Slate editor David Plotz investigates the results of a two-decade experiment in genetics in which an eccentric millionaire attempted to save the world by stocking a sperm bank with the, er, output of Nobel laureates, successful businessmen, star athletes, and assorted geniuses.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Salon Andrew Leonard
Plotz negotiates every twist of their stories with grace and sensitivity, and places those stories on a firm bedrock of science and history.
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Outstanding
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San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Kiefer
Plotz's history... isn't merely curious, it's useful.
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Outstanding
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The Onion A.V. Club Donna Bowman
The rich memes about identity and family disseminated by The Genius Factory will enrich American culture far more than the DNA of Graham's prize male specimens ever will.
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Favorable
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Wall Street Journal Nick Schulz
By giving readers the case study of a serious -- and failed -- effort to engineer a better human race, Mr. Plotz brings the discussion back down to earth, where it belongs.
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Favorable
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Washington Post Robin Marantz Henig
Occasionally too hip for its own good.
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Favorable
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Entertainment Weekly Bob Cannon
While he never solves the nature-versus-nurture quandary in The Genius Factory, Plotz leads an amusing trip through one of the oddest alliances of science and commerce ever attempted.
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Favorable
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Kirkus Reviews
Fresh, funny, with deft profiles of singular individuals.
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
[Plotz's] sensitive narration always reminds us of the real lives affected--and created--through this oddball utopian scheme.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
Most of ''The Genius Factory'' is so perfectly pitched -- blithe, smart, skeptical, yet entranced by its subject -- that the awkward sections stand out.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Polly Morrice
Plotz's take on the role of genes now -- in our imaginations and in fact, so far as we can determine that -- is humane and funny, which are fine traits for any argument, or any book.
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Favorable
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Chicago Tribune Jonathan Marks
An engaging, highly enjoyable book that is personal and cultural, exploring the individual quest for roots and the popular ideas about identities, potentials and aspirations that frame such a quest. [12 June, 2005]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Daniel Akst
[A] delightful book.
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Favorable
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TLS: The Times Literary Supplement Carol Tavris
Lively and touching.
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Unfavorable
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Daily Telegraph Anthony Daniels
[Plotz] writes in a kind of jaunty journalese, of which inaccurate facetiousness is the worst quality.
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Unfavorable
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The Independent Will Self
[Plotz's] writing is a combination of cut-and-paste text with a rather nauseatingly folksy approach to the reader.
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