Book excerpt: Grok is a huge, sprawling epic novel about the comic misadventures of an eccentric family and its young son’s quest to solve the elusive Turing test. The story spans the contours of the 20th century, from the literary salons of Paris in the twenties to the seamy side of LA in the thirties, from the counterculture wars of the sixties and beyond to the software-inspired nineties. Along the way we are wildly entertained by a huge cast of colorful characters, scenes and happenings, as Grok, the book’s hero, fights off the beguiling demons of the past and changes the world around him. There is never a dull moment in this wonderful, mind-bending story, which holds the mirror of ourselves up to Nature and shows us that we can have the last laugh.