Rating: 
Summary: void for vagueness
Review: The strong first chapter implies many questions about our notions of self identity will be raised and explored. However, after Bill's night in the city, his life and my interest slowly seep away. I waited, minute by digital minute, for someone, anyone, to please bring at least one of the story lines into focus. Oh author, where art thou?
Rating: 
Summary: Diagnosis of "The Diagnosis"
Review: Great book, belonging on your bookshelf between Saramago's "Blindness" and Kafka's "The Trial"; Camus and Kazantzakis should be close by. In Bill Chalmers'frenetic life -- and perplexing and progressively debilitating malady -- Lightman exquisitely captures the angst and paradoxical "helplessness" of modern society "trapped" in the Information Age. Those time-and-laborsaving techno-gizmos intended to liberate us have instead become our masters; plugged-in everywhere at all times, we're now on call 25 hours a day. And that's a problem. Nathaniel Arata's review above is dead-on. Don't read this book if you expect Lightman to answer every question or to spoon-feed you the answers. But that should come as no surprise to any reader. The book's title says it all. To "diagnose," from the Greek, literally means "to know apart", that is, to identify a problem, to name the nature or cause of a thing; it does not mean in any sense to identify a solution to the problem. Lightman, like his stand-in Socrates, continually probes and challenges, requiring the reader to re-think his or her answer time and again. He renders one zinger of a diagnosis along the way, in sharp, witty prose. For those wanting definitive resolution, maybe Lightman's next book will be entitled "The Cure".
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: I'm sorry, but when I got to the last page, I closed the book and said outloud "What a stupid book." The *only* reason I kept reading after the first chapter was to see if *something* --*anything* would happen. It just kept getting worse. I "got it" about today's society's information overload. But I guess I'm more optimistic than the author with the belief that very few people are as clueless and hopeless as the main character Chalmers. THe email typo swere excuruciatnigly annoyingand oh-so-unbelievable. And I, too, am completely at a loss as to the inclusion of the Anytus/Socrates storyline. I had absolutely no empathy or sympathy for any of the characters. What a waste of reading time.
Rating:
Summary: The glass is half empty
Review: If you're having a really bad day and feel like kicking the dog when you get home, read this book instead. It will either make you realize how good your life is, or possibly depress you thoroughly. I haven't read Lightman's other books, but I doubt I'll give him another chance. Life is too short and there are too many other great books out there. The story can only be described as bleak. The only color in it is found in the mall (not one of the places in life that lifts my spirits). The only emotions that our character can mount are fear and anger. Actually, he does feel love on brief occasions, almost desperate love, for his son whom he cannot relate to. Bill, who narrates the story, is an executive in a consultating firm. He lives and breathes the electronic life. His colleagues and his wife are in a perpetual hurry, to be on their e-mails or to shop, almost reminiscent of the purposeless motion and lack of emotion of Dante's characters assigned to Purgatory. Bill's world is in constant motion, robotic and dispassionate. As Bill descends into his own purgatory, becoming more paralysed and always undiagnosed, he concludes that "the perfect modern man was also a mall man." Yikes, get out the hemlock. Which brings us to the writing style. Lightman's character development has alot to say by its quick portrayal of two-dimensional (the third dimension being emotion and depth) men and women. I think he writes well, but I disliked his people so much as to be unable to praise his style. He also interjects the Greek story (less tragic than Bill's story) that Bill's son downloads in order to study the classics. I had trouble finding the contrasts or parallels I hoped would help me to like the book. As I mentioned before, there are way too many great books out there to spend time reading this one. If you're an optimist, you will probably be disappointed. Good luck.
Rating: 
Summary: Confused thoughts about "the Diagnosis"
Review: I found that once I began this book, I had to finish it. It was excellent craftsmanship. But having said that, I can't say I understand what the book was trying to say. The inclusion of the fictional segment on the death of Socrates, while fascinating, seemed like a non-sequitor. Obviously, there was a father/son tension between the Athenian father and son, as in the main character's relationship with his son, but the pairs of relationships were not parallel, by any means. Also, I wanted to know what really happened to this contemporary character. And what would happen to him. Maybe I like "happy" endings, or just "endings". This one left me troubled and uncertain about what the previous 3 hours of reading all boiled down to. As for humor,...well, I didn't find much humor in the tale. Just horror and tragedy for all the characters, except maybe for Socrates, who was the only serene character depicted.
