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Saturday, June 21, 2003

Title: Feed
Author: M.T. Anderson
Publisher: Walker Books



It bemuses me that Feed - by M.T. Anderson - is listed in some places as being for children, or probably more accurately "young adults". What does "young adult" mean anyway - sounds a bit like a condescending euphemism to me. But hey, I digress, Feed is filled with swearing, not something I particularly associate with novels given that kind of categorization - though, who knows, maybe things have changed since I was that age?

Anyway, the point is, it would be a pity if Feed were dismissed as a "kids" book. M.T. Anderson's writing is too on the ball to be missed. The characters are all young adults themselves, and that is reflected in their speech patterns, with Anderson taking it a step further. The dialogue is very loose, which has a very natural flow, at least initially - progressing to a point where you become conscious of the dumbed down vocabulary, the constant stumbling conversations of even adults in this future America.


The feed is the ultimate media device, plugs straight into the body at an early age. Takes over some major biological roles and generally monitors everything for the purposes of profiling. Which is used to help target you with product 24-7, while also narrowing you towards an easier niche, so that there are fewer niches and more sales. You walk into a shop and get bannered - ads, specs, special offers. You get your music and "TV" from the feed; they've calculated which chord structures will make 13-year-old girls scream.

It is the spring break. Titus and his friends have gone to the moon. It kind of um, sucks. But it changes his life when two things happen. The first event is when Titus met Violet. Violet is different from everyone he has ever met, but the two of them hit it off. The second event happens when Titus and Violet are in a club; they are hacked and end up in hospital.

These two events combine to provide a different view of the world. A world past the ideal of the feed. A world where not everyone approves. Where America has annexed the moon and the rest of the world is pointing some big guns in their direction. The world is dying, riots are breaking out, everyone is ill, but its okay cause the soaps say it's all hip.

Feed is layered with a caustic subtlety, enough critique of the things that are wrong with contemporary Western culture to give the reader a nosebleed. Filled with humour and a strong eye for detail that is combined in an entirely readable narrative.

RVWR: PTR
June 2003

Friday, June 20, 2003

Title: These Demented Lands
Author: Alan Warner
Publisher: Vintage



These Demented Lands is the second novel by Alan Warner, something of a sequel to his debut Morvern Callar. One gets the impression that These Demented Lands follows close on the end of Morvern Callar. Though for the most part the character isn't referenced by name, in fact her name is even blanked out of the text where it should appear, only used at the ending.

These Demented Lands is delivered in alternating sequences, each coming from the two lead characters - referred to as "the girl" and "the air crash investigator" by each other. Like Morvern Callar the girl's sections are delivered in dialect, while the air crash investigator's is closer to standard English. This has a curious effect in terms of how the reader reads each section. The switching between perspectives of the characters also allows for a shifting insight into who the people are, as well as how they see the supporting cast around them. A perception of Morvern was something that I felt lacking in Morvern Callar, so here she is more fleshed out, of course by this stage she has changed considerably from the shelf stacker we first met.

Both the girl and the investigator are living in a hotel on a Scottish island. The rest of the residents are honeymoon couples, setting them up for more active roles in the games that the hotel owner plays with people. Each seeming to clash off each other to some degree, while holding the hotel manager as a common enemy. Around them there are some curious characters - John Brotherhood (the hotel manager), the devil's advocate (camped out in a tent, a judge of whether people are worthy of sainthood), Chef MacBeth (the hotel's incapable cook), the argonaut (the island's premier salvager), a couple of brothers with their father in a coffin, and a team of students trying to guide a herd of cattle across the island. All of whom add a certain surrealness to the proceedings, putting the demented in the title.

These Demented Lands gives the impression of being more compact than Morvern Callar, the events all take place in a more restricted location and seem to have a more compact continuity. The evolution of Morvern leads from a shop girl in the highlands to someone who has been travelling, seen the world and experienced so much in that time. A character who benefits well from this experience so that we witness a more rounded and grown character.

