Jeff Noon’s Nympomation
January 10th, 2005
This was a pretty random choice for me. I was seduced not just by the book’s packaging, but also this description:
The air of Manchester is alive with blurbverts, automated advertisements changing their slogans. But the largest of all is for Domino Bones, the new lottery game….
I’m a sucker for advertising-drenched dystopias, but this book is really a kind of conspiracy novel, moderately experimental in form, about the way information reproduces and the relationship between the virtual and the real.
The game is a randomized lottery, played weekly on a trial basis in Manchester before going national. The book follows a group of people–a precocious pre-teen runaway, a college student, an Indian restaurant owner’s teenaged son, and a college professor and his students who adhere to an occult mathematics–as they delve into the mysteries of the all-consuming game and try to bring it down.
I have to admit that the plot lost me about two-thirds of the way, or maybe I lost some of my initial enthusiasm. The book is not heavy with science, which is good because I don’t like too much science in my Sci-Fi. But it actually errs a bit on the other side, playing a little too loose with details and explaining much at the end, but not enough!
On the positive side, Nympomation full of wit and wordplay and is very satisfying on a structural level. The book is divided into weeks (the game is played on Friday nights) and each section begins with an incantation that builds and builds into a crescendo that evokes, of all things, Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poetry. These bits alone were worth the price of admission for me.
January 10th, 2005 at 3:20 pm
I remember Paul Di Filippo praising Noon in a book review a few years back…for Vurt maybe? Anyway, he’s been on my list for a while and judging by your review I think I’d like it well enough.
Speaking of advertising-drenched dystopias, have you ever read The Savage Girl by Alex Shakar? I think you’d like it.
January 10th, 2005 at 3:31 pm
I’ve been meaning to read that Shakar book for a while. Will have to bump it up my list.
You know, I haven’t even read Vurt. I know that Nymphomation is a sort of prequel to Vurt, so maybe it’s time. Let me know if you pick it up anytime soon and we can be in synch like we were last year. :)
January 10th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
a sucker for advertising-drenched dystopias
Have you read Jennifer Government by Max Berry? Another book I read, Scorch by A.D. Nauman actually fits the bill better– but I didn’t like it quite as much. And I know I’m alone for liking this book as much as I do, but William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition also falls into this category, maybe.
January 10th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
Stop! Stop! Everybody stop recommending books I haven’t read!!!
J/k. Why are you alone in liking Pattern Recognition? It got pretty good reviews. Of course, I didn’t read it because apparently I have a hard time reading books by authors who are still alive.
January 10th, 2005 at 9:26 pm
Ooh, good call, Carol! Jennifer Government is a fun read. Haven’t heard about Scorch but I liked Pattern Recognition quite a bit - it’s on my list of top books read in 2004.
And since you’re begging for more books, LTR :) …another book dealing with advertising and marketing that I liked a lot is John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead.
January 10th, 2005 at 10:02 pm
You know, I can only read 100 books a year. Be reasonable, people!
I’ve read some of Whitehead’s non-fiction but none of his novels. Looks like good stuff.
January 10th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
Read Whitehead’s The Intuitionist a few years ago and liked it a lot. John Henry Days is on my list… somewhere…
I’m not sure why I thought a lot of people didn’t like Pattern Recognition since, you’re right LTR, a quick google shows a lot of favorable reviews. Maybe because the one other person I knew who’d read it wasn’t a fan… But now there’s a 50/50 split!
January 11th, 2005 at 1:08 am
I never got the whole Pattern Recognition thing… just didn’t need to represent data in that unpractical (for me) way. As far as things no one has read: how about the fun novels of David Prill? Certainly The Unnatural, about an up-n-coming embalmer (think Malamud’s novel) or Second Coming Attractions about a hack Christian filmmaker are both worth rediscovery
January 11th, 2005 at 8:18 am
I’ve heard of David Prill. The Unnatural sounds right up my alley. It’s one of those books in the back of my mind when I’m browsing used bookstores.
January 11th, 2005 at 10:15 am
I think Di Filippo also talked up Prill in a past books column; his stuff sounds interesting.
And The Intuitionist is also very good, as Carol says. It would be nice to get a new Whitehead novel this year…