read it in one day. Then read it again and was even more impressed. Labatut makes it feel as if scientific discovery is something out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel.

Wow. I just got myself a copy of The Maniac, as I know very little about Von Neumann and this book sounds super-exciting. As for Grothendieck, he really was too cool to be true. Among his many feats, he taught Algebraic Topology in the middle of the war in Thái Nguyên Forest to Ms Hoàng Xuân Sính, who later compiled the first French-Vietnamese mathematical dictionary and founded the first private university here in Vietnam. Not only did he teach for free but, once back to Paris, he sold his Fields medal and donated the prize money to help raise a fund for Vietnam. After seeing him mentioned in The Passenger and Stella Maris, I can't wait to learn more about him so, once again, thank you for the double treat, Mr Benjamín Labatut, and thanks so much for the review, dear Chris: this Year Of The Dragon is going to start with a bang! ( 24:47 Oh, I need to watch that documentary myself. I hope it didn't exempt you from watching Fanny And Alexander, as is tradition 😝 )

I read these last year and have been hoping you'd make a video on them ever since. It's my lucky day!

Am glad to see a video on Labatut, I absolutely loved Maniac and nearly read the whole thing in one sitting.

Long comment alert 🤣 I read MANIAC on my own, I think through some random rabbit hole through reddit threads starting with my search "books like Borges' fiction". MANIAC was a very good book - loved Ehrenfest, von Neumann part so-so, the third part was a miss for me - didn't "get" it. And so while Ehrenfest part set me up with the expectation for a brilliant read, I felt underwhelmed by the final part and put off Where We Cease... (This was like a month ago btw so not too far back) Cut to today. Your new video notification pops up. I listen to the first few lines. And I pause it and get the ebook of Where We Cease...I sat and read it today, I could not put it down and I loved it so much. Brilliant and humane, exhilarating but humbling, thought-provoking, the zenith and nadir of scientific progress. Schwarzchild section - the comparison of the singularity to human psyche in the land they were in then? When I got to the Solvay Conference, I was overwhelmed. This is why I pursued physics and why even after failing to become a good scientist, physics holds that allure for me more than any subject. The last part, The Night Gardener, as you said, it was unexpected. And then I realised, how beautifully Labatut brought it together. Ah, perfection for me. Thank you for discussing these books, what can I say. May you remain blessed and continue to share your enthusiasm for books that impact you. Two random thoughts: 1) I know commenters mentioned Solenoid (which I liked a lot) but for me what I was reminded of, especially in the Heart of the Heart section, was Stella Maris. I liked Alicia, I liked the last lines (especially as those are now McCarthy 's last lines to us) but I think Labatut brought it all together better. Of course you can say McCarthy was trying to investigate the conundrum at the heart of quantum mechanics, Labatut was merely telling us about it but I think there is a powerful humility in acknowledging that perhaps there aren't no words to truly express these philosophical underpinnings at the heart of QM, there is no "resolution", "shut up and calculate" might be oversimplification but its not totally wrong. 2) I want to convey my regards to you especially for the restraint and circumspect ability you have to select what you want to discuss on your channel. You read a lot, I am sure you get pulled in many directions and all seem interesting, but to select what might be worthwhile despite all that, to separate the signal from the noise and then amplify it via the discussion on your channel - massive respect for that. Funny postscript (promise I am done after this) - I heard about the Discord pretty much the day it was announced and still do not have the courage to join. 🤣 I know you will be encouraging but hear me out please: I am simply not erudite enough. I love reading murder mysteries and fantasy, some science fiction, alongside literary fiction and classics, I have terrible opinions on some well-acclaimed masterpieces. But in the meantime, congratulations on starting this new community and best wishes to all. Happy reading and looking forward to the next discussion with keen interest. 👋

Just finished the Maniac two days ago. Absolutely fantastic. I can see a lot of people thinking the final act (concerning AlphaGo) is weaker than the preceding chapters but it had me completely gripped. It’s the pre-apocalyptic climax built up by the groundwork of Von Neumann. Anything this author publishes in English is an automatic day of release purchase for me from this point on, and there are very few contemporary authors I can say that about.

Ah, yes, the alphago documentary is great. Even for a non player. And you just sold me on this author I had never heard of. Tu es un passeur Chris!

So happy to see a video of this one. This book is an absolute masterpiece.

There are very few authors I would put my life on hold for, so that's very high praise indeed. I was already sold on this author before that testimonial! Great review.

So hyped that you started the Discord! I think that space is going to be cherished by so many people, myself included. WWCTUTW was incredible but I haven’t gotten around to The Maniac - going to use this video as inspiration to put it right to the top of my TBR after I finish The Apple in the Dark (which is phenomenal). Cheers Chris!

When we cease… was one of my best reads a couple years ago, I’m looking forward to having the time to immerse myself into the Maniac. I must add that I found that some parts of Solenoid and Sebald’s works share this fantastic blend of math history and fiction; this might be becoming a new genre

I can’t believe you read When We Cease… essentially in one sitting. I could only read a few pages at a time… too many thoughts just buzzing around my brain. I absolutely loved it.

Very glad to hear you enjoyed The Maniac like I did! Truly incredible! I’ve yet to get to his first but think I’ll go buy it now.. 👏🏻

Hey, Chris. Great review as always. I've read both books. They have something very special: they translate a myriad of battles that constitute the great war of humans for transparency; but they do so, which is special, from the standpoint of one who knows that we cannot at all relinquish the veils: they constitute the very transparency for which we fight; behind it there is nothing: it is the horror of infinite empty spaces. Anyway, for a certain number of reasons, some of them also obscure (ahaha), I am now fairly convinced that the next book will be about George Boole!!! Cheers, Tiago.

Hi chris! After having seen this video, I have decided to start reading labatut's books that have been sitting on my shelf for too long. Thanks for your amazing video. Have a great day!

I have always been deeply skeptical about journalists who turn their hand to fiction, as usually their language and formalism are so far removed from being literary. But I would make an exception for Labatut

I loved both of these books! Labatut accomplishes writing novels about science which feel like page-turners.

Labatut did a conference last month with one of my creative writing professors (Paolo Giordano, writer and phd in physics) and it was really interesting. Maniac is also a mastercalss in the economy of writing, how he glides from a point to another, an incredible work of hetero-fiction.

Just ordered both books, can't wait to read them both, sound fascinating. Also - 'Suttree', can't get any better than it, a fantastic novel, great choice, can't wait for it.

Well, various algorithms have been urging me to attend to Labatut for some time now. Maybe it’s time I pay attention! Wonderful video. Unrelated question obliquely prompted by this excellent video: have you read Michael Cisco’s Animal Money? A crazy-quilt maximalist fantasia with its roots in the math-driven world of economics, it seems like a worthy entry for LxL. And Suttree! How exciting. My favorite McCarthy novel, and that’s saying something…

This video is a dream come true

Hi Enjoy you content very much ! I would like to see a serie off the author Pär Lagerkvist. Keep the good content flow Thanks

Labatut is great, and if you like this style you have to read Eliot Weinberger's essays. Karmic Traces is a perfect starting point. I would not be surprised if Labatut was informed by him-he is much more popular in Latin America than the US.

I am so tempted by these books…but I’m not good at math or science so will these books be way over my head? I’m used to reading classics and deep reading, or I think so, but why do I get the feeling these will go over my unscientific head? All that said, I’m in absolute awe of those great minds who are the greatest minds known to us, like Einstein etc. and wish I could understand way more than I do.

Unfamiliar with Labatut but sounds that disappointment would be avoided if chose to partake 🤔