Lulu Miller is an American radio producer and science journalist. Because the book is a <a data-internal-link data-link-type="Literary Device" href="https://www.supersummary.com/memoir/">memoir</a>, Miller is&nbsp;present as the narrator and speaker. Her interest in David Starr Jordan emerges from her search for meaning and for support, having been introduced to the meaningless of existence at a young age by her scientist father and having struggled for much of her life with depression and suicidal ideation. Ultimately, her encounter with David Starr Jordan does provide a model for how to live a good life—but not in the way she anticipated at the outset of the book. Miller’s description of her own life is the testament to the impact of chaos: Miller grew up in a family with two older sisters and a bold, rule-breaking scientist of a father who embraced the meaningless of life and let the realization fuel him to live a life that was “big and good” (36). He encouraged Miller to adopt a similar <a data-internal-link data-link-type="Literary Device" href="https://www.supersummary.com/perspective/">perspective</a>. Once, while on a family vacation as a child, Miller asked him if what life was about. In response, he told her that nothing mattered; there was no God, but one should embrace life anyway.

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