Wednesday, February 3, 2010

26, 1/4/10 The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway (576 pages)

Although this book didn't actually blow my mind, I did like it a lot.
In this case, I really don't want to give away the plot points of the story, but I will say that I did see one of the major revelations waaaay ahead of time. It may sound like crowing, but honestly I find it disappointing when I figure it out in advance. It seemed like it was meant to be a post-apocalyptic story, but it felt more like a war story to me, which might explain why my male book recommenders liked it even more than I did. Stereotype? Perhaps. But I've only met one guy who liked Jane Austen (who wasn't an English teacher anyway), and most of them seem to like Catch-22. Just saying. What I really liked was the part of the story that dealt with bureacracy, responsibility, compartmentalization and how they can lead to atrocities. As a post-apocalyptic society it was a little too fanciful for me, but there were a lot of thought provoking moments and really great writing. Plus, it was funny. One last note: the narrator doesn't have a name, and you all know how I love that in a novel.

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