Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All

Hungarian architect and entrepreneur Rubik delivers a quirky memoir of a man and his eponymous creation. The narrative begins in 1974, when 30-year-old Rubik is building “Cube” prototypes with wood, rubber bands, and fishing line. Describing his memoir as a “meta” work, echoing the chaotic cube-solving experience itself, he reflects on the joys and challenges of design in general, and his eventual achievement, the Rubik’s Cube: “Its core is like that of the earth’s, we’re drawn to it by gravity,” he writes. And as the Cube’s success proves, “in the rare cases when the harmony of function and design miraculously come together, beauty is achieved.” One hundred million of them were sold worldwide within three years of its 1980 release, a level of popularity that Rubik attributes to the fact that it’s “a puzzle that needs no instruction manuals or elaborate rules.” After recounting the Cube’s many pop culture appearances in media and the emergence of Rubik’s Cube competitions, Rubik takes readers on a series of digressions, including one on the “unknowable mysteries of the cube.” It’s a clever concept, but the narrative rambles. Despite his otherwise charming and humble delivery, the book may not keep the casual reader engaged, though puzzle enthusiasts and design students will find plenty of takeaways. (Sept.)