A deliciously humorous but lengthy sendup of the technological world that covers well-traveled intellectual ground.
In this debut fantastical farce, a heavenly agent must contend with the inexhaustible appetite humans have for online consumption.
Zeke—“for eons”—has worked for “THOROUGH-GOOD1,” an organization tasked with the superintendence of all things mortal, or “humanity’s heavenly bureaucratic overseer.” More specifically, he works for the Department of Inspirations—he’s tasked with acting as the muse for humankind’s creative efforts, mostly modest products like television cooking shows and “accidentally” the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But his once-heralded department is no longer thriving. Following the emergence of the internet and the wave of technology that facilitates constant contact with it, the aims of humanity have lowered to “constant stimulation.” Zeke’s department, against his objections and those of the other “angelic administrators” with whom he works, is absorbed into the Department of Technological Innovations. The new plan, as designed by their leader, G., is to lull humans into a benignly safe cyberslumber. Saber combines manic comic satire with social commentary on these techno-obsessed times, an amalgam that is by turns genuinely hilarious and philosophically astute. Moreover, despite the supernatural theology that undergirds the plot, the tale is unflinchingly realistic. Zeke leaves his heavenly environs and returns to Earth for the first time in ages, in search of a means to “combat the digital flood.” Instead, he despairs of what he finds: “I had felt the world come apart. I could sense the despair as humanity impotently swiped their phones—hoping they would refresh, knowing they wouldn’t. The online arguments about video games and net neutrality were about to spill into the real world in a way that would make Berkeley look innocuous.” The author’s critique of the contemporaneous human condition is sharpest when unpacking the angry online hunt for righteous indignation and the venomous, mostly anonymous tribalism that has supplanted any semblance of genuine community. Most of the worldview he constructs will be recognizable to anyone familiar with the issue—the strength of the book is its comedic, not its anthropological, ingenuity. In addition, the plot falls into radical disarray once Zeke returns to Earth about midway through the book—Saber’s novel might have worked better as a short story.
A deliciously humorous but lengthy sendup of the technological world that covers well-traveled intellectual ground.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-69644-461-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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