Structure

The Disappearing Spoon is divided into five parts plus an Introduction. The Introduction summarizes the author’s interest in the topic, reasons for writing the books, and what he hopes readers will take away from it. Each of the book’s five parts is of roughly equal length with three or four chapters each. Though this book presents a history of science, it is not ordered chronologically. Nor is there a consistent overarching narrative. It is rather a series of short stories and anecdotes that are linked together in part topically and in part by the author’s personal choices about what topical information he wishes to prioritize. The lack of strong organizing principles or a clear narrative structure is an aspect of the book that has been critique in crowd-sourced reviews of The Disappearing Spoon on platforms such as Goodreads.

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