This novel of ideas really is a novel …

… A Libertarian Novel of Ideas | Liberty Unbound. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I can think of no other literary work that was written in this manner — starting with the intellectual debates, and adding the details later — that still succeeded in recommending itself as a novel, as opposed to a series of essays. The vitality of Irwin’s story can result from only one source — a sustained interest in the varieties of human life and character. That’s why the plot could “develop naturally” and not mechanically.