Audiobook Review – When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, Narrated by Adam Barr (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 5 hours and 40 minutes
Publisher:‎ Dreamscape Media, LLC
Release Date: September 30, 2021
ASIN: B09FM5NF5D
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars

“When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger – these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from my library.

Thoughts: This was fine. I didn’t realize that this book is fictional accounts of historical scientific figures (I thought it was non-fiction). This seems to be a bit sensationalized to me. I did enjoy learning the history of these scientists but am left trying to sort out what was history and what was embellishment.

There is a heavy theme of mathematicians either developing theories while in fevers or going insane. The telling wandered quite a bit as well, part of this may have been because I was listening to this on audiobook rather than reading it. I would definitely recommend reading this rather than listening to it because it is hard to follow.

There was also quite the obsession with super gory details as well as odd sexual details; not sure if these were fact, fiction, or just meant to give the story more “color”. All of these details seemed over the top and I felt they were over-emphasized.

A lot of the story seems to focus on how these scientific leaps lead to destruction, although in a few cases they lead to good outcomes as well. It would have been incredibly helpful to have either a foreword or afterword discussing what was fact and fiction in this book.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narration was fine. I found that the context of the stories and how they were woven together were a bit hard to follow and I think I could have followed this easier reading it rather than listening to it. You really have to pay attention and concentrate and I listen to audiobooks mainly while doing other tasks (driving, laundry, yardwork, etc).

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but I honestly would have been okay not reading this as well. The fact that it is a factual sounding account of these scientists’ lives but is actually fictional leaves me frustrated, especially since there are no references or account of what is fact and what is fiction. There are a ton of gory and sexual details added which seemed to outshine the scientific discoveries. At the end this felt like more of a sensationalized treatise on how insane all these clever people were than anything else. If I had known a bit more about what this book was about prior to reading it I probably wouldn’t have read it. It was somewhat interesting to learn about these scientists, but I am not sure what I actually learned since this is a fictional account.