Genius

The performer cannot pronounce some pretty basic words. For example, he pronounces the first "s" in "Descartes" and "matrices" like "mattresses". Most European names were butchered. Many technical terms slaughtered. It's extremely distracting and makes the science and the story enormously hard to follow. I strongly recommend reading this book in text rather than listening to the audiobook.

I am sorry I l left this so long before I wrote the review; I like to write them while I am on the last few pages and all is still fresh in my mind.So...in summary only...here was a tireless intellectual, a rigorous mind, a loving husband, a man who subscribed to now rules that compromised his fundamental beliefs.Yet, here also was a man that went to Brazil to spend a week with a woman of questionable virtue to get abreak from the stress of thinking.My whole experience was enhanced when I found out that Feynman had been recorded giving 7 lectures to students at Cornell in the 1950's.Bill Gates had saved these and made them available on the internet: there Feynman was, alive, humorous, his coarse New York accent untainted, his clean clear thinking on show as if still here.Nobel Prize winner, uncompromising, funny, passionate, tireless, the book brings him alive.How I'd love to have had dinner with him!

I am grateful that James did this, for I learned many new things. I have read many other books about Feynman, and have had that 'I'll eat it cause it's on the plate' feeling about the last few. I feel that way about this too, cause of all the revisited material, but Gleick fills in so many gaps that it is still very refreshing. Mind you all: If you are new to Feynman, this would be one of the most comprehensive books ever written on him! It covers all the old and much new material. This is for everyone!

Roughly 60% of the material in "Genius" is a paraphrasing of the stories contained in the books "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?"which are edited transcriptions of recordings of Feynman telling these stories.The Feynman books are a joy and a revelation. In addition they are wonderfully narrated. In contrast, Gleick's paraphrasing of the stories saps them of the vitality and character of Feynman. Making matters worse, the narrator of "Genius" is dull and mispronounces the names of important physicists and mathematical terms.Get the Feynman books, and skip "Genius."