A Working Theory of Love: A Novel by Scott Hutchins (Penguin Press, $25.95, 336 pages)
This debut novel by Scott Hutchins – a University of Michigan graduate, a former Truman Capote Fellow in the Wallace Stegner Program and a current Instructor at Stanford University – will be released on October 2, 2012. The protagonist, Neill Bassett, lives in a San Francisco apartment building “on the south hill overlooking Dolores Park.” He commutes to work in Menlo Park, where he works at a small but innovative Silicon Valley company. Here is a synopsis of A Working Theory of Love:
Neil Bassett is now just going through the motions, again joining the San Francisco singles scene after the implosion of his very short-lived starter marriage to ex-wife Erin. He’s begun to live a life of routine, living with his cat in the apartment that he and Erin once shared. On one otherwise ordinary day he discovers that his upstairs neighbor Fred has broken a hip. Neil summons an ambulance, and when the paramedics arrive Fred says to Neil, “I’m sorry, Neill. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” This sets Neil to wondering about life itself — was Fred apologizing for “his basic existence in this world, the inconvenience of his living and breathing?”
Neil’s physician father committed suicide ten years earlier, leaving behind personal diaries of thousands of pages. The artificial intelligence company Neil works for, Amiante Systems, is using the diaries to create a human-like computer which uses the words of Neil’s late dad to communicate. To Neil’s surprise, the experiment seems to be working as the computer not only gains an apparent conscious awareness it even begins asking Neill difficult questions about his childhood.
While in a state of shock over the events at Amiante, Neil meets an intended one-night stand named Rachel. He falls for her and wonders what his life would be like in her company; and, yet, he remains bogged down with his feelings for Erin. To make matters worse, Erin continues to intersect with Neil at unlikely and unexpected times. When Neil discovers a missing year in the diaries – a year that might unleash the secret to his parents’ seemingly troubled marriage and perhaps the reason for his father’s suicide – everything Neil thought he knew about his past comes into question. Neil now becomes paralyzed with confusion and indecision.
Scott Hutchins’s story deals with love, grief and reconciliation while teaching us about life’s lessons. He shows us how we have the chance to be free once we let go of the idea that we’re trapped by our family histories – our sad or disappointing childhoods, our poor youthful decisions, and our unintended miscommunications with those we love and have loved. A Working Theory of Love presents the reader with a unique, highly gifted new writing talent in the form of Scott Hutchins.
“A brainy, bright, laughter-through tears, can’t-stop-reading-until-it’s-over kind of novel… This book’s got something for everyone!” Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story and Absurdistan
“Scott Hutchins’s wonderful new novel is right on the border of what is possible… The book is brilliantly observant about the way we live now, and its comic and haunting story will stay lodged in the reader’s memory.” Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love
“It takes a genius, a supercomputer, a disembodied voice, and a man who’s stopped believing to create A Working Theory of Love, Scott Hutchins’s brilliantly inventive deubt novel… This book is astonishing.” Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son
Joseph Arellano
The synopsis of A Working Theory of Love was based on information provided by the publisher, and on an Advanced Uncorrected Proof. The novel will be released in hardbound form in October, and will also be available as a Nook Book and Kindle Edition download.
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