Rating: 
Summary: A spiral downward without end
Review: While this tale of a man reduced to minimal functioning by the meaninglessness of modern life is very well written, it leaves you wondering where redemption of any meaningful kind can be found. The net result is a sense of victimization and depression. Not sure why you'd want to read it. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't.
Rating: 
Summary: Very puzzled...
Review: I was extremely bored by this book and had to make serious efforts to finish it. I kept hoping it would start to make sense at some point... but it just didn't. I too raced through the last hundred pages or so, trying to find something worth pausing on -- without luck. Why am I puzzled? Well, what was the message of this book? It made absolutely no sense to me, and I couldn't find any cohesion whatsoever. I could understand the e-mail and chat passages, as well as the Socrates story, but what did one have to do with the other? Or with Bill's illness/problem/poisoning/whatever-that-was? I am still waiting for the "englightment" and the "a-ha" of understanding. Conclusion -- you can read this book if you want to, but don't expect too much. And be prepared to spend a lot of time on it...
Rating:
Summary: Too Obvious
Review: Having heard the review of Einstein's Dreams on NPR I went in search of the book (wanting immediate satisfaction or I would have gotten it off the web of course). Not being in stock, I picked up "The Diagnosis". I almost put the book down at the first 100 pages, as it was so superficial and is written in this really annoying prose - which can best be described as "not beautiful". The parallel story of Socrates kept me going. In fact, I labored through the modern chapters really only to get to the next ancient story episode. Sadly, even that story ended with out satisfaction. The story only serves to show how amazing the writing of Camus' "The Stranger" is by comparison. Lightman gives his readers plenty of intellectual references - Spanning from Socrates, Chess, Law, & Medicine - but no real belief that we will get what he his saying without a repetitive innuendo. I kept thinking he should end every sentence with, "if you know what I mean". By the way, I too picked up on Lightman's hint that his wife poisoned him. At the last chapter of this disjointed story, my only reaction was - "whatever".
Rating: 
Summary: A Waste Of Precious Reading Time
Review: I saw this book on one of those "selected books" tables at a Carmel bookstore and I almost bought it. I'm glad I didn't.Norman Mailer thinks that it "captures the technological horror and pervasive spiritual povery of our wildly prosperous land..." It doesn't. With over a thousand book in my home library and a doctoral degree, I usually don't have a problem understanding a writer's message. Mr. Lightman is the exception. His characters in this book are unsympathetic and undeveloped. Yes, it's possible to conclude that Bill's decline is due to technological overload. It's also possible to conclude that it's due to just about anything else in the world. Lightman's premise that technology is dehumanizing us has merit. However, take the first step in asserting your humanity by not reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: wild guess
Review: anyone think the wife poisoned the main character? reread the email interlude after the "First Tests" chapter. no smoking gun, but that, combined with her "it's all my fault" at the end of the book and the anytus story makes me wonder. the parallel being, someone tried to kill someone else but it got botched, and now that person has to live with the aftermath. this expanation is certainly not water tight and i don't know even if it's the truth, why write such a story. i don't think this book is worth a lot of analysis. while there are interesting, resonant perspectives now and then, i don't know that there's enough to hold it together as a book. or maybe it's a funny joke, a book where everyone's trying to diagnose what's going on, and readers end up doing the same thing--both futilely...
Rating:
Summary: Garbage!
Review: I wish I could rate this with ZERO stars! What a waste of paper! To say nothing of what a waste of my time. Why did I read all the way thru? Well, not quite - last 20 pages I just read the first sentence of each paragraph - realized it was going no where any different from before. And what the h--- did the story of Sokcrates (notice the "k", pretentious) have to do with a 20th century man who becomes ill with progressive loss of senses and paralysis and then he dies? I'll never read another book by this author (this is my first and was intrigued by title "Einstein's Dream"). I wish I could get my money/TIME back that this stuff wasted.
Rating:
Summary: the diagnosis
Review: "SAY WHAT", I'm 58 years old and read one book a week. This is easily 2000 books at the very least. I read and read, expecting some closure, or cohesiveness at the very end. Now I am in trouble with my wife for scaring the hell out of our " outside cat MIR " for throwing this book at our back door upon finishing the last chapter. I enjoyed the chapters on "Socrates", but the the rest left me nuts. Any print reveiwer who reviews this book positively, also eats their children.
Rating:
Summary: I Finished It And Was Surprised I Did
Review: This book and my comments may be a bit contradictory, however this book was strange as well. The novel had portions that were extremely clever, the majority of the work was well written, however taken in its entirety was pretty bland. There was enough to keep me reading but when finished I wished I had read something else. There were just enough interesting bits to string together the weaker portions, and that is what kept me plodding forward. I enjoyed the methods the Author employed to show the absurd results that come from the ability to communicate faster, and the exponentially expanding ability we have to create more information. We generate more answers, which increases the time to arrive at a result and delays conclusions, however if the pace is rapid enough and the data that is moved is massive enough, those involved feel it's justified. What it truly is, is absurd. The writer chose the practice of cutting edge medical diagnostics to take the idea of gathering information for its own sake to the ridiculous extreme. While in this book we never learn the fate of the primary character, the idea is implied that while the patient is waiting for the latest results from Star Wars technology, when they finally arrive the patient will be dead. I also enjoyed the implication that the more amazing the technology becomes, the more dependent its users are with the result their competence decreases, and their willingness to make a decision ends in paralysis. If a machine cannot give an answer then the answer does not exist. Specialists carry their own databases, and if there is no match, they exit with dispatch. I did not like the characters in this novel, as most were too pathetic. Even the character that should easily cultivate our sympathy is difficult to care for, as he is already a mess prior to encountering his true challenge. I also felt the link between the effects of drinking Hemlock for Socrates, as a counterpoint to Bill's illness was a stretch that did not work. Trying to rationalize a link between the sons through a similar method lacked any credibility. Some parts were good, but the premise being explored was a variation on a theme and not a new one. That perhaps is what kept this from being a terrific story.
Rating:
Summary: Not for everone...
Review: I must say that this is one of the most unentertaining books I have ever read. If you are looking for a good summer read, this is NOT it. While the author's observations regarding today's fast-paced, technology dependant society are amusing at first, they quickly grow tiresome and boring. How sad it is to read an entire novel and not care one iota about any of the characters. I kept waiting for the storyline to get interesting, for the plot to evolve, but nothing. This is one book which I was happy to finish and get on to something better.
Rating:
Summary: Terribly Disappointing
Review: "Einstein's Dreams" counts as my most beloved and cherished work of modern literature. But Lightman really let me down with this last book. The charm and joy in his previous conceptual and intellectual play is completely lacking. The joyful scientist has become a modern cynic and this I could have certainly lived without. There is no joy in "The Diagnosis" and if Lightman's statement in this work has any accuracy on the current state of the modern world, then by his own premise the book should have remained unwritten. I did not throw my copy out the car window when I completed reading it, but I was sorely tempted and truly very angry that I had spend the time reading it. Spend a "Tuesday with Morey," it is a much more fulfilling prescription than anything offered by "Diagnois."
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