Turn of the Century

Rating:
Summary: There's nothing I like better...
Review: There's nothing I like better than a nice thick book, unless it is this particular one, which could lose 150-200 pages; then the story might be tight enough. As it was, I heard BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES comparisons mentioned frequently in reviews, and those references are what ultimately captured my interest. The only real comparison of the two books is that both were rife with dislikeable char'ters; however,while BONFIRE cooked from beginning to end, CENTURY often made me question why I was continuing to read this snoozer. The two stars are for the two things I learned most about... namely, the insane and fickle stock market game, and the finesse of hacking into major computer systems to create havoc in the market, or just because... But the characters were stifling in their one dimensional personalities. Like human paperdolls, George Mactier was just a lucky goof w/ too much money, and his wife, Lizzie, was just as flat. Too many greedy people w/ too much disposible income and time, adding nothing to the quality of modern life, but showing a generational lack of values that is truly frightening. I would say, and this is a compliment, that if only I were younger, I would love to be a hacker. Younger readers in the computer marketing quest, or tv development, might enjoy this book, but so far Kurt Anderson is no threat to Tom Wolfe.

Rating:
Summary: A meditation and satire on America's media culture
Review: I picked up Andersen's long novel with hesitation but found it all but impossible to put down. His plotting is intricate but impeccable in terms of plausibility and every thread was quite satisfyingly resolved. His characters, down to the marginal bit players, are nailed in three dimensions. Finally, as a contemporary morality tale it will stand the test of time.

Rating:
Summary: Is it art imitating life, or the other way around?
Review: This book has marvelously drawn characters and a deft plot. But what lingers in my mind are the constant, droll little absurdities that abound in the characters' world, understated seeming little asides which charactertize postmodern American urban and media life. And give Andersen credit that he was actually prescient, in that things we accept as unremarkable are getting more postmodern and more absurd all the time. Every time I see or read about something like the Secretary of the Treasury touring the Third World with Bono, I think to myself, "this is just like something out of 'Turn of the Century.'"

Rating:
Summary: A Postmodern Trollope
Review: This is one of those books that buzzes in your head for weeks after you've read it. "Turn of the Century" is loaded with dazzling riffs and observations about contemporary life, of course, but the people in it are equally memorable and sharply drawn. You really start to see folks you know in light of characters from Andersen's novel. ("Oh, he's a sort of Timothy Featherstone type," I found myself saying of an acquaintance.) The satire -- of the worlds of media and entertainment -- is unsparing, and yet the book has surprising warmth. Andersen has pulled off something remarkable here: a 21st-century version of Trollope's "The Way We Live Now." It's really true: the novel is stippled with present-day counterparts of Augustus Melmotte, Sir Felix Carbury, and the rest of Trollope's immortal cast. As with Trollope, Andersen's essential humanity infuses the book with a sense of worldly compassion. (Tom Wolfe seems tinny and shrill by comparison.) "Turn of the Century" is a novel that will make you laugh out loud, without feeling bad about it later. I can't remember when I've had a better time with a novel, or learned so much along the way.

Rating:
Summary: At Arm's Length, with the Occasional Chuckle
Review: Anderson has done some admirable heavy lifting to present a just-in-time, high concept, bullet train of mild satire and cleverness. It takes awhile get used to and wade through the topical references to events, people, places, and things, both real and vividly imagined, that five years from now will make this novel seem like it was written in a dead language. Readers seem to have widely differing opinions about whether the characters are compelling,it's funny, etc. If you don't have any interest and affinity for the Fast Company/Hollywood/Web culture you'll hate it. I'm familiar enough with the worlds of the novel (at the grunt level anyway) to get the jokes and admire the imagination. But if you want a book that deals deeper with whether we lose our "soul" and connection to others by what we do for work, try JR, by William Gaddis (an author whose movie rights Anderson's character Ben Gould buys up in one of his "charitable" schemes). Overall, Turn of the Century is a too-long, although often amusing piece that relies so heavily on a reader's existing knowledge of the scene that I found myself holding the characters at arm's length. I prefer being a little more intimate.

