Life After Genius

by M. Ann Jacoby

Life After Genius

published

October 29th 2008 by Grand Central Publishing

edit

binding

Hardcover, 400 pages

isbn

0446199710 (isbn13: 9780446199711)

description

Theodore Mead Fegley has always been the smartest person he knows. By age 12, he was in high school, and by 15 he was attending a top-ranking universi...more

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | compare prices ...

Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.

discuss this book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

friend reviews (0)

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 45)

All ratings | 5 stars (4) | 4 stars (2) | 3 stars (10) | avg 3.62

all | this edition

Debra

Debra rated it:

11/11/08

Read in November, 2008

M. Ann Jacoby
Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 9780446199711
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com
5 stars
Quirky and funny…
M. Ann Jacoby offers readers an extradinary, thought-provoking, humorous plot. Life After Genius is the story of genius, Theodore “Mead” Fegley. Only eight days before graduation, eighteen-year-old Mead drops out of college. He returns home and joins his father and uncle in selling furniture and running a funeral home. Mead is a genius; he loves to...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Miriam

Miriam rated it:

07/29/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: Myfanwy, Sarah

Totally great, almost surreal story about a boy genius who loses it six days before he is supposed to graduate from college (at age 18). I'm totally fascinated by extraordinary minds and this book really captures the anguish that can go along with being just a little bit different.

It's an adult book, but I think it would appeal to fans of YA as well.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

3 comments

Kelly

Kelly rated it:

10/30/08

bookshelves: reviewed

Read in October, 2008

I finished Life After Genius this afternoon while waiting for the freshman football game to start. Thank goodness for mandatory time spent sitting in the car, it allows me reading time!!

I think we've all known some people that are just a bit..well...different. In fact, I think that there is a little bit of Mead in all of us. We all feel like we're just a little peculiar sometimes. It's been very easy to empathize with Mead, and as the book drew to the conclusion, I found a deeper understandi...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Carey

Carey rated it:

10/29/08

Read in October, 2008

What could drive a brilliant young man to leave college eight days before graduation, without his degree, and return to his hometown to work in the family Mortuary business?

Being a genius is a difficult thing. For Theodore Mead Fegley, it has brought him nothing but grief. He started high school at the age of twelve, finished in three years, and started college at the age of fifteen. He has always been younger and smaller than everyone else. And, of course, the victim of taunts, ridicule ...more What could drive a brilliant young man to leave college eight days before graduation, without his degree, and return to his hometown to work in the family Mortuary business?

Being a genius is a difficult thing. For Theodore Mead Fegley, it has brought him nothing but grief. He started high school at the age of twelve, finished in three years, and started college at the age of fifteen. He has always been younger and smaller than everyone else. And, of course, the victim of taunts, ridicule and pranks for his entire school career. He is thrilled to go to college, where he thinks he will be among equals, learned individuals who will value his intellect. Poor kid, how wrong he is.

To facilitate the brand new start Theodore feels he is getting with college, he starts to go by his middle name, Mead. Unfortunately, the very first day he is reminded, yet again, that he is different from everyone else and does not fit in. Girls are too old for him, he is too young for drinking and partying, he has little in common with other young men on campus. His life is lonely and friendless. His only real friend, his cousin Percy, is off pursuing his dream of baseball glory. Percy sends a constant stream of postcards to Mead, letting him know what is going on in his life. But since Mead has no friends he doesn't really know how to BE one, so he never responds to Percy's postcards.

Mead excels at mathematics and spends his college career working on solving the Riemann Hypothesis, a 150 year old mathematical theory. When Herman, a wealthy and attractive fellow math student, befriends Mead it seems a little strange to him that this guy would want to spend time with him. But Herman offers to help Mead on the Riemann Hypothesis so, against his better judgement, Mead allows himself to go along with Herman's schemes. The results will force Mead to change, come to some important realizations about life and to see his parents and family through new eyes.

With Life After Genius, M. Ann Jacoby has written a wonderful story about the process of growing up. It is not enough to be smart, maturity lies in the ability to put aside your selfish concerns and do what is better for others, both people you love and people you may not like very much. She reminds us all about the discomforts of our school days when all we wanted was to be included, be liked, be part of the "in" crowd. You will fall in love with Mead Fegley, a sweet and awkward boy who learns the most important part of being a man.

...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Serena

Serena rated it:

10/27/08

Read in October, 2008

Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby is a book that examines one young genius' struggle to find himself and his place in his own family and society.

