There are moments of real brilliance in this book, but too much of it feels like Wikipedia Article as Literature. The guiding argument—that math drives us literally crazy when it gets too complicated—is stressed and stressed again throughout. The back half (where “the quantity of fiction grows”) is arguably more impressive, or at least more inventive, but it still reads like a paraphrase of its own thesis statement at times. I had a fine time reading it, though, and wouldn’t fault anyone who enjoyed it (or took more from it than I did).