I completely disagree with that statement. The execution model behind Lisp is trivially simple compared to C which makes the corresponding mental model of what

I completely disagree with that statement. The execution model behind Lisp is trivially simple compared to C which makes the corresponding mental model of what your program is doing simpler. As for what goes on "under the hood," SICP builds a virtual register machine and a Scheme compiler for it in one chapter. Find me a C book that does the same. But you don't even need a chapter. Abdulaziz Ghuloum shows how to build a Scheme to x86 native code compiler in 10 pages: http://scheme2006.cs.uchicago.edu/11-ghuloum.pdf http://scheme2006.cs.uchicago.edu/11-ghuloum.pdf