These Demented Lands is a strong follow up to Morvern Caller. Some have described it as being a little surreal, but for me it was entirely readable and thoroughly enjoyable.

RVWR: PTR
June 2003

Title: Blackbox
Author: Nick Walker
Publisher: Headline



Trying to explain Blackbox is likely to be a difficult task I reckon, at least without giving too much detail away or totally confusing the reader. Approaching Blackbox the thing that is most known about the debut novel by Nick Walker is that someone died on a flight and that the death has affected a number of people. Early on we have the speculation of flight numbers - if this is flight 841 does that mean there were 840 previous flights? With this, Walker tells his story in sections, counting down those flight numbers and steadily introducing us to his cast of characters, a large enough group that a character list is included at the end for you to keep track of them all.

Straight off I'll say that Blackbox is very enjoyable. Watching all the pieces come together one by one until the climax is intriguing. Walker introduces us to characters, and then links them to other characters, then links those to yet other characters. The result is a web and actions bring things together so a full circle is evident. Early on the idea of six degrees of separation is echoed, and it is clear that the concept is one of the core thoughts behind the writing. with part of the enjoyment coming from the pieces falling into place, so that the presence of characters, and the way they are behaving fall into place.

The cast of characters includes sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, fathers and daughters. Actions include lies and deception, betrayal and mistaken identity. Characters are filled with guilt at what they have done or anger at what has been done to them. The flow keeping the reader going, so that we come crashing off the key sections with a striking inevitability.

In writing terms I get a comparison to Chuck Palahniuk coming up. The fact that Palahniuk's Survivor also features a count down and a character recording his life on a black box contributes to that as well - though that is really just coincidental base level. Walker delivers a dark humour in his writing, but is less caustic than Palahniuk. Blackbox also feels denser and like more of a writing achievement, Nick Walker delivering a solid piece of work here.

RVWR: PTR
June 2003

Title: Coin Locker Babies
Author: Ryu Murakami
Publisher: Kodansha Europe



Coin Locker Babies is one of only a couple of books available in English from the Japanese author Ryu Murakami. The story of two boys who meet in an orphanage and become firm friends based on the fact that they were both abandoned to die in coin lockers. A fact that stays with them throughout their life. Half of the book is spent following them as they grow up, followed by the years covering their late teens and the climax of their story.

In the orphanage it becomes clear that the two boys have problems. Both of them reacting to those in different ways - one climbs on to random buses and travels as far as possible, the other gather bits and pieces and pretty much builds nests for himself. Eventually it is decided something has to be done and the two are taken to hypnotherapy. This seems to have worked, and eventually the two of them are adopted as brothers by a couple.

From there they grow up on an island until they are 17. One of them runs away to Tokyo, where he dresses as a woman and sells his body, searching for promises of fame. The other goes to Tokyo to find his brother, but in the process has his dark side opened, and driven on by his new girlfriend he wants to destroy Tokyo. Coin Locker Babies is a dark book, dwelling on the problems and the destructive habits of the two boys. Each of them desperately searching for something regardless of the consequences of their actions. As the story progresses it seems that they each head to opposite extremes - one in prison, while the other is at the top of his game.

It is inevitable in many ways that Ryu Murakami will be compared to Haruki Murakami, both being prominent Japanese authors with the name Murakami, both being side by side in the bookshop. But a real comparison is not fair, the two of these authors are very different and they are both setting out to achieve different things. The writing style of Ryu is very straight forward, with a rawness as he explores the emotions of his characters as each of them seems to go slowly mad. Dark and evocative, though certainly not as out there as perhaps some would suggest. After picking up Coin Locker Babies I learned that Ryu was the writer behind the story that became the film Audition - with it being likely that more people reading this will be familiar with the film then it is fair to say that you can see his style coming across there to some degree. Though in terms of the strength of narrative I think Coin Locker Babies is a stronger piece than Audition. Overall Coin Locker Babies is a good read, though perhaps spends too much time on the build up.

