“Kind of an 80’s screwball comedy. But.
It’s the but where I fall out of love a little.
The 80’s nostalgia trip has ended for Pete. I like stories set in the 80’s because they don’t have to deal with cell phones, internet, and because I feel like 80’s parents let their kids leave their homes before the age of 19, therefore wacky adventures were a possibility.
That said, sometimes the setting is used for cute setups, like a guy saying “Computers the size of a candy bar? Ha, you’re crazy!” Because we readers all know that it’s happening, and I guess we’re supposed to get a laugh out of how nearsighted people were.
I don’t like those cutesy references to time. Because they seem forced, and they break the timing of the story. The only way those work for me are when the person is specifically talking about how stupid they were, like the David Rakoff essay where he talks about encountering early versions of Madonna and the internet and had the same reaction to both: This will never take off. When the narrator doesn’t know the future, but the writer does, it feels really forced to me.
I sort of enjoyed that the main character in this book did some shitty shit, and he seemed pretty beyond redemption. And he sort of was, at least in the timeframe presented in the book. I thought it was gutsy to go there.
I sort of enjoyed the idea presented in the ending, that things that seem like a big deal maybe sometimes aren’t. But then I think the book backs out of its own ending a little, and instead of going with the uncomfortable, potentially unsatisfying ending, tries to have it both ways.
If you’re an audiobook person, worth noting the audiobook is quality. The narrator is pretty durn good, and someone had the good sense to not force him to read the entirety of the lines of code that make up chapter headings. I thought it was happening, but every chapter starts with a reading of the code, then fades out mercifully. Someone in the studio that day had a thought in their brain. Unlike some of the other audiobooks I’ve read, which will go to insane lengths to try and re-create a series of numbers or characters that work visually and are just exhausting out loud.
If you’re ever putting together an audiobook in a situation like this, just stop reading, say, “Look, this is [narrator name] again. I introduced myself awkwardly in the third person at the beginning of the book, remember? Cool, so there’s like a whole bunch of numbers here on the page, and I think you get the idea. So I’m going to skip to the end of the numbers and pick it back up. Thanks for hanging with us today!””