to take as a subjective story of a long search

It reads quickly as a quest. Apart from a few insiders, the reader does not understand all the details, take a few demonstrations as illustrations. the key is to feel tension, mail exchanges between the two players set the tone, we feel very good atmosphere.
on the same subject I recommend the "Fermat's Last Theorem" Singh, who is much accéssible and educational, and very well written, but in hindsight, more distant.
The interest of "living theorem" is his next witness live (hence perhaps the "living" of the title) in the first person, with its qualities and defects.