How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, by Mohsin Hamid
and
Sleep Donation*, by Karen Russell
*My apologies up front for Karen Russell's freaky cover art giant eyeball, which makes me think of nothing but pinkeye and torn contact lenses.
Too much build up?
Part of my disappointment with both of these books likely stems from how excited I was to start both of them.
I loved Karen Russell's Swamplandia, and a couple years ago I heard her in a panel conversation with Junot Diaz (so much awesome) at Symphony Space, after actors read a couple of their terrific short stories. She was so sweetly awkward and mega-genius brilliant that I developed an instant author crush.
And - a book about an insomnia epidemic and sleep donation vans that collect the slumber of healthy individuals like platelets in a blood drive? That's gross, and Stephen King-esque, and fascinating. I bought Sleep Donation as soon as it was available.
My excitement for Filthy Rich was largely because of the unconventional premise touted in book reviews. The novel is written in the second person and is styled as sort of a self help parody. I've read about rising Asia in Aravind Adiga's Last Man in Tower and The White Tiger, in so many Salman Rushdie books, and in Katherine Boo's gorgeous Behind the Beautiful Forevers - but none of these perspectives were at all similar to Hamid's chosen structure.
So when both of these fell flat, it was a bummer big enough for me to blog about.
The Plots: First a Sizzle, Then a Snooze
Within the confines of its self-help book premise, Filthy Rich tells the story of one nameless man, "You", from cradle to grave, as he makes and loses money in a nameless city full of hustlers and crooks. Each chapter is a "How To" corresponding to the protagonist's life: Move to the City. Get an Education. Don't Fall in Love. Be Prepared to Use Violence. And so on.
But despite the twist of the second person convention and a few amusing quips early on about the self help genre, the plot and substance of the book feel tired and old. The characters are a bit cartoonish, and their comings and goings and successes and tragedies feel abstract rather than engaging.
Perhaps I don't also just don't like the Filthy Rich swindler setting, and I need to be more forgiving because of cultural reasons or because such booming growth amidst staggering poverty shouldn't be oversimplified. Still, the initial noteworthiness of Hamid's stylistic choices wore off fast.
Sleep Donation too starts off with an intriguing plot. You're immediately catapaulted into a Stephen King-style dystopia where, for unexplained reasons (could it be, all these electronic devices?!) a subset of the population has insomnia. The protagonist, Trish, has joined an organization run by two rich, sleazy brothers, tasked with recruiting healthy individuals to donate their pure shuteye to the less fortunate.
Trish has lost her sister Dori to the insomnia epidemic, after Dori spent some 20-odd days without any sleep, and went into organ failure. (I know what you're wondering. Did Dori work for the bankruptcy department at my law firm?) Trish uses Dori's tearful story as a recruitment device, and gets the Big Catch: a universal donor referred to as Baby A, the only individual whose unique blend of sleep is accepted by all sufferers.
Ok, that all sounds pretty good on paper, but Trish is nowhere near as wonderful a narrator to spend time with as Swamplandia!'s thirteen-year-old alligator-wrestling Ava Bigtree. The big plot question, mainly what she'll do about her organization's less-than-savory business tactics in relation to Baby A and her family, wasn't really enough to keep me awake.
Bottom Line
Ultimately, what Hamid really needs is for you to care about his Everyman, as he runs around trying to sell possibly contaminated bottled water and bribe politicians. He throws a wife and a son into the mix to get you to care about our hero, as well as a similarly motivated social climbing lover who appears throughout as a female foil. Somehow, though, I never began to care about the "You" in the story, or his lover, or his family, or his business.
Russell's book suffers from a similar problem. Trish is grieving and lonely and trying to adjust her do-gooder idealism to the reality of her creepy organization and the surrounding world crisis. Unfortunately, the vibrant human relationships that make novels great and interesting are markedly absent from the story. A sci-fi premise and a tragic past (and present) are not enough to make the novella a worth-while read.
Next time: I'll hopefully find something I like better!
Too much build up?
