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Jun 2021
2:04pm, 1 Jun 2021
49,566 posts
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McGoohan
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut is the June 2021 chozz as chozzed by Chrisull.
Load your literary twelve-bore and pepper the thread below with your mind-shot, much as Prince Charles would a grouse's hind-quarters.
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Jun 2021
2:08pm, 1 Jun 2021
49,567 posts
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McGoohan
Mr Neil A Higgins
1.0 out of 5 stars Lame, disingenuous, misleading, pointless
Reviewed in Australia on 13 May 2021
Possum
2.0 out of 5 stars Pointless
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2020
Verified Purchase
I didn’t enjoy this pointless book as I thought it was pointless making up pointless stories about the historic people mentioned in the book!
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Jun 2021
3:41pm, 4 Jun 2021
17,766 posts
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Chrisull
Interesting I think - Possum misrepresents it, the stories are true... it's the narrative/inner life that is fictional. In fact the first section Prussian Blue (which I have just finished) according to the author contains only one fictional paragraph - which one reviewer guesses is the last one, the one where Haber regrets his actions.
That's the trouble with 1 star reviews, I'd love to see a great dissection of much of literature with proper critical analysis on why a particular book is lame, but it usually ends up being I didn't like this book boo-hoo. It usually says more about the reviewers then the book.
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Jun 2021
4:00pm, 4 Jun 2021
49,597 posts
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McGoohan
To be serious, I rarely think 1-star reviews are justified. people seem to be unable to find shades of grey between 'awesome' and 'abyssmal'. As such, I think most 5-star reviews are unjustified too...
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Jun 2021
2:15pm, 10 Jun 2021
49,616 posts
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McGoohan
Right, finished this lunchtime. I am giving this Schrodinger's score. Until we look in the box, we can't know what my score is, if anything.
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Jun 2021
9:59am, 13 Jun 2021
49,629 posts
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McGoohan
This was just about the perfect book for me. Very much down the Eric Vuillard/Laurent Binet rue.
Odd fiction/non-fic crossover? Check.
Translated into English? Check.
Twisty tales of the dark side of science? Right up my street.
I liked how there were connections and callbacks to earlier 'stories' as we went on too. The cat is out of the box. I gave it a 9. Thanks Chrisull for choosing this.
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Jun 2021
10:27pm, 14 Jun 2021
21,123 posts
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Columba
What an odd book. I found it interesting, but odd. The first section seemed to be about one thing (chemicals) and the others about physics/maths/quantum theory. Apart from the short final chapter. When I'd finished I flicked back to the beginning again and realised there was a kind of link of the two ends, i.e. a woman trying to hang herself from an oak tree (different women, different oak trees; one succeeds, one doesn't).
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Jun 2021
10:29pm, 14 Jun 2021
21,124 posts
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Columba
I kept waiting for Schrodinger's cat to be mentioned, but it wasn't. Or was it and I missed it?
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Jun 2021
10:38pm, 14 Jun 2021
49,638 posts
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McGoohan
Well it's either there or it isn't and only by looking in the box... maybe that joke has got tired before I even finish it...? So instead:
It's on page 170 Columba
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Jun 2021
10:45pm, 14 Jun 2021
17,819 posts
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Chrisull
I have finished it, will review in full course, but yes it was a little disjointed, and it was fairly easy to see the fictional and non-fictional bits. Definitely glad I chose it, turned out better than the Leopard!
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We by Yevgeny Zamyatin - June 2025 Book Group discussion thread
Jun 2025