Title: Pattern Recognition
Author: William Gibson
William Gibson has been one of my favorite authors since I first read and was enthralled by Neuromancer. Maybe I've gotten jaded or perhaps things get past me now that didn't used to, but this book left me feeling unaffected, something I never thought I'd say about a Gibson novel.
Cayce Pollard, in this contemporary tale, set soon after 9/11, can predict market success of products and logos, of public relations campaigns for consumer goods. The nature of this skill is nebulous at best. At the heart of the story is some footage, aka video, that appears piece by piece on the internet. Cayce is tasked to find the "maker" of the footage. If there's a slimmer premise for a novel, I can't think of it.
The book sparkles with Gibson's clever prose, but this time, it feels like name dropping due to all the product names bandied about. And for 80 or so pages, nothing seems to happen. There is more packed into the last 50 pages of the 356 page trade paperback than the rest of the book together, or so it seemed. And I was left thinking, so what? The premise, the action, all seemed quaint, out of place with how the world is evolving. To set his story so close to now, Gibson pretty much guaranteed that this bookhad a short life for freshness. It's not quite stale now, but it certainly felt old.
Or maybe it's just me, missing something obvious. I doubt it.
I've heard several similar comments about this book...I have to say I'm not inspired to add it to my enormous reading list.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I adored it. But (for some as of yet unknown reason), I tend to love anything that has to do with advertising.
ReplyDeleteHi, Leila,
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big advertising fan, except for old TV commercials and classic print ads. But much as I loved Gibson's other books and wanted to like this, it was so slight and uninvolving compared to his other books, I just couldn't.
Since it was my first Gibson, I didn't have anything to compare it to--that might have had something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't that I actually like advertising. I just find everything behind it bizarrely fascinating. Have you read So Yesterday? I loved that one.
Hi, Leila,
ReplyDeleteI don't know that one. I'll have to look it up. Thanks. :)
As for Gibson, my first was Neuromancer, when it first came out in pb. He set the standard with that one and it's the book he's had to live up to ever since. And I've read pretty much all of them.