The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
Published 2016 · 100,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Biography, Nonfiction, Psychology
How hard is The Undoing Project to read?
The Undoing Project scores 27 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 35 out of 100
- Accessible narrative journalism. Psychological concepts explained through character.
- Sentence structure: 30 out of 100
- Abstraction: 35 out of 100
- Psychological concepts grounded in biography. Lewis makes theory personal.
- Information density: 50 out of 100
- Dense with psychological research, biographical detail, and Israeli history.
- Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
- Mostly chronological dual biography with some thematic sections.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- Lewis works through narrative and character rather than symbolism.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- Lewis's journalistic detachment provides mild distance. The tone is admiring.
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- The dissolution of the partnership is built toward gradually.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- Dual biography with psychological research woven in. Clear structure.
How The Undoing Project is regarded
The Undoing Project holds a literary regard score of 46 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.