Rating:
Summary: best book on cultural mores since Count of Monte Cristo
Review: Anyone who worked on the net or in media will relate in a big time way, especially if they can keep up with the cultural references - Incroyable...even better the second time through.

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Inventive Satire
Review: Kurt Andersen's got one heck of an imagination. Some of the scenarios he comes up with for the not-so-distant future are just downright neat!

I also enjoyed the almost soap-operatic feel of watching George and Lizzie's day to day lives progress, both at the office and in their home. It was interesting to watch how different they were to each other in the world of business and the world of matrimony/family. (Brings to mind the saying, "One never really knows anyone.")

I've heard that perhaps the book doesn't appeal to people who live too far outside large urban centers, but I can't see why that would be true. Most of us are attached to the Internet these days, most love "modern conveniences," and most would like to have more money than we do. Seems like that would be enough to make this a book that could appeal to anyone, despite geography. I mean, yes, it might appeal to New Yorkers MORE, but that's because we're reading about our hometown here. I also love Motherless Brooklyn (which takes place in the neighborhood where I grew up), but just because I can recognize what deli Letham's talking about doesn't mean it isn't worthy of its National Book Critic's Circle Award, ya know?

In summary, I loved the book. I also loved the end, which a lot of people seem to think was a disappointment. The book might run on a bit long, but for me it was an extremely satisfying read, and one that I've personally recommended -- especially to people who DO like books based in New York.

Rating:
Summary: One unused to dispose of
Review: Turn of the century continues to serve a most useful purpose, months after I gave up on it. I have a door that rattles if it's not wedged open and T-o-C is just big enough and heavy enough to do the job on its own. I struggled, oh how I struggled to try and even begin to understand some of the characters. I stirred the pages wildly while I waited for the plot to thicken. I fought against closing eyelids while the book became heavier and heavier. I searched my abridged guide to good grammar to see if I had missed a couple of chapters explaining that sentences after all don't need a subject, a verb and an object - or even a permutation of two out of three. I left it on the front doorstep hoping somebody would steal it. I offered it to my neighbor so he could jack up his car. I considered lighting the fire with it. I wondered whether, if I took just a few pages a day, I could eat it and get rid of the evidence. I offered it to my mother-in-law for Christmas. I took it scuba diving with me instead of a weight belt. And then, eventually, voila! The rattling door! What a fine tome T-o-C is. Another few hundred pages [...] and I could have used it as a sea anchor for the Titanic.

Rating:
Summary: Clear potential
Review: "Tour de force" is no doubt an adequate label for this book. Kurt Andersen's first novel is a gigantic feast on "the modern" in the high lanes of today's American business. It is constantly entertaining indeed in a "Tom Wolfish" way. But you can sense a certain freshness in Andersen's book that you can't find in works like A Man In Full. The dialogue is more catchy and somehow it's structure has greater appeal to a young reader than myself than that of an (please excuse me) old-timer like Tom Wolfe. If you were to use a musical expression you could say that this book consists of a magnificent longwinded accelerando. The intensity rises for some 700 pages +. But there are things that Tom Wolfe juggles smoothly and sometimes bites vigorously that Andersen doesn't really try to take hold of in "Turn of The Century". The milieu is portrayed slightly superficially and the social critique seems a bit vague. A harsh judgement would be that this is more entertainment than fiction. But that would also be too harsh. Kurt Andersen has written a very smart, VERY entertaining and very long book. It marks a very impressive debut - but I await even greater nourishment from his hands. I give it three big stars.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible. It's boring, slow and dull... and stupid.
Review: Turn of the Century is so boring and slow moving that it's not worth reading. In the first half of the book, literally close to nothing happens. Added to which, Anderson makes the book so convoluted it's like a badly executed Altman ensemble drama. It's impossible to keep track of all of these characters and formulate a good idea of what they're actually like. Added to which, the highly trumpeted 'Tom Wolfe' style satire in the book is so blunt and obvious that one wonders how many made the connection between Anderson and the esteemed writer of 'Bonfire of the Vanities'. Bottom line: boring, dull and pretty stupid really.