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"That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed in profit."
Things We Didn't See Coming
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Things We Didn't See Coming
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1 journaler for this copy...
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The Age book of the year 2009.Andrew Doyle: Review 9/10 stars “... Amsterdam, like Atwood, opens in our contemporary world – in this case, fear over the millennium bug – situating it comfortably in our common cultural memory. As a young boy, the unnamed narrator struggles to work out which parent to identify with: his weary mother or his slightly paranoid father. This section ends in a freezing wooded landscape. The storytelling throughout runs in fits and starts, each story or section jumping ahead an unspecified amount of time. Each fits in with the next, but they aren’t necessarily linked. These are snapshots of the most important and relevant parts of the narrator’s life, without the boring bits. The worlds Amsterdam creates are not dissimilar to our own: disaster relief, batteries and abandoned mansions are central ideas and images for his characters. The government isn’t ineffectual, either; rather, it’s coping as best it can with the dramas of this new environment. A pleasing change from the tired “every man is an animal” and “governments suck!” of most crazed right-wing doomsday sagas. Amsterdam seems to be saying that even though our attempts to change the world are hopeless, it is heartless not to try. What does this doomed world look like? Not unlike our own. It’s twisted by the environment: at one time it doesn’t stop raining, and another time it’s buffeted by winds. Thankfully Amsterdam doesn’t explain what has happened, leaving the reader to guess. (There are few things worse than several pages of expository writing, complete with authorial finger-pointing.) These disintegrating visions aren’t about people dying, but how people cope with a death that belies the happy promise of modern society. The central idea of the book, though, is family and identity. Amsterdam’s protagonist engages in numerous acts of theft and destruction to try to work out who he is. Invented or stolen identities are the masks he wears to try to fit in. His father’s presence hangs over the book, forcing him to choose what sort of person he is. He plays well off his love interest; she revels in the shape-shifting aspect these brave new worlds offer people. Above all, Amsterdam creates real worlds and real people. None of the characters or scenarios seem too far-fetched, nor do they lack human emotion. Towards the end of the book, the protagonist’s final decision about his identity seems true and real. If this is what Amsterdam hopes the end of the world to be, I can’t wait.” |
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