Rating:
Summary: Very very poor
Review: This book starts off well with chapter 1, but it goes straight downhill from there, until the final few pages, which are quite nice, but they rest on a mound on mediocrity. It's difficult to like any character in this book, but then no charcter is developed. They are all very flat. Which is another problem. An unlikable protagonist can be okay, if he's interesting, but our hero is not interesting. The dialogue is stilted and unrealistic, and every character speaks the same way (except the son, who is convincing), plot lines (if this book can really be said to have any) are started and then dropped for no reason or switched for no apparent reason (our protagonist starts out by losing his memory but suddenly gets it back only to have that ailment replaced with a spreading numbness along his body; why switch from one ailment to another, and without explanation? It seems the memory loss was a good grabber for the beginning but the author decided he couldn't really go anywhere with it so he just switched to numbness). The "message" regarding the rat race is so hamfisted a first grader would understand it. I found this very preachy, not very novelistic. The protagonist hates his job and dislikes everyone at his workplace; he apparently contrasts them with himself, as if he's a family man, but he never thinks about his wife in the book, never even considers how his ailment will affect his family. Maybe that was intentional, but if so, that particular irony was not developed enough, or at all really. As for plot, there really is none. Our protagonist is sick and so he goes from doctor to doctor looking for an answer. It's quite dull. When you have flat characters and no plot, nothing's left but a thinly veiled essay worthy of a paragraph on the op-ed page of a newspaper. It's a silly book, really. The style is thin. The language is almost never metaphorical. Description never carries any greater meaning greater than its literal meaning. There is the anti-rat race op-ed message, but that's told directly, not metaphorically. Poetic use of language is nowhere to be found, except perhaps in the final few pages. I'm putting this book in the basement of my building for other tenants to take if they like. It'll save them some cash. I've done that with perhaps three or four books I've read in the past. I almost always save my books, but this one I can let go of easily. That should tell you something. And, oh yes, people familiar with James Joyce's "The Dead" will perhaps be aghast at certain passages.
Rating:
Summary: You May Not Like The Diagnosis...
Review: Listen to me carefully - this is nothing more than a piece of fiction. It isn't meant to be a chronicle of a real person. Don't become attached to the main character; he acts irrationally, and no matter how many times you yell at him throughout your reading, his fate is pre-determined. I'm still not sure if Lightman was trying to goof with us all, or if he was trying to provide more insight into the social anachronism that has become "Angry White Guy." The story revolves around a lead character who, in the first ten pages, completely loses track of who he is, where he is going, and why he was going there. He experiences what is known as "an episode" to the psychological community - it passes after a truly horrific series of catastrophes that has the reader riveted to the book. By the time the reader gets to the subsequent chapters, you realize that our hero is not going to tell anyone the truth - the series of events is written off as a mugging - and as he continues (hopefully) back on his usual routine, subtle changes occur to his body. First, he loses feeling in his arm, then both arms, then his legs. He bounces like a pinball from physician to physician, psychiatrist to psychiatrist. And he never admits to anyone (perhaps even to himself?) the reality of the situation, the origins of the malady. As a result, he dodges a diagnosis of his problem. His long-suffering (some would argue further that she is also insufferable) wife and tragically affected son try to deal with the affliction as best they can. The wife's character can be dismissed as so much literary pocket lint - you know she's there, but you can easily ignore her with the rest of the story line. But the son is the sole figure with whom I found any empathy - he strives so hard to reach out to his father, to be off-handedly refused time and again. It's at these moments that you find yourself finding it more and more difficult to sympathize with Chalmers, the lead character. Yeah, I put the book down, shaking my head, wondering why I felt the need to continue reading. Lightman is a masterful puppetteer - yup, we're the puppets. By never revealign the diagnosis, and allowing the lead character to succumb to his own impotence with his family, we are trapped into reading the book through to the end. We hope for a satisfactory method in which our dear friend, the author, wraps it all up neatly, finds a cure, and saves the world, all in one punch. It just doesn't happen that way, though. I've seen this book compared to Kafka, but I would argue that it is more like a book by Kafka's contemporary, Thomas Mann. Take a look at the poetically written "Magic Mountain" - you'll see a lot of the same elements and frustration. If Lightman didn't write so well,I really would have let him have it on this review - particularly in his incessant demand in presenting atrocious mis-spellings throughout the many e-mails that haunt the book. I believe his intention was to show that everyone around us (as well as ourselves) are so rushed, we don't pay attention to even the ritualistcally simple task of spelling correctly (or proofing our work).
