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leggendocosebelle's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rwxtd's review
4.0
Gonna be honest, my brain is completely busted from finals and I barely feel like a person right now, plus I listened to most of this as an audiobook, all in one day, over two weeks ago, on 1.75x speed, while playing Minecraft. Finals will do that to you- frankly I'm lucky I managed to finish it at all. So suffice to say I'm gonna keep this short and as simple as I possibly can.
In general, I did like it! There were some plotlines I wasn't a huge fan of- specifically all the stuff with... Christina I think her name was? She said and did some stuff that just kinda really bugged me. Won't go into too much detail because that requires more brainpower than I'm currently capable of (i.e. any amount of brainpower). But I liked most of the other stuff. Gabrielle (Gabriella? I forget) was cool and I liked her a lot. Guy Swift was amusing in the way it is amusing to watch rich assholes fall to pieces. Leela deserves better. These are my takes and this is my review thank you all so much for enjoying I'm going to go take a nap now
In general, I did like it! There were some plotlines I wasn't a huge fan of- specifically all the stuff with... Christina I think her name was? She said and did some stuff that just kinda really bugged me. Won't go into too much detail because that requires more brainpower than I'm currently capable of