74.contemp fic ***1/2
[The Beautiful Miscellaneous] [[Dominic Smith]]

A young man, seventeen, child of a brilliant (but not genius) physicist and a mother who follows the traditional housewife route, is in an accident with his grandfather. He wakes up from a (blessedly) short coma with a change, he experiences synesthesia, the condition where the senses attach form and color to stimuli. Speech from one person might have a blue ribbon, from another, yellow. A word might evoke anything from a snail to angel. He can remember everything he reads or sees because it is all connected in a way that makes it easy to recall, like walking through a house (interestingly evocative of that way of memorizing lots of information invented sometime in the late middle ages). His father who has tirelessly worked to find his son's "special" gift is convinced this is somehow 'it' -- the thing that will release his son's genius. Nathan is sent to a special school in Iowa where the highly gifted are studied and uses for their gifts found. Nathan is having none of it, although he is also passive enough not to tell his father to stuff it. He would like to please his father and a part of him still hopes, even though he is quite aware of who and what he is (a little above average intelligent and otherwise ordinary) that his purpose will be found.

I kept [The Beautiful Miscellaneous] around all this time because it got such rave reviews back around the time I joined LT. It was pleasant to read and somewhat interesting but for various reasons, it fell short for me -- good enough but not great. There is a scene where Nathan talks with a psychologist that was just painful to me, the dialogue and interaction were so . . . exactly what you would expect. On the other hand there were some great moments--mostly when Nathan was with his own cohort. I loved the character Whit, the astronaut who attaches himself to the family, bought that hook, line, and sinker.

The book, while set in 1987, evoked an earlier era for me. Would a woman of his mother's type really be satisfied with housewifery in 1987 in Madision WI? That didn't compute for me. There was also a reference to metal detectors and x-ray machines to look at your carry on luggage at the airport in 1989? For a domestic flight? Am I crazy, but I don't remember this at all. I researched this a little and it's inconclusive -- the technology ramped up in 1973 and international flights, yes, but my memory is that domestic stayed relatively casual until 2001. A quibble, yes, but there were many of these throughout the book--I had an image of a much earlier time, a fifties, early sixties childhood for this young man, a decade earlier.

Anyway Nathan has to figure out who and what he is. The end was a good twist! ***1/2 ( )

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were all interesting and well defined, the plot was interesting, and the writing was good. ( )

It's about a slightly gifted young man who's genius father keeps expecting him to become a real genius just any minute, and what happens after a traumatic brain injury causes the young man to have synesthesia (he sees words and sounds as colors and shapes, and sometimes smells and tastes) and develops a super-memory. The relationships explored in this story can be generalized to relationships in almost anyone's life where some people accept you for exactly who you are, and others have expectations beyond your capability to deliver.

This was one of the best books that I have read in such a long time. I started reading it a few months ago, but stopped after I got to a certain part. It hit me a little too close to home so I had to stop. But I couldn't put it out of my mind.

This book wont change your life, it wont inspire you to greatness, but it will make you feel something. I can't describe it, but it will make you feel something and I think that feeling is the most worthwhile thing you could get from this book.

I can't wait to read The Mercury Visions... ( )