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The Bug: A Novel Paperback – February 28, 2012

by Ellen Ullman (Author)

38 customer reviews

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With a New Introduction by Mary Gaitskill

A PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book

Ellen Ullman is a "rarity, a computer programmer with a poet's feeling for language" (Laura Miller, Salon). The Bug breaks new ground in literary fiction, offering us a deep look into the internal lives of people in the technical world. Set in a start-up company in 1984, this highly acclaimed first novel explores what happens when a baffling software flaw―a bug so teasing it is named "the Jester"―threatens the survival of the humans beings who created it.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Brilliant…Perfect for our time.” ―USA Today

“Thrilling and intellectually fearless…If more contemporary novels delivered news this relevant and wise they'd have to stop declaring the death of the novel.” ―The New York Times Book Review

“Takes the techno-novel to a new level of literary excellence…This is magnetic fiction.” ―San Francisco Chronicle

“A thrillerlike tale…No one writes more eloquently than Ullman about the peculiar mindset of the people who create the digital tools we use every day.” ―Salon

“Ellen Ullman writes unsparingly of the vivid, compelling, emotionally driven souls who gave us our new machines. By turns love story, tense psychological drama, and comedy of (very bad) manners, The Bug is an edgy and irresistible journey into lives all too rarely visited by literary types.” ―Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize--winning author of March

About the Author

Ellen Ullman is an American computer programmer and author. She has written novels as well as articles for various publications, including Harper's Magazine, Wired, The New York Times, and Salon. Her essays and novels analyze the human side of the world of computer programming. Ullman earned a bachelor's degree in English at Cornell University in the early 1970s. She then turned to business programming in the following years. She eventually began writing about her experiences as a programmer in 1995 when she wrote an essay titled "Out of Time: Reflections on the Programming Life." She lives in San Francisco.

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Picador (February 28, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250002494
ISBN-13: 978-1250002495
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 38 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #725,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #35 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Debugging
- #1883 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Technothrillers
- #2122 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Cyberpunk

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skmurphy

Carefully observed story of a software project told from developer and quality assurance points of view

November 27, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The Bug is a carefully observed story of a software project told from developer and quality assurance points of view. It shows how a software project can take over the lives of the team members and how technical problems in the software can be caused by emotional problems in project members lives. It explores the different mindsets and approaches that characterize the tribes in a software startup--venture capital, management, development, system administration, quality assurance--and how they interact and misunderstand each other. Like Soul of the New Machine, it offers technical details rooted in a particular time and place but offers truths that are timeless. Highly recommended.

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A striking bit of literary fiction amongst the programmers of the mid-1980s

July 3, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I recently attended a party at which people were discussing this book, as well as Ullman's later book By Blood. Intrigued by the subject matter as well as by their praise, I picked up a copy.

This is a remarkable book, a character study of the narrator (a professionally successful female software tester around the time of the dotcom crash, considering an episode from early in her career), and of a doomed programmer named Ethan Levin whose life imploded amidst a struggling venture-funded startup at which she had worked, fifteen years earlier.

Levin is not entirely a likeable character, though we sympathize with him. He had hoped to be an academic, but had to leave to join the workforce when his father died. He is not respected at work because of his background in "corporate" programming (Ullman totally grasps the mutual contempt between different groups of software engineers), and because a software bug that ultimately threatens the survival of their company seems to be his fault.

I would characterize the book as true science fiction, even if set in the past. In the spirit of Arthur C Clarke, Ullman uses computer programs to discuss the nature of life, and the emergence of intelligence, and even the fear of death. As in Clarke's writing, software can come to seem malicious, though explanations for any metaphysically worrying aspects of the bug's behavior are ultimately straightforward.

The book gets to be a little repetitive about 2/3 of the way through. Levin's personality flaws have been made clear, and I think nothing is gained by showing us three or four more times his descent into self-destruction. The character would probably be labelled mildly autistic today, but in the 1980s, he was just a jerk in an industry that tolerated a lot of idiosyncrasy. The breakup with his girlfriend is similarly dragged out a bit too much (and there is a 'surprise' related to that breakup that I won't reveal here, and which I think was unnecessary).

I'd probably give 4.5 stars if that were a choice. The book is well written and will be appreciated especially by anybody who has ever programmed for a living.

