Review of "LOGJAM of a Beauteous MIND"

[Colette Knoetze]

[Following is a volunteer review of ""LOGJAM of a Beauteous MIND"" by Peter Simon Karp.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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LOGJAM of a Beauteous Mind Written by Peter Simon Karp was, unfortunately, an incredibly difficult read for me. I was most disappointed to realize the book was not about a cancer warrior's mission to survive stage four lung cancer, the book seemed not to be about Mona Karp at all the protagonist being Peter Karp, I felt rather cheated by this. The book read more like a medical journal which made it tedious at times. For this, I will Rate this book two out of four stars Whilst it's undeniable, the love her caregiver AKA husband has for "Dear Mona" one was left feeling rather detached from her. Her Character came across at times as somewhat of an elitist and very self-absorbed this selfishness is only emphasized by her underlying depression and suicidal thoughts which you as a reader never get to know of how she came to be diagnosed with this. Unfortunately, this all works together to paint her as a "Me, Myself and I" person. This is very sad as one can only deduce by the devotion of her husband the absolute adoration from her children and then the respect from her Doctors and peers that we are missing something about Mona as she could not have been the above person yet still have been held in such high regard.

Mr. Karp does carry on a lot about her brilliant mind yet his portrayal of her makes her seem rather frivolous as she floats between spiritualism and Christianity without ever noticing this herself (which would make for a very interesting character). Mona and Mr. Karp seem to think that God is a Woman although it feels like this may be a personal joke between them that we are not privy to, but why mention it at all then?
Mr. Karp seems to want to underplay her depression but the fact that the Doctors immediately link her logjam chemo brain with the depression tells us that this played a huge part in her life, but to what extent we shall never know.

Written by Mona's husband, as her primary caregiver, he writes about Mona as if we the readers already know her well enough that we don't need all the puzzle pieces to establish the person that she was.
Maybe, with the author being so close to the character he was unable to give an unbiased portrayal of Mona, allowing us only to see her through his eyes leaving the book without much depth and unable to deliver the heart of the story that the title hints at.

I assume Mr. Karp did not have his book edited as there were quite a few grammatical errors throughout. Had he chosen to walk this route and have his book read before publishing I do believe the Editor could have pointed out the lack of story and character building, thus blocking us from discovering the brave, feisty, cancer warrior that Mona Karp truly was.

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"LOGJAM of a Beauteous MIND"
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[Umesh Bhatt]

Appears an honest review of the book. Would not be considering it for reading.