This novel is written in its entirety as a dialogue between Alicia, Bobby Western's sister in The Passenger and her analyst at Stella Maris, a Wisconsin mental care facility. Since the dialogue is in some sense Mr. McCarthy discussing his deep thoughts with himself, and since Alicia is a mathematician, was a child prodigy, meets at least one definition of psychotic, may be suicidal, and has a completely photographic memory, the experience is intellectually intense. Other fine reviewers have pointed out the relationship between these characters and topics of discussion and other works by McCarthy, but this is mostly beyond me. Even so, I found this dialogue to be one of the best I have read. ( )

That there is little joy in the world is not just a view of things. Every benevolence is suspect. You finally figure out that the world does not have you in mind. It never did. [...] The world has created no living thing that it does not intend to destory. ( )

An entire book without dialog tags or apostrophes of the conversation between a patient in an asylum and her resident therapist. And I finished it reading mostly in the should-be-sleeping hours and found it soporific in a good way. McCarthy uses this volume to clarify some of the first book, [b:The Passenger|60526801|The Passenger (The Passenger, #1)|Cormac McCarthy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1647021401l/60526801._SX50_.jpg|58040703] but also makes it a encyclopedia of mathematical, philosophical, scientific allusions to (last name only) myriad individuals Gödel, Hilbert, LaGrange, Teller, Turing, etc. whom are possibly familiar but not understood. There are interesting asides on psychology and music ("Music is not a language. It has no reference to anything other than itself. Why does some particular arrangement of these notes have such a profound effect on our emotions is a mystery even beyond the hope of comprehension.") and language: "We're the only mammalian species that cant swallow and articulate at the same time. Think of a cat growling while it eats, and then try it yourself. The unconscious system of guidance (necessary to survival)--everything from a blink to a cough to a decision to run for your life-- is millions of years old, speech less than a hundred thousand. Language arose from no known need." Or, finally, the gist of it all being that the father of these two troubled offspring (Bobby and Alicia) worked in Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project." Anyone who doesnt understand that the Manhattan Project is one of the most significant events in human history hasnt been paying attention. It's up there with fire and language. Its at least number three and it may be number one. We just don't know yet. But we will." ( )

Doesn't really seem like a novel to me, more like extra material relating to The Passenger. Maybe something like Tolkien's Silmarillion writings? Worth reading if you're into the main text. ( )

USA, Wisconsin, Black River Falls, den psykiatriske institution og hospice "Stella Maris", 1972
Mærkelig bog. Det er en slags dialog mellem en psykiater dr Cohen og Alicia (som er Bobby's søster, som nævnt i "Passageren"). Bogen hænger på den måde sammen med "Passageren". Hvert af de syv kapitler er en terapi-session. Alicia er i 1972 20 år gammel og professionel matematiker. Hun har opgivet matematik (topologi og topos-teori) fordi hun er blevet distraheret (af topologi og topos-teori). Hun har arbejdet sammen med Grothendieck (som er 44 på dette tidspunkt) på et institut oprettet til ham og en Dieudonne af en russer Motchane. (Hun nævner også Bourbaki, Riemann, Euklid, Hilbert, Poincaré, Dedekind, Cantor). Hun lader sig indskrive på den åbne afdeling og har taget en pose pengesedler med. Over 40000 dollars. Hun har sammen med sin bror arvet en hoben penge i form af kontanter og guldmønter, men uden at have de store behov. Hun har købt en Amati-violin for 230.000 dollars og er god til at spille violin, men ikke koncertviolinist. Hun er taget ind på Stella Maris for at slippe for at skulle tage stilling til om man skal slukke for respiratoren, der holder hendes bror Bob i live efter en ulykke i Italien. Hendes far arbejdede på Manhattanprojektet som fysiker. Hun er født den 25 december 1951. Hendes mor arbejdede ved en calutron for Manhattanprojektet, dvs berigning af Uran vha acceleratorer. Lawrence opfandt cyklotronen og kom af og til forbi og skruede op for strømmen til calutronerne og gik igen. Fem minutter efter stod det hele i flammer. Flere terapi-sessioner. Hun fortæller om planer for at drukne sig i Lake Tahoe, men den er for dyb og for kold. Og om at være forelsket i Bobby. På en meget legemlig og fysisk måde, men Bobby ville ikke vide af det, så det blev aldrig til noget. Den sidste session ender med at Alicia beder dr Cohen om at holde hende i hånden "fordi det er det folk gør, når de venter på at noget slutter".

Jeg kan godt lide at Alicia gamer stanford-binet IQ-testen for at se om hun kan score præcis 100 på den. Jeg kan ikke lide fornemmelsen af at Alicia og Cohen er to sokkedyr, hvis dialog bruges til at udstille at forfatteren har læst Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Willard Van Orman Quine, John Horton Conway, Kurt Gödel, David Hilbert, John von Neumann, Gottlob Frege og så videre og så videre. ( )