Yesterday I couldn’t make it too far into Behave, because of the usual nonfiction reasons: it’s dry, contains unengaging prose, spits numbers and facts. I retain nothing. This book is the opposite of that. I guess narrative nonfiction… but with fiction is my jam. And… perhaps just incorporating craft from fiction, such as telling an actual story and not writing a boring thesis paper is how you capture an audiences attention. Who knows.

Regardless, this book was absolutely, completely riveting from the start. We follow “golden age” physicists as they struggle to define the field. Personal lives sometimes drilling down to the granular, always serving a purpose in their thinking, their work, and the outcome of their work. Spring boarding off each is a new character, typically.

It’s also massively, sometimes staggeringly intersectional. Weaving in philosophy, ethical concerns and outcomes, morality. The people feel more “alive” than in any other document I’ve read about them. Sure, some of it has to be fictionalized. But magical things happen when science is communicated by characters that feel real: you automatically feel the information is important and it’s easy to follow. What’s more is the work is an extension of their personalities and upbringing. The interplay makes the dry details compelling.

Absolutely the gold standard with which I will measure future nonfiction reads (which is completely unfair because there’s fictional elements) and a niche of it I will seek out in the future. What a counterpoint to the much lauded and ceaseless drivel of Behave.

P.S. the audiobook narration is perfectly matched. Recommended!