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On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction
Winner of the Paris Review Discovery Prize for best first fiction and anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2002 , Karl Iagnemma has been recognized as a writer of rare talent. His literary terrain is the world of science, with its charged boundary between the rational mind and the restless heart. In Iagnemma's stories, mathematicians and theoreticians, foresters and doctors, yearn to sustain bonds as steadfast as the equations and principles that anchor their lives. A frustrated academic tries to diagram his troubled relationship with his girlfriend but fails to create a formula for romance. A nineteenth-century phrenologist must reexamine the connection between knowledge and passion when a young con-woman beats him at his own game. A jaded professor dreams endlessly of his two a beautiful former colleague and the theorem that made her famous. Inventive, wise, funny, and disquieting, Karl Iagnemma's first collection attests to his spirited imagination and his prodigious literary gifts.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
6 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
Karl Iagnemma
15 books8 followersKarl Iagnemma was raised in suburban Detroit and attended the University of Michigan, where he studied mechanical engineering and began writing fiction. He did graduate work in robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and wrote much of his first book, On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, as a Ph.D. student. His short stories have received numerous awards, including the Paris Review Plimpton Prize, first place in the Playboy college fiction contest, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Massachusetts Cultural Council. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Zoetrope, SEED, and NASA's ASK magazine, and been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories, Best American Erotica, and Pushcart Prize collections.
Karl currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and works as a research scientist at M.I.T. He's currently completing a novel about a phrenologist and a politician in 1850's Detroit.
Karl currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and works as a research scientist at M.I.T. He's currently completing a novel about a phrenologist and a politician in 1850's Detroit.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 18, 2010
Judging from the jacket blurb and trade reviews, this book managed to attract a certain amount of publicity when it first appeared, by claiming the "geek engineer writes about human emotions" slot. "Strong first collection from a robotics researcher who knows that ... heart is as important as math" gushed Kirkus Reviews. Other reviews just couldn't steer clear of their own math metaphors (though they really should have): "Iagnemma's fiction can make even the most ardent math-hater appreciate the parabolic nature of life's ups and downs" (L.A. Times).
Well, you know, it's a crowded field out there if you are a freshly minted author. So who can blame Iagnemma (or, more likely, a crafty publicist of his) for grasping at an appealing gimmick to differentiate (!) himself. PR hype doesn't necessarily tell us anything about the quality of his writing. Though the breathless nature of some of the hype might suggest that the author's self-professed geek status resulted in somewhat lowered expectations.
In fact, these stories aren't bad. But, with the exception of "Zilkowski's Theorem" and "The Confessional Approach", they aren't particularly good either. Iagnemma blows the cover of his gimmick right there on page 3 of the title story by inclusion of a Venn diagram that in no way illuminates what he is trying to say (and the line of mathematical notation that follows the accompanying "more precisely" is complete mumbo-jumbo, what one can only regard as placed there cynically, for reviewers at the same mathemtical level as the L.A. Times). Similarly, his listing of the predator-prey equations a few pages later is equally bogus.
These stories are at their best when Iagnemma isn't self-consciously milking the geek angle - his writing isn't bad. Of the 8 stories in the collection, I thought two were excellent, two were passable, and the remaining four didn't succeed for various reasons. Which evens out at somewhere around 2.5 stars. Rounded down to 2, for that bogus Venn diagram.
Well, you know, it's a crowded field out there if you are a freshly minted author. So who can blame Iagnemma (or, more likely, a crafty publicist of his) for grasping at an appealing gimmick to differentiate (!) himself. PR hype doesn't necessarily tell us anything about the quality of his writing. Though the breathless nature of some of the hype might suggest that the author's self-professed geek status resulted in somewhat lowered expectations.
In fact, these stories aren't bad. But, with the exception of "Zilkowski's Theorem" and "The Confessional Approach", they aren't particularly good either. Iagnemma blows the cover of his gimmick right there on page 3 of the title story by inclusion of a Venn diagram that in no way illuminates what he is trying to say (and the line of mathematical notation that follows the accompanying "more precisely" is complete mumbo-jumbo, what one can only regard as placed there cynically, for reviewers at the same mathemtical level as the L.A. Times). Similarly, his listing of the predator-prey equations a few pages later is equally bogus.
