This book was so seminal in founding the genre that nothing in it seems original now. I don't care for many of the characters, or for romanticizing crThis book was so seminal in founding the genre that nothing in it seems original now. I don't care for many of the characters, or for romanticizing criminal behavior in general. The technology itself is oddly frozen in the early 80's, as are the geopolitics - there are now-dated references to cassettes, Japanese technological dominance, the USSR, and 3 megabytes of RAM being a hot commodity; not the point, but I found these distracting today. Blade Runner/Dick was also a clear and distracting influence, especially in the first 50 pages or so. Most of all, Gibson likes to over-rely on "cool" language and his own invented slang such that details of the story are not always clearly conveyed; I read the Wikipedia summary after finishing the book and before writing this review to be sure I'd understood it correctly. (I mostly had).
With all of that said, I kept on reading this book until the end for one major reason besides its historical significance: Gibson's pacing is spot-on; especially impressive when you consider this was his first novel. As much as he slurs certain details in slang, most of the narrative is clear, the plotting is tight, and the prose economical. Even though I found the characters mostly distasteful, I also found them interesting enough that I didn't get more than a little bit tired of them and wanted to see the story through until the end. I appreciated that while there was not really emotional depth to the characters, there was a great deal of intellectual depth to Gibson's world once he got the Blade Runner influences out of his system. Also, I thought that Malecum, arguably the simplest and most likable character in the story, stole every scene he was in.
If you're not into the genre, this book might be a tough sell today, but if you have an open mind and are willing to give it a little bit of effort, it holds up a lot better than it should all things considered. ...more
This one reminded me a lot of Imani Perry's South to America , which I read earlier this year. Both are overly intellectualized first-person travelogThis one reminded me a lot of Imani Perry's South to America , which I read earlier this year. Both are overly intellectualized first-person travelogues by an educated, politically correct BosWash woman born in the 1970's who very clearly has a high opinion of herself. Both provide a lot of interesting, if one-dimensional, insight about the movements the author identifies with (racial issues for Perry, feminism for MacNicol). Both are also bogged down by excessive detail about every. single. effing. thing. the author thought or did while traveling, which makes those aforementioned insights hard to access, and makes the reading experience a polarizing one, especially for readers who don鈥檛 happen to agree with the author鈥檚 heavy handed opinion that her lived experience is the only lived experience.
However, while Perry鈥檚 work at least has some scholarly heft to it and lives up to its subtitle, this one goes in the other direction. Most of this book, quite honestly, felt like reading a very privileged New York college student鈥檚 Livejournal, because the author seems stuck in that life stage of 鈥渕y summer trip to Paris鈥� (went out with friends, bicycled around Paris, mused about the life of a 鈥榣iberated woman鈥� in the 20th century intellectual sense, spent way too much time on a dating app culminating in the occasional one night stand, etc.), to the point that she has frequent sexual encounters with younger men and is defensively catty toward a younger woman she meets who is pursuing the same vocation as her. The only difference is the author鈥檚 age and corresponding insight and skill as a writer, mixed with wholly different, age-appropriate insecurities that would be largely solved if she simply moved to a less expensive city than New York. Also, while the author establishes very early on that she doesn鈥檛 buy the romantic narrative of Paris, I highly doubt this book would鈥檝e been published if she鈥檇 gone to a different city, so to some extent she鈥檚 trading on that reputation to get paid. 鈥淥ne woman鈥檚 pursuit of pleasure in Cleveland鈥� doesn鈥檛 quite have the same cachet.
Ultimately, as with Perry, I wanted to like this book, but couldn't completely. Also I expect it to age very poorly given its central framing as being about one very self-obsessed person from the world鈥檚 most self-obsessed city trying to escape from a year that literally everyone in the world wanted to escape from and that most don鈥檛 want to remember now.
Loading...
