Surrealistic partings,

Jesse

I’ve just finished this great biography of the Wittgensteins, which focuses primarily on Paul, the one-armed pianist. If you are at all interested in the genetic under-pinnings of genius, eccentricity, suicide, and cancer read this fascinating account. The fact that Ludwig’s oldest brother Hans was a mathematical and musical prodigy–or, as Waugh avers–something of a Rain Man–is worth the price of the book alone. To imagine him disappearing in the Florida Everglades on some mysterious quest, or gliding off the deck of a ship on the Chesapeake bay and clipping the waves like a monocle-wearing king-fisher never to resurface c. 1903 makes the book absolutely essential reading. Waugh also points out that the structure of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus resembles Tolstoy’s The Gospel in Brief and tells the conditions under which Ludwig became a Tolstoyan–all new information to me. The writing style is relaxed, intelligent, and generous to the reader. The pictures are memorable. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.