this book is quite a mixed bag. the author nails the early part of the book with great commentary on life in academia particularly in both Finland and the US, as well as life in general in both countries. otherwise it was a long, wandering, slow, chopped up story that had no characters i could care about, except perhaps one. it jumped around in time and narration in a way that wasn't very effective for continuing the story forward in any "thriller" type of way, and all the interesting topics that were raised, and there were many, weren't satisfactorily dealt with.