More wondrous tales from master spinner Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad) who knows that story is king. You can almost read her novel as a metaphor for the internet with a moral: only disconnect. "See Below," a stand-alone tour de force of personal correspondence, imbues a relatively simple task--scheduling a Hollywood interview--with back story, guile, vanity, kindness, suspense, self-interest, humor, nostalgia AND meaning that add up to nothing less than a paean to the human condition, and proof that artificial intelligence will never measure up to the real thing. Plus the woman can write! "He tried leaning around Comstock’s torso [from the back of a speeding Harley Davidson] to shout in his ear . . . but a rabid wind invaded his mouth, threatening to dislodge the skin from his skull and send it flying into the hills like a pillowcase.”
A few of my favorite bon mots:
I understood with sudden clarity that doing the right thing—being right—gets you nothing in this world. It’s the sinners everyone loves: the flappers, the scramblers, the bumblers. There was nothing sexy about getting it right the first time.
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The random walk of a drunk is of geometric interest, but it can’t predict where he’ll stagger next.
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The need for personal glory is like cigarette addiction: a habit that feels life-sustaining even as it kills you.
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Knowing everything is too much like knowing nothing. Without a story, it's all just information.
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