RVWR: PTR
June 2003

Title: A Wild Sheep Chase
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Harvill Press



I have now read all of Haruki Murakami's novels to date (not including non-fiction Underground and story collection The Elephant Vanishes). I started with Dance Dance Dance and ended with A Wild Sheep Chase. Which is a very typical thing for me to have done. Dance Dance Dance was a random choice, taken from curiosity rather than knowledge. Knowledge came soon after as I tried to find out more having enjoyed DDD so much. So it is I find it somewhat ironic that the last book of his that I read should actually be one that is directly related to the first, and in fact it quickly becomes clear that Dance Dance Dance is a sequel of sorts to A Wild Sheep Chase. In real terms it probably doesn't make a lot of difference which order I read them - the links are made regardless. So that as I read A Wild Sheep Chase it quickly falls into place as being the same nameless narrator, his same mystery girlfriend with the gorgeous ears and the same Dolphin hotel.

The narrator has recently broken up with his wife and just started seeing this new girl. A girl who warns him that a phone call will be about sheep just as the events that lead him on a wild sheep chase are set underway. An advertising campaign that he has been responsible for featured a random photo he had been sent by a friend. But the photo features a sheep with a star on its back, a sheep that he now has to find or face the wrath of a powerful and secretive right wing businessman.

Before he knows it he is falling up leads on this sheep, with his girlfriend in tow. Hearing story after story about the mysterious power of this impossible sheep and its dangerous plans for the future of Japan. This leads him further and further into the wilds, with each new and odd character pointing the way.

A Wild Sheep Chase quickly becomes one of my favourite books by Murakami. The way it fits in with Dance Dance Dance raising the pair to a whole new level. The inferences of what is going in terms of psychic happenings and mystery work away at my mind, slowly blowing it a degree at a time. Taking the two together totally changes the two apart, because we get a better feel for who the narrator is, a greater understanding of why he reacts the way he does. The figure of his girlfriend is fleshed out by A Wild Sheep Chase, putting her well up there as one of the best and most elusive of Murakami's women - his women being seductive characters, filled with charm and mystery. Perfect foils for his inevitably male and inevitably non-descript leads.

As with the other novels by Murakami that I have particularly enjoyed he sets up a continuity that seems perfectly normal. One that we can get into and relate to, then weaves in a level of oddness. With the likes of Hardboiled Wonderland he totally flips that idea out there, though with Dance Dance Dance and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles and A Wild Sheep Chase the construction is more subtle and effective for that.

Once you become aware of Murakami and look around you quickly realize that there are a lot of people reading his work. In some ways whether you get into it or not probably depends on you individually and where you start with his work. Personally I feel that A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance are essential reading, as are many of his other works.

RVWR: PTR
June 2003

Title: The Black Album
Author: Hanif Kureishi
Publisher: Faber and Faber


Shahid is the second son of a suburban family. A family trying to find its place between a Pakistani heritage and Britain in 1989. With the death of his father, Shahid has broken free - fled to college in London. There he has a new world opened to him. A world which quickly becomes split and leads to conflict.

The inspiration to come to this college were the good things he heard about the lecturer DeeDee Osgood, whom he falls in love with quickly, finding himself delighted when she returns his interest. At the same time he meets Riaz, a well respected spokesman for the local Muslim community. While he is fascinated by both DeeDee and Riaz and the cultures they represent they are not complimentary. Coming from an atheist background he struggles to come to terms with his new Muslim friends and their beliefs. The fact that they disaprove of the books and music he loves doesn't help. Books and music that DeeDee encourages, taking him to raves and feeding him drugs.

There is something almost surreal to the journey that takes place in The Black Album. Shahid wandering through a haze of bemusement and confusion. When he is caught up in either part he is determined to reject the other - down with the white woman and her corrupting drugs, switching to love for this woman and a rejection of the fundamentalism and extreme ideas. Everything really comes to a head with the declaration of a fatwa in response to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. A background of book burning and flash point politics is described, one which Shahid struggles to deal with.