Theodore Mead Fegley's father runs a furniture store and funeral home with his brother Martin, while his mother's main goal in life is to push her son to achieve as much as possible and not squander his intelligence. The pressure mounts for Mead as he speeds through his elementary and high school years, reaching the University of Chicago at age 15....more Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby is a book that examines one young genius' struggle to find himself and his place in his own family and society.

Theodore Mead Fegley's father runs a furniture store and funeral home with his brother Martin, while his mother's main goal in life is to push her son to achieve as much as possible and not squander his intelligence. The pressure mounts for Mead as he speeds through his elementary and high school years, reaching the University of Chicago at age 15.

The narrative easily shifts from the present to the past, and the chapter breaks make it easier to keep the timeline in perspective with details about what period in Mead's life is witnessed and what location he is in. Mead is a young teen thrust into academic life with peers who are much older and experienced. Mead's life takes a stark turn when he meets Herman Weinstein, a fellow mathematics student at the university. Mead's pushed aside as his faculty advisor chooses Weinstein over Mead after the professor is offered a department head position. Mead is angered by the turn of events, but only until he finds a new mentor, Dr. Alexander. Mead throws himself into the Riemann Hypothesis, and he hopes to either prove or disprove the hypothesis, which has been debated for more than 100 years.

Jacoby easily weaves in events from Mead's past into his present and how those events shape Mead and his actions at the university. Herman insinuates himself into Mead's life, and tensions rise until Mead finds himself running home to rural Illinois before graduation, his major mathematical presentation, and his valedictorian speech.

While math problems make me cringe, this story brought me back with the discussions of matrices--math I actually understood at one point--but Jacoby does a great job of including this information without burdening or boring the reader. As Mead's life unfolds and the mystery grows more intense, the pages flow quickly as the reader grows more anxious to find out why Mead left the university. This novel is dubbed as an academic thriller, but it is more like a coming of age story. Mead finds himself, what's important to him, and how to cope with his reality....less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Corinne

Corinne rated it:

10/14/08

bookshelves: advance-reader-s-copy

Read in October, 2008

Mead is one of those boys - the ones who keep skipping grades because they are so smart, the ones that everything academic comes easily to, the ones who are destined for great things. If only it was that easy for Mead. Growing up the "genius" in his town was a pretty harrowing experience. Combine some worse-than-usual bullying with a kid who has a lot of brains but virtually no social skills and an over-the-top mother and you get: a pretty traumatic childhood. Mead hopes that all this ...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Tricia

Tricia rated it:

10/29/08

This book is very different from other things I've read lately. Part academic thriller and part coming-of-age story, this novel explores the world of an 18-year old math genius at the cusp of graduating from college when he shows up at home 6 days before graduation and he won't say why.

Mead Fegley has grown up in a small midwestern town, the son of a furniture store owner/undertaker. His whole life he has been picked on, singled out, and alone. His thinks his luck will change when he en...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Eli

Eli is currently reading it

11/14/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

Interesting chronological progression. Good story. Fun read.

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Alisha

Alisha marked it as to-read

11/14/08

bookshelves: to-read

add a comment

Crissie

Crissie rated it:

11/14/08

add a comment

Mary

Mary marked it as to-read

11/10/08

bookshelves: to-read, will-trade

add a comment

Shanda

Shanda marked it as to-read

11/06/08

bookshelves: to-read

add a comment

Julie

Julie is currently reading it

11/05/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

add a comment

Lauren

Lauren marked it as to-read

11/03/08

bookshelves: own, to-read

add a comment

Esther

Esther marked it as to-read

11/03/08

bookshelves: to-read

add a comment

Lindsey

Lindsey rated it:

10/21/08

See my reviews at the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Book Nook at www.lvrj.com/blogs/booknook.

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Erin

Erin marked it as to-read

10/30/08

bookshelves: to-read

add a comment

Kris

Kris added it

10/25/08

bookshelves: own-it

add a comment

Jason Pettus

Jason marked it as to-read

10/23/08

bookshelves: to-read, wish-list

add a comment

Sharon

Sharon rated it:

10/26/08

Read in October, 2008

add a comment

« previous 1 2 3 next »

book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 3.62 (16 ratings)
number of reviews: 9

recommend it | blog it

popular shelves

to-read (27)
currently-reading (10)
contemporary-fiction (1)
will-trade (1)
own (1)
reviewed (1)
own-it (1)
wish-list (1)
dnf (1)
advance-reader-s-copy (1)
More...

other editions

None found

combine editions | view all 0 »