Part of my disappointment with both of these books likely stems from how excited I was to start both of them.
I loved Karen Russell's Swamplandia, and a couple years ago I heard her in a panel conversation with Junot Diaz (so much awesome) at Symphony Space, after actors read a couple of their terrific short stories. She was so sweetly awkward and mega-genius brilliant that I developed an instant author crush.
And - a book about an insomnia epidemic and sleep donation vans that collect the slumber of healthy individuals like platelets in a blood drive? That's gross, and Stephen King-esque, and fascinating. I bought Sleep Donation as soon as it was available.
My excitement for Filthy Rich was largely because of the unconventional premise touted in book reviews. The novel is written in the second person and is styled as sort of a self help parody. I've read about rising Asia in Aravind Adiga's Last Man in Tower and The White Tiger, in so many Salman Rushdie books, and in Katherine Boo's gorgeous Behind the Beautiful Forevers - but none of these perspectives were at all similar to Hamid's chosen structure.
So when both of these fell flat, it was a bummer big enough for me to blog about.
The Plots: First a Sizzle, Then a Snooze
Within the confines of its self-help book premise, Filthy Rich tells the story of one nameless man, "You", from cradle to grave, as he makes and loses money in a nameless city full of hustlers and crooks. Each chapter is a "How To" corresponding to the protagonist's life: Move to the City. Get an Education. Don't Fall in Love. Be Prepared to Use Violence. And so on.
But despite the twist of the second person convention and a few amusing quips early on about the self help genre, the plot and substance of the book feel tired and old. The characters are a bit cartoonish, and their comings and goings and successes and tragedies feel abstract rather than engaging.
Perhaps I don't also just don't like the Filthy Rich swindler setting, and I need to be more forgiving because of cultural reasons or because such booming growth amidst staggering poverty shouldn't be oversimplified. Still, the initial noteworthiness of Hamid's stylistic choices wore off fast.
Sleep Donation too starts off with an intriguing plot. You're immediately catapaulted into a Stephen King-style dystopia where, for unexplained reasons (could it be, all these electronic devices?!) a subset of the population has insomnia. The protagonist, Trish, has joined an organization run by two rich, sleazy brothers, tasked with recruiting healthy individuals to donate their pure shuteye to the less fortunate.
Trish has lost her sister Dori to the insomnia epidemic, after Dori spent some 20-odd days without any sleep, and went into organ failure. (I know what you're wondering. Did Dori work for the bankruptcy department at my law firm?) Trish uses Dori's tearful story as a recruitment device, and gets the Big Catch: a universal donor referred to as Baby A, the only individual whose unique blend of sleep is accepted by all sufferers.
Ok, that all sounds pretty good on paper, but Trish is nowhere near as wonderful a narrator to spend time with as Swamplandia!'s thirteen-year-old alligator-wrestling Ava Bigtree. The big plot question, mainly what she'll do about her organization's less-than-savory business tactics in relation to Baby A and her family, wasn't really enough to keep me awake.
Bottom Line
Ultimately, what Hamid really needs is for you to care about his Everyman, as he runs around trying to sell possibly contaminated bottled water and bribe politicians. He throws a wife and a son into the mix to get you to care about our hero, as well as a similarly motivated social climbing lover who appears throughout as a female foil. Somehow, though, I never began to care about the "You" in the story, or his lover, or his family, or his business.
Russell's book suffers from a similar problem. Trish is grieving and lonely and trying to adjust her do-gooder idealism to the reality of her creepy organization and the surrounding world crisis. Unfortunately, the vibrant human relationships that make novels great and interesting are markedly absent from the story. A sci-fi premise and a tragic past (and present) are not enough to make the novella a worth-while read.
Next time: I'll hopefully find something I like better!
It's too bad that Sleep Donation didn't deliver, because it sounds fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI wanted so, so badly to love it - she is so smart and talented and I love her writing. I read a couple of her short stories in "Vampires in the Lemon Grove," and goodness is she wonderful. But, you can't write a novella called "Sleep Donation" that lulls me into a nap! ;)
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