A Working Theory of Love

In Stegner Fellow Hutchins’s ambitious debut novel, the writings of Dr. Neill Bassett, who committed suicide in 1995 and kept extensive diaries for two decades, form the basis of a linguistic project to create the first software program to process natural language. Though the doctor’s son, Neill Jr., is not a programmer, he’s the only native English speaker at Amiante, the tiny three-man tech firm taking on the task, and his job entails humanizing the program so that it responds like a real person rather than a computer. During the course of the project, the emotionally distant Neill, a divorced 36-year-old living in San Francisco who thinks of himself as “an experienced practitioner at the art of falling apart on the inside while appearing catatonic,” becomes involved with Rachel, a 20-year-old member of a cultlike group that employs questionable methods to engage its members. The relationship never sizzles because Rachel remains a cipher, but Neill’s interactions with the software, which becomes more and more a stand-in for his dead father, and a rival software developer’s provocative end-use plans for a successful Bassett-like program, create intriguing ethical dilemmas and force Neill out of his indifference. Neill’s unusual “one-on-one” with the program is revelatory and exciting. Agent: Bill Clegg, WME Entertainment. (Oct.)