Rating:
Summary: How a great writer goes bad
Review: I love Alan Lightman. I thought that Einstein's Dreams was one of the great books of the last 25 years. I am unable to resist a writer who combines insight into science with charm and wit and grace in his writing. But why, o why, do great writers in one genre feel compelled to slip into another? It rarely works, and it doesn't work here. This is a well-written book, if good use of language is to be your guide. The words flow. But it doesn't hold together. Everyone is a caricature. The underlying theme is clear within a few pages after his episode, whatever it is, and the rest of the book belabors it, over and over and over. Yes, life is unfair. Yes, companies in business for profit won't tolerate non-performers. Yes, superficial spouses cannot be depended upon. Thank you. Message received. A short story about it would have been enough. Mr. Lightman, I will buy everything you write, forever, for I know what you can do. I jumped for joy when I saw a new book over your name. But please, please, go back to what you do best. Do not become a Tom Clancy.
Rating:
Summary: Unnerving Testimony to the Rat Race
Review: The Diagnosis, while not on a par with "Einstein's Dreams" is an unnerving novel, frightening, perhaps, to those caught up in the "rat race" of today's business pressures.One may see too much of themselves in the protagonist, Bill Chalmers as he descends from corporate obsession into a purgatory of confusion and uncertainty. The irony of the "diagnostic process" will not be lost on anyone who has struggled with healthcare services in recent times.
Rating:
Summary: Very readable, dark, witty and thought provoking ¿
Review: This is a book that is so easy to read and very hard to put down. Bill Chalmers, the main character, is an upcoming junior partner, in a very modern Boston technology company. Bill seemingly has it all, family, suburban house, money, career etc. Suddenly Bill Chalmers encounters progressively bad and mysterious health problems. A weird episode at the hospital emergency ward is the weakest part of the book. Two physicians, with no proper authority and without following any sort of a standard protocol, experiment on Chalmers. Many critics and reviewers have quite rightly, slammed this part as far-fetched and comically unrealistic. However, it does not really detract from the over all book and at times it may even add a little suspense as the search for a diagnosis moves on. E-mails and Instant Messages, and the way they have totally affected everyday life for a part of the American society is so well portrayed. In fact, after your read Lightman's Diagnosis, books that deal with the same type of people in 2001 USA seem to be missing out on parts of their lives. From their on line life, we get to know more about Bill's family. The closeness Bill and his son share in real life is also extended to their on line life, Melissa, who mostly stays by Bill through his illness, is full of the stereotypical affluent suburban wife contradictions. On line affair with a stranger, runs a business that has no hope of making money, yet annoys Bill with the constant change in his home furniture and a sense of climbing up the social ladder along with an on going tension with her Southern roots. Melissa's relationship with the son was practically non-existent in the book. In all, Lightman did not really want us to like her much. We also get to meet some of Bill's work colleagues neighbors, old school friend, his mother and sister in law. This all takes place as Bill's condition deteriorates. Lightman's portrayal's of Bill's doctor and shrink and Bill's dealings with the whole health care world were fascinating and well done. You do really get a very clear sense of the world Bill comes from and lives in. A major part of the book, perhaps over a quarter of it, is an ancient Greek story fictionalized by Lightman. This is so well written and gripping in its own right. It takes us to a whole different world with Socrates and his contemporaries. The symbolic link between the two stories is not immediately obvious; it does not jump out at you. The Greek tale can really provoke lots of thoughts, the self assured Athens of Socrates days does in ways compare with our own self assured society of 2001, or does it not? Is Chalmers more of Socrates rejecting the society by his body then by his brain too, or is he more the society itself. You can, if you wish, enjoy yourself seeking out the symbolism, or just ignore it and enjoy a short Greek tragedy within a contemporary "hub" tragedy! As Chalmers condition deteriorated, he spent more time reflecting on little things. A most beautiful, yet sad, part of the book is Chalmers getting obsessed with a leaf. Chalmers entertains himself for hours tracing leafs. Lightman does a very convincing job in presenting the mind of man gradually coming to terms with the hopelessness of his position, eventually losing hope. The quotes from Norman Mailer and Annie Proulx on the back cover of this book are so very accurate, enjoy!
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