Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby

Coming of Age Story of 18-Year-Old Boy at Chicago University

Dec 2, 2008

Theodore Mead Fegley might be smart, but his lack of social skills leads him to make friends with the wrong person, and face trouble as college graduation approaches.

Theodore Mead Fegley has always been the smartest person he knows. He was attending high school at the age of 12, and by 15 he was attending a top ranking Chicago university.

Now, at just 18 years old, Mead is on the verge of proving the Riemann Hypothesis, a mathematical equation that has challenged mathematicians worldwide for almost 150 years.

Home Again

But just days away from graduation, Mead has decided to run away and escape back home to this Illinois suburb, to the surprise of his parents. He won't explain why he is there, or why he refuses to attend the graduation, and his parents are mystified. Only Mead and his fellow university students know the reasons why he had to make his sudden departure.

But Mead soon finds that there is little solace and comfort at home. He is constantly haunted by his past, seeing ghosts of his former classmates and advisors, as well as the mathematicians whom he has studied and idolized at the university. He tries to offer his hand at his father's business, a funeral parlor that doubles as a furniture store, but finds it difficult to work under his uncle's disapproving stares.

Running from the Past

Mead had never been good at making friends, relying instead on his brains over social interaction. In addition, it was difficult to relate to most other students at the high school and college, due to the age gap he had from the other students. So when he was suddenly befriended by Herman, a university upper class man who came from a rich and powerful family, Mead was skeptical.

It turns out that Herman is also a math major, and that they are both working on the Riemann Hypothesis. They are each assigned different advisors in the math department, but suddenly their advisors switch students, and Mead is left with a lesser advisor in his opinion. Mead soon realizes that his friend Herman isn't a friend at all, but has been trying to buddy up to him simply because of Mead's genius.

Life After Genius takes the reader through a series of flashbacks and present tense scenes of Mead's life, telling his coming of age story in a clever and honest tone.

About M. Ann Jacoby

M. Ann Jacoby has been an art director at Penguin Group USA for the past 20 years. Life After Genius is her first novel.

The copyright of the article Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby in American Fiction is owned by Teresa Shaw. Permission to republish Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.