Review: 'A Deadly Wandering,' by Matt Richtel

"A Deadly Wandering" begins with 26-year-old Utah college student Reggie Shaw sliding into an MRI — a medical scanner powered by an "irresistible magnet" strong enough to cause scissors to fly across a room at 45 miles per hour. The scissors are the first of countless simple, but spot-on, examples author Matt Richtel uses to ensure that all readers understand the increasingly complex science his book explores. The MRI's magnet also serves as the perfect metaphor of what it's like to read this masterful book. Each page is, like the magnet, irresistible. Start, and there's no letting go.

A New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning technology journalist, Richtel uses the tragic 2006 deaths of Utah scientists James Furfaro, 38, and Keith O'Dell, 50, to frame a richly detailed and compellingly readable exploration of the "clash" between our brains and the electronic devices that, for many of us, have become essential to "every facet of life."

The book is set in Utah, where, on an early September morning, Shaw's Chevy Tahoe veered into another lane while Shaw was texting and clipped the sedan carrying Furfaro and O'Dell. This sent the sedan into a head-on collision with a truck, and both men were killed on impact.

Richtel uses alternating perspectives to tell the story of Shaw's denial and eventual admission of the accident's cause, as well as the groundbreaking police work and court case that occurred in its aftermath. He pieces the story together through the narrative lens of all involved: Shaw, Furfaro and O'Dell's wives, police investigators, a victim's advocate and the neuroscientists, lawmakers and others who, since the accident, became involved in movements to better understand the brain and stop the distracted driving that is very much part of life today.

Woven into Shaw's story is a fascinating look into the ever-emerging field of brain science, particularly how technology and multi-tasking affect attention, and how smartphones and similar devices tap into a very primitive, and potentially addictive, need to be socially connected.

The research Richtel includes looks back as far as the 1850s, the decade scientists began to study and measure the capacities of the human brain. Most relevant, however, are contemporary neuroscientists' take on our brains' powerful, yet limited, ability to direct and control attention — essential information for anyone who uses a smartphone, tablet, laptop, GPS or, more likely, several devices at once.

At its essence, however, "A Deadly Wandering" is the story of a man: a well-paced emotional story of destruction, atonement and redemption; a hero's tale. Richtel's masterful telling makes him a literary hero of sorts, too.

Cindy Wolfe Boynton is a Connecticut-based freelance writer and writing instructor.