Beginning
THE PERFECT JOSEPH AND GUMBALL
A Novel in Four Parts
“From one weakness was born infinite power.”
Youssef Boutahri
For Youssef Boutahri.
For Seiko Toast — the best friend anyone ever had.
For every parent who ate sandwiches in parking lots so their child could compete.
And for the ficus on the windowsill. Still dying. Still here. Now recovering.
CONTENTS
PART ONE: DAWN OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP
— The First Morning at Harvard
— The Shape of the Work
— The Night of the Party
— The Quantum Corridor
— The Vortex
— The Heroes
through XII — Harvard, Year One (continued) XIII through XXII — The Deep First Year
PART TWO: THE DEVIL YOU DON’T KNOW
One through Nine — The Second Year
PART THREE: THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD
One — The Installation
Two — After the Installation Three — Letters Home
Four — What the Record Found
PART FOUR: THE LEGEND
One through Eight — The Legend Interlude — Seiko’s Twelve-Page Analysis XXIII through LVII — The MIT Years LVIII through LXI — Year Six
The Final Chapter
LXII — The Seventh Hub
LXIII — What the Watcher Knows
LXIV — The Morning After Everything
LXV — The Jasmine Reaches the North Wall LXVI — Begin Again
LXVII — The Last Three Seconds Epilogue — The Time Tracker Extended Epilogue — The Last Entry Coda — Rue des Orangers
A Note on the Record End of the Novel Appendix
A Note from the Record
PART ONE
DAWN OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP
Cinematic Adaptation: Feature Film — 4 hrs 20 min — $450M production
budget
In which a boy from Casablanca arrives at Harvard with cracked glasses and infinite potential.