This is the first work by Hanif Kureishi that I have read, so there is little for me to compare it to, though I've read mixed opinions from those with more experience of the author's work. Personally I enjoyed The Black Album a lot. The first chapter captures my attention straight away. The way in which Shahid meets his neighbour Riaz for the first time is cryptic and mysterious, intriguing from the outset. In some ways there is a lot of rambling wandering - between college, family and activism. But it is here where the picture is painted, where all the parts become a whole. It is the pacing of all these components coming together that makes The Black Album work - evoking a period in time and one man's role in clashing cultures so well.

RVWR: PTR
June 2003

Monday, June 16, 2003

Title: Pattern Recognition
Author: William Gibson
Publisher: Viking



Pattern Recognition is the seventh novel by William Gibson, a book he assures is a stand alone novel, not fitting into a trilogy like his previous novels. Gibson really created a name for himself with the Sprawl Trilogy - Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive being the definitive Cyber Punk novels. With the Bridge Trilogy - Virtual Light, Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties - Gibson moved closer to the present. Pattern Recognition is firm present form, though with the way these things work by the time it was published it was recent past.

Cayce Pollard is a woman in her early thirties. A "cool-hunter" and consultant for the advertising and marketing industry. Arriving in London to make use of her unique sensitivity to judge a proposed new logo for one of the big manufacturers of trainers. Cayce Pollard has an acute sense of pattern recognition, to the extent that she experiences physical reactions to logos and product that has saturated the globalized culture.

One of Cayce's passions relates to a series of film clips, which have appeared on the internet. She spends her online time on the Fetish:Footage:Forum discussing the finer points of these clips and how they fit together as a bigger picture. Arriving in London it turns out the ad agency has found out about the footage and wants her to help them find the maker of the footage. Recognising it as a memetic sensation, a cult following growing on the internet through a unique vector that the agency wants to exploit. This puts Cayce in a difficult position - possibly sell out her big interest to the very people who are contaminating public spaces with the items that make her ill, or turn down the opportunity to find out the truth behind her personal obsession.

Pattern Recognition doesn't need the levels of technological speculation expected in Gibson's work. The constant presence of cutting edge mobile phones and laptops provides everything on that front, just as the online communities reflect the extensions at work in Idoru. The core plot of mysterious maker and rich backer sending an expert on a quest to reveal all is a familiar one in Gibson's work, some might suggest it has become something of a formula. Regardless it is Gibson's ability with words that really makes him stand out from his peers. It is Gibson's ability with words that so many fail to imitate for all that they riff of the vibe that he set up at the start. The fact that the delivery of the ideas and characters in each new book seduces the reader as well is obviously another considerable factor in Gibson's success.

Pattern Recognition was a work in progress at the time of the terrorist attacks on the world trade centre. With that Pattern Recognition was changed forever in the same way that the lives of so many people were. Faced with the choice of scrapping what had been written to that point or coming to terms with those events, Gibson decided to come to term with those events in Pattern Recognition. As such the ripples are felt throughout Pattern Recognition, Cayce being from New York, her father having disappeared in the hours that followed. To some the references and flash backs that deal with this sub plot will seem tacked on, perhaps sitting awkwardly, but then the event by its nature is one that will feel funny regardless of who tackles the aftermath. For others these events are likely to bring more life to Cayce than the no-logo-backlash that is as central to what makes this woman. The feelings of uncertainty that Cayce retains at the blank in her life left by her father's disappearance must be one that contains a certain resonance in the wake of terrorist acts of that level.

Pattern Recognition fits well in the wave to the present that Gibson has established with the seismic event that was Neuromancer. As with Virtual Light there will be people that won't be happy with Pattern Recognition because it isn't another Neuromancer. It is also just as likely that there will be some unhappy because Pattern Recognition isn't another Virtual Light. Separating yourself from the past is a good idea when approaching Pattern Recognition, a good way to appreciate the patterns and the cast of characters which Cayce interacts with. Here is to more stand-alone novels where William Gibson continues to shine with his ability with words.

RVWR: PTR
June 2003

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