"The Bug": unexpectedly interesting.

Now, when I first read about this novel my first impression was: "What? A novel about a programmer dealing with a bug? That has to be booooring!" Well, Ellen Ullman definitely does raise to the challenge... at least in the eyes of somebody interested in these issues like me. Perhaps a non-techie would find the book boring but I thought it was amazing how the author manages to pull this one out. A book telling us the story of a programmer and his relationship to a bug —no chases, no crimes— and it still manages to be interesting. She writes about the human side of the story —the programmer slowly being eaten away by this intractable bug as well as by his own ghosts and personal problems with his girlfriend— and also discusses deeply technical issue in a manner that they become understandable by the average reader. Chapeau!