Coming from the Hat

May you all be so blessed as to have a mother who sends you books. Mine sent me How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto, for no other reason than that it is really, really good. Most of what can be said about its major virtues has been said elsewhere: it’s an enviably deft first novel, assured in its tone and light of foot despite its politically charged subject matter. My favorite blurb from the jacket is by the author Tony Tulathimutte, who writes that “Taranto confidently grasps the third rail of cancel culture and ties it into a balloon animal.” It’s full of witty observations and mercifully free of heavy-handed moralizing—exactly what you want from a novel of ideas.