These stories are at their best when Iagnemma isn't self-consciously milking the geek angle - his writing isn't bad. Of the 8 stories in the collection, I thought two were excellent, two were passable, and the remaining four didn't succeed for various reasons. Which evens out at somewhere around 2.5 stars. Rounded down to 2, for that bogus Venn diagram.
February 5, 2008
Read my review of this book on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2X2PWUI...
September 23, 2018
This appears to be a collection of short stories. I got the book as a gift and brought it on a flight to Egypt. The first chapter was a depressing tale of misogynistic men who wanted to control their current and former partners. One page into the second chapter was the line, "I had my bag stolen last week by a negro." I could forgive the use of that word as the chapter was set in the distant past but I can't forgive the author for blaming a person of color for misfortune. I couldn't read another page. If this had been an ebook format I never would have gotten past the preview and paid money for it. This book is utter garbage by a person who may not even know the amount if male white privilege he has and how racist and misogynistic he is.
October 4, 2007
I had heard of this book on PBS and it seemed like it was beeing (over)hyped simply because it was written by a science nerd and not an artsy lit type. "How curious, that scientist is trying to make art! Let's watch." I didn't want to read something because it was "good, for an engineer". I'd rather read something that was just good.
Anyway, my parents got it for me for my birthday. In the end, I'd say it is a solid collection of stories and worth reading but I don't think it would be getting as much recognition and praise if it were written by somebody with an MFA in creative writing instead of a PhD in engineering.
Anyway, my parents got it for me for my birthday. In the end, I'd say it is a solid collection of stories and worth reading but I don't think it would be getting as much recognition and praise if it were written by somebody with an MFA in creative writing instead of a PhD in engineering.
February 21, 2008
Iagnemma's writing is at it's most delicate and humane within the title story of a academic trying to make sense of longing through mathematical theory and again when this formula is revisited in "Zilowski's Theorem."
The rest of the stories are unremarkable, reliant on historical context rather than content.
The rest of the stories are unremarkable, reliant on historical context rather than content.
April 28, 2009
I felt traumatized and disillusioned with women after reading this book.
December 10, 2018
Ca faisait longtemps que je n'avais plus lu de nouvelles. Ici, recherche de l'amour et sciences/mathématiques se mélangent pour des histoires parfois étranges mais très jolies :-)
July 14, 2016
Iagnemma is a deserving winner of multiple prizes. I came to his collection blind, however--and was in for quite a treat. His writing, especially in the first half of the collection, is of a nature that I was fully entranced, hanging on the beauty of the sentences even as the plots themselves unfolded. How does a writer write so well? Iagnemma does more than just tell a good story; he rolls it out like a fine piece of art that feels as if it has weight and importance without being so heavy as to seem ponderous.
The opening/title story is about math--or about how logic interacts with our understanding of relationships, which I believe is essentially nill. The lead character is a former student in love with the daughter of his former advisor, who is in turn in love with an undergrad. The daughter does not want the weight of a relationship; the narrator wants to have the daughter for himself. Why this need to possess things? Why not just enjoy?
"The Phrenologist's Dream" focuses on a nineteenth-century scientist who has great doubts about his career. He travels the country studying women's skulls in order to ascertain the levels at which women can love, and yet he knows that his science is likely quackery, as he can find no real patterns. Enter Sarah, a bald woman on trip to reunite with her husband and who is also something of a scoundrel.
Both these opening stories involve women unwilling to commit to a relationship, which led me to believe that perhaps this theme might run throughout the collection, but the next story, "Zilkowski's Theorem," does not involve such a character and begins to take the collection in new directions.
“The Confessional Approach” takes a break from the math-heavy backround that forges part of the first three stories. This one involves a couple who make mannequins deciding how ethical it is to sell those mannequins to someone who wishes merely to use them for target practice.
