A smart satire that revels in the excesses of capitalism.
A linguistics-minded satire presents a psychedelic vision of a future civilization.
The Unionized States of America, late 2060s. “Very late capitalism” has made America unrecognizable, and the regenerative economics professor Cornelius Jobanič hopes to turn things around. When he meets former water polo player and current ghostwriter Benjamin Henderson at the annual Digikiki offline charity fundraiser, he knows he has found a partner. “Lately I have been working on an idea, a grand formula in the discipline of economics,” explains Cornelius. “I have semiboiled a nonstandard formula to eliminate poverty in the world. No more predivision. No more parades without true democracy. At last, true rights to freedoms, life, and happinesses.” Cornelius will be the idea man, and Benjamin will sell it to the masses—though this turns out to be easier said than done. The two set off like a 21st-century James Agee and Walker Evans—mixed with more than a pinch of Candide and Pangloss—to crack the code of poverty. Interspersed with their work are vignettes exploring the varied and colorful corners of late capitalism, from the ins and outs of the Japanese eCats© import-export business to the electoral success of the Search Party, which runs on the political platform of conducting internet searches so their constituents don’t have to. Bunea’s prose is laden with invented buzzwords, though he provides definitions for all of them in the footnotes: “The prematuroid generation, those unperuked yoloing teens are developing an uncontrolled interest in eCats© in all shapes, sizes, and specs, from subquarter minis to 12 inch harpylikes.” These linguistic curios are often quite fantastical, such as the zestybus, which a footnote reveals to be a “colorful public bus with pleasant scents, relaxing ambient music, and massage cubicles.” The book does not function as a traditional novel but rather as a collection of vignettes linked by the occasional appearances of Cornelius and Benjamin. The jokes are sometimes sophomoric, and not every scenario totally succeeds. But as a work of metafictional dystopian satire, it offers some wonderfully imaginative and amusing moments.
A smart satire that revels in the excesses of capitalism.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-07-145263-9
Page Count: 469
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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