Genius is as genius does, for Ethan Canin in his new novel A Doubter's Almanac. And that proves a problem, in a book that is essentially about the consequences of extreme intelligence for those with the ill-fortune to grow up in families that possess it—for, if actual prodigies are any guide, genius just doesn't work the way that Canin thinks it does.
The close miss of the book seems a sadness, for Canin writes brilliantly and has been on the edge of producing a great novel for years. A Harvard-trained doctor who teaches at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he's published seven well-received books, from the 1985 short-story collection Emperor of the Air to the 2009 novel America America—and now A Doubter's Almanac.
The post A Genius in the Family appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
Source: Washington Free Beacon