- He populates it with intriguing characters, mostly scientists, doctors, therapists, and rapacious venture capitalists. There's also the odd priest thrown in to presumably counterbalance the privileging of rationality, and there's a schizophrenic young man who effectively challenges everything real.
- We're in the universe of biology, physics, and the mystery of consciousness. It's the brain versus the mind, with plenty of rather abstruse reflections on their relationship. Philosophical explorations abound. St Aubyn buries us in ideas confidently tossed around by his supremely intelligent and academically inclined characters. The writing sizzles with fire and energy and kaleidoscopic colour.
- There’s much more boldness and complexity in this prose than in his prior novels. More experimentation. It’s almost as if the characters and their electric conversations are just scaffolding for St Aubyn’s meandering thoughts on the brain, the mind, genes, schizophrenia, motion and space. He sometimes overdoes it. As one character reflects after one thinking session: ‘Jesus, he really needed some rest’. As does the reader.
- Francis is an ecologist. His expertise is on the natural landscape and the biodiversity of the environment. He laments its destruction by industrial 'progress'. His pregnant girlfriend, Olivia, is kind, caring and generous. She had a difficult childhood, was put out for adoption, and is now healed. Her possible twin brother, Sebastian, was abandoned at birth and was cruelly abused as a baby and young child. He developed a severe case of schizophrenia and was lucky to receive expert treatment.
- The mind can suffer but so can the brain. Another main character, Lucy, has been diagnosed with brain cancer. Olivia and Lucy are long time friends.
- The other main and fascinating protagonist is the billionaire, Hunter Sterling. He's passionate about acquiring startups and making them very successful. But he's ruthless and had crossed the line from bravado to something unacceptably sinister. St Aubyn never indulges in stereotyping however. Hunter is exceptionally intelligent and capable of real love and loyalty when it is needed.
- I kept thinking: what is St Aubyn doing with all this rich material and his delightful cast? What is he saying? What is his critique? It came to me slowly towards the end. Life in its conception, birth, development, sickness, pain, healing and death is what defines us, and all the inflated, high tech, biological, brain enhancing investments that are a feature of our social landscape can be more often just paths to profiteering. The grandeur of life and love is right in front of us. It’s not just science that’s essential, but the human touch of love, care and compassion is paramount.
- The book is littered with insights and stuff you need to underline. Here's a sample:
It was great when empiricism displaced ignorance, but now mathematics has usurped empiricism.
Science is a subset of human nature and not the other way around. It has its own oppressive sociology of funding and peer review and publication and profit, and it shares all the emotions of rivalry, intuition, conformity, anxiety and generosity that inform every other field of activity.
Lesley was one of those people who thought that originality consisted of a fluent and knowing use of cliche, vigorously imprisoned with inverted commas to make sure it couldn't escape the further boredom of being vaguely ironic.
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