The Wages of Genius

Almost a century after the birth of a big-headed man who altered our conceptions of light, energy, mass, space, and time, a boy with a similarly large head was born in Ionia, Wyoming. Meet Edward, a self-proclaimed genius who considers the parallels between his life and Albert Einstein’s proof of his exceptional brilliance. Nearly twenty-six (Einstein’s age the year he discovered E=MC2), he is getting nowhere with his wildly expanding dissertation on science’s evolving conception of the void—in short, the modern scientific history of nothing. Convinced that he is on the verge of a major breakthrough, he leaves graduate school and lands an entry-level job at an innovative new company, hoping his intelligence will be put to better use there. Although he’s not sure exactly what the company does, Edward believes that with his keen mind and original ideas he will revolutionize everything from cubicle culture to the global marketplace. Told in Edward’s endearing, delusional voice, The Wages of Genius is not only a hilarious parody of corporate culture a la Walter Kirn’s Up in the Air, but a sympathetic portrait of a hapless young man (think Ignatius J. Reilly) with poor judgment, bad luck, and the best of intentions.