"The Indian Agent" simulates the journal of a man sent to Michigan to broker good will and piece between white settlers and a small band of "peaceful" Indians. Alas, distrust between the two and white greed creates a situation the agent begins to lose control of and patience with. Here, a romantic relationship is not the center of the story but rather its lack--the isolation that comes with being alone in a foreign land.
"Kingdom, Order, Species" returns to the science and math world, as a mediocre academic stalks the author of her favorite field guide. Here, we have a romance story of sorts, complete with a happy ending of sorts and, thus, different in tone than most of the other stories.
"The Ore Miner's Wife" deals with a woman whose miner husband takes an interest in science. This interest leads her to believe that perhaps he is cheating on her.
A similar theme creeps into the last story, "Children of Hunger," which recounts the experiments of William Beaumont on an injured man, experiments that allow him to see in to a man's digestive track. So obsessed does he become--so in love with science--that he sacrifices the love of his wife.
And that, I suppose, is what the collection is about, that intersection between science and love, logic and feeling, as if somehow we might be able to quantify love in some mathematical sense.
The opening/title story is about math--or about how logic interacts with our understanding of relationships, which I believe is essentially nill. The lead character is a former student in love with the daughter of his former advisor, who is in turn in love with an undergrad. The daughter does not want the weight of a relationship; the narrator wants to have the daughter for himself. Why this need to possess things? Why not just enjoy?
"The Phrenologist's Dream" focuses on a nineteenth-century scientist who has great doubts about his career. He travels the country studying women's skulls in order to ascertain the levels at which women can love, and yet he knows that his science is likely quackery, as he can find no real patterns. Enter Sarah, a bald woman on trip to reunite with her husband and who is also something of a scoundrel.
Both these opening stories involve women unwilling to commit to a relationship, which led me to believe that perhaps this theme might run throughout the collection, but the next story, "Zilkowski's Theorem," does not involve such a character and begins to take the collection in new directions.
“The Confessional Approach” takes a break from the math-heavy backround that forges part of the first three stories. This one involves a couple who make mannequins deciding how ethical it is to sell those mannequins to someone who wishes merely to use them for target practice.
"The Indian Agent" simulates the journal of a man sent to Michigan to broker good will and piece between white settlers and a small band of "peaceful" Indians. Alas, distrust between the two and white greed creates a situation the agent begins to lose control of and patience with. Here, a romantic relationship is not the center of the story but rather its lack--the isolation that comes with being alone in a foreign land.
"Kingdom, Order, Species" returns to the science and math world, as a mediocre academic stalks the author of her favorite field guide. Here, we have a romance story of sorts, complete with a happy ending of sorts and, thus, different in tone than most of the other stories.
"The Ore Miner's Wife" deals with a woman whose miner husband takes an interest in science. This interest leads her to believe that perhaps he is cheating on her.
A similar theme creeps into the last story, "Children of Hunger," which recounts the experiments of William Beaumont on an injured man, experiments that allow him to see in to a man's digestive track. So obsessed does he become--so in love with science--that he sacrifices the love of his wife.
And that, I suppose, is what the collection is about, that intersection between science and love, logic and feeling, as if somehow we might be able to quantify love in some mathematical sense.
July 20, 2007
Some good, some not so good. One of the highlights was definitely "Kingdom, Order, Species," a great story about a wayward forester and her quest to find the researcher that led her to forestry. The title story was the best tale in the collection and what led me to the book in the first place. I liked hearing about young academics, seeing their passion for their studies adjacent to their amorous malfunctions.
Unfortunately, the stories concerning colonial settlements were simply less engaging. "Children of Hunger" and "The Phrenologist's Dream" fell particularly flat, but "The Indian Agent" and "The Ore Miner's Wife" were enjoyable, especially the latter.
The two stragglers I failed to mention: "Zilkowski's Theorem" was a bit middling and "The Confessional Approach" was the ultimate clunker of the bunch. Contemptible hippies fretting about their irritating lives. I really didn't give a damn what happened to them.
Iagnemma seems like a one trick pony, but when his one trick works, like in "KOS" and the title story, it is marvelous. 3 stars for those stories alone.
