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Jul 13, 2015lukasevansherman rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
Note: This is unrelated to the Tina Fey film. Dwight Gardner of the New York Times (see below) doesn't know what he's talking about. A "buzz" book that strives desperately to tap into the zeitgeist and fails on most every level. Favorably compared to P.K. Dick, Pynchon, and William Gibson, David Shafer's first novel has the smug, self-satisfied writing style of a lot of guys named Jonathan (Franzen, Safron Foer, Lethem). It's "serious" literature that dabbles in sci-fi, but it's territory that modern masters like Pynchon and DeLillo have explored with far more intelligence and insight. And its attempts at humor are woefully unfunny. He seems to think it's clever to name characters James Dean or Trip Hazards (seriously) and refer to cars as "private metal zoom-arounders." On the plus side, Oregonians might enjoy the scenes set in Portland. Hey, it's Powell's! A real dud of a novel, but it somehow received good reviews. I'd call it "Whiskey Tango Sucks A Lot."