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Randall Degges

The Story of a Programmer's Life Spiraling Downwards

April 30, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is amazing. If you are a programmer, know a programmer, or are considering being a programmer, you should buy this book now without thinking.

The story takes you through the last year of Ethan's life as a programmer working on a large GUI system (think X windows in the 80s). Ethan lives with his girlfriend Joanna, and has a good job. However, a bug manifests itself is his code, and causes horrendous problems at work. As Ethan's personal life begins to fall apart, he becomes more and more obsessed with the bug, and through weeks of extreme debugging, slowly learns more about himself, and begins to question his life.

What made this book great is the feeling you get from relating to the main character. As someone who has been programming since age 12, this book struck a very tender part of me, and it made me feel sad, happy, depressed, and even reflective of my own life.

I won't spoil the novel anymore than I already have, but you need to read this book. It is great.

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February 15, 2005

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is one of the most impressive novels I've read in the last few years. It takes on issues of love, hate, ego and the much written about "human condition" and views them through what to most outsiders seems the most inhuman world of computer technology and software engineering. It takes the reader into the soul of the machine as only a few non-fiction works have previously done - "The Soul Of The New Machine" and Clifford Stoll's "The Cuckoo's Egg" spring to mind - and weaves a very human story of love, betrayal and madness around and within it.

Ullman's writing is clean, precise and emotionally spot-on, her characters are all too real to anyone who has worked in the software industry. Ethan Levin, software engineer lost between the world of dbx, cc and his broken relationships with human beings, is finely drawn and involving. A flawed tragic character descending into a madness Shakespeare would have recognised instantly. Roberta the software tester and former linguist who becomes a programmer as Ethan decays in front of her is also tragic, lost and very human, if more capable than Ethan of introspection and thus survival.

The wisdom with popular science books is that for every equation they contain the readership is cut in half. I would have thought things would be at least as bad for a novel that contains C code... but not in this case. Ullman fits the technical explanations and some code into the text with admirable dexterity and clarity that anyone should be able to follow. It was a very brave course to take, it could easily have ended up as an indigestible geeky info dump, but she pulls it off extremley well.

Her ability to see the world and relationships through the eyes of men is quite spooky at times, particularly men caught up in the challenges, excitement and self-absorbtion that can be found in the world of code and debugging. She ties it all back to our essential humanity and analog vs digtal world views in a satisfying conclusion.

This is one hell of a book.

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Andrew Edstrom

The best novel I've ever read about the inner lives of ...

So engaging! The best novel I've ever read about the inner lives of the people creating our new, digital world.

Published 1 month ago

K. Wilkins

A thoughtful, beautifully written, character-driven meditation on programming and humanity

This is the third book in my project to read all of Ellen Ullman’s books, as part of a larger project to read more deeply (in a more focused, thoughtful way) this year.Read more

Published 5 months ago

If Stephen King was a Programmer...

DISCLAIMER: I am a programmer, and to no one's surprise, would find a thriller about someone obsessively trying to find and fix a bug exciting and interesting.Read more

Published on December 18, 2015

FauxScot

It's not whether it will work. It's how hard you have to work to make it work.

I entered my career in the era of The Bug, A lot of the subject matter was quite familiar. It's the software equivalent of The Soul of a New Machine, also of the same general...Read more

Published on August 20, 2015

Victor Bloomfield

A trip inside the dark world of a tech startup

This is a remarkably dense, intense novel. Someone described Ullman's style as Gothic, and I'd agree.Read more

Published on August 15, 2015

Evgeni Stavinov

Accurate description of an engineer's life in a startup

I'm comparing my experiences working for Silicon Valley startups with the ones described in the book.

It's amazing how things didn't change in the last 30 years.Read more

Published on February 18, 2013

N. Folsom

Good story...if you're a programmer

I'm not sure that a non-programmer or software tester would find this story as gripping as I did. But I can sure believe a bug so bad it would drive me mad.

Published on November 25, 2012

david21001

A Must Read for All Software Engineers !!

This is a must read for all software engineers. I have to admit if you were born after 1973, you might not be able to relate 100%, but every *real* software engineer should be...Read more

Published on August 29, 2011

Teddy Dover

Geek fun reading

I enjoyed reading this book. Learning a little about the stereo-typical geek programmers -- 'meep.' The author's approach is at times humorous and provides a learning experience...Read more

Published on March 14, 2007

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