[alert variation=”alert-info”]Publisher: Livingston Press
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle
Purchase: Powell’s | Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble | iBooks[/alert]
The main character of this concept novel is you. You begin on page one as a teenage boy following a teenage girl to a secret underground room. What follows from there depends on what you do (take my advice: don’t follow her into the tunnel). The novel describes itself as experimental, but you will simply remember it as “choose your own adventure,” except with all the sex and violence left in. The various choices you make result in your drug-and-alcohol-fueled death, your discovery of ancient religious secrets locked in math, or any number of unpredictable adventures. In other cases, your story just ends, with a reminder from the author of the futility of your choices.
Nicholas Bourbaki is the pen name that was chosen by the author, who, for whatever reason, decided against taking full credit for this text. Bourbaki was a twentieth century mathematician, and thus the pen name was probably chosen to highlight the complexity of the interconnection of all of our lives, given the choices we make, and the way things might have been, “if.” It’s a fun concept at first, but most readers will lose interest after one or two adventures.
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