Unfortunately, the stories concerning colonial settlements were simply less engaging. "Children of Hunger" and "The Phrenologist's Dream" fell particularly flat, but "The Indian Agent" and "The Ore Miner's Wife" were enjoyable, especially the latter.
The two stragglers I failed to mention: "Zilkowski's Theorem" was a bit middling and "The Confessional Approach" was the ultimate clunker of the bunch. Contemptible hippies fretting about their irritating lives. I really didn't give a damn what happened to them.
Iagnemma seems like a one trick pony, but when his one trick works, like in "KOS" and the title story, it is marvelous. 3 stars for those stories alone.
Want to read
June 11, 2007I learned about him from Nova and I've been using the PBS segment in my freshman writing class to introduce my students to the idea of being "wholly brained", that some of us aren't just either logical or creative, but rather, a combination of the two. Iagnemma works at MIT creating robots that explore Mars, but I'm interested to see what his heroic couplets sound like.
Here's the segment: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencen...
Here's the segment: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencen...
April 6, 2010
I only read this for one short story, "The Phrenologist's Dream," since some of my research is on 19th century British phrenology. Amusing. Nothing brilliant (although it is an interesting concept to write "love stories" from within a scientific perspective, as all of the stories in this collective are).
August 4, 2011
Impressive collection of short stories. Don't look for a happy ending here, but prepare to thoughtfully examine men of women in science in love. As the wife of an engineer, I appreciate the dichotomy of science and romance in a series of poignant stories.
Perfect read on a cold, snowy day as most of the stories are set in Upper Michigan on bone chilling days.
Perfect read on a cold, snowy day as most of the stories are set in Upper Michigan on bone chilling days.
Read
December 7, 2008I really enjoyed these short stories, they were bizarre. I had learned of the author and his book while watching television, apparently the author is a mechanical enineer and this books proves that someone with a scientific mathematical mind can be creative!
March 12, 2009
This is an absolute favorite book. A group of short stories that give incite into the intersection between romantic love and love of science in usual and quirky ways. I love it's uniqueness and it's take on passion. Each story feels very different so it's like many books in one.
January 4, 2010
there are 8 stories in the book. i only liked 3. they're supposed to be emo, but i somehow found it hilarious when the narrators talk about how they're failures at love. the other 5 are just weird and disappointing and did not make any sense to me. one of the narrators is a failed engineer :)
September 12, 2010
i can't even remember what made me pick up this book in a bookstore. i was in a strange mood that day. it had just come out. i was surprised by it and totally loved it, though perhaps it may seem a bit strange to some and a little bit of a quirky read.
August 26, 2012
This book is written by a man with the aptitude for roaming both Mars itself (hello genius robot guy) and men from Mars and women from Venus. The perfect example of the rare, left-right brain. I've got a penchant for this kind of thing. Yes. Just a huge effing yes.
January 31, 2008
wonderful short stories by MIT engineer, all with backdrop of science and mathematics
February 9, 2008
Beautiful short stories. Even though the theme and even basic plotting of the stories was really similar, each one still felt fresh.
October 17, 2008
Not a lot of character depth, but definitely love discussed from a unique perspective: through the eyes of scientists and mathematicians.
March 3, 2009
"This is an indisputable fact: there are many, many people around here who love things that will never love them back."
March 14, 2010
I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to. The language was nuanced, and at times downright lovely, and the mix of historical fiction with contemporary settings consistently held my interest.
April 12, 2011
Lyrical short stories, about love, loss, and... science, by a great writer who happens to also be an MIT research scientist, perfectly bridging C.P.Snow's Two Cultures. Read this book.
August 9, 2011
Fantastic series of short stories drawing from many disparate disciplines of science and many eras of history. I am in awe of the author's range.
September 4, 2012
I really liked this book, the short stories were really nerdy but interesting.
July 10, 2016
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2015 | Task 11: A Book of Short Stories
December 3, 2008
Pretty boring.
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October 28, 2013Lovely book
September 29, 2017
Rapturously written series of short stories about pragmatists from different times and cultures trying (and failing) to use science to understand love and human relationships.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews