Butterflies are pretty, light, and charming; this book, not so much.
Harrison mixes vignettes of the sex lives of rich people, mainly young and Eurasian, with journalistic pieces on economics, physics, and politics.
In the fictional portions of this book, members of a Shanghai sorority—an exclusive club for rich, politically well-connected young women—jockey for position as they enjoy luxurious lifestyles and explore their sexuality. Meanwhile, the young men in their circle work business deals, take drugs, pursue status, and chase women. In other chapters, a Creator called Taupin, living on a planet with three suns, tries to make sense of the Logos Simulation. There are also ghosts. In the nonfiction sections, journalist/entrepreneur Harrison, writing his debut work, sets forth his research and theories on such topics as hyperdimensionality, consciousness, authenticity, socioeconomics, bitcoin, and democracy. The author recommends his peripatetic, flitting style—or butterfly approach—to the reader as the best method for understanding coming change. Harrison draws some interesting connections, as when he compares the 1989 Tiananmen Square protestors to American hip-hop artists. He can be opaque (readers with “no inclination for a massively technical discussion” are invited to skip Chapter 3), but he explains the intricacies of, for example, digital-payment systems well: “Because bitcoin is all part of one great code, it is impossible for a single bitcoin to be counterfeit.” Alongside so much lesbian teenage sex, this could be a heady mix. But often, the book resembles nothing so much as dull 18th-century pornography in which sordid sex scenes alternate with treatises on political liberty: “ ‘Now personally,’ surmised Gina, waving her left finger, still wet with my white cum smear, ‘I don’t think that God is light or dark or maybe even anything.’ ” Also, while the work is breathlessly excited by all things cutting edge, its presentation of female sexuality is not well-informed fiction: “I came on my clit,” says a confused young lady.
Butterflies are pretty, light, and charming; this book, not so much.Pub Date: May 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1512128680
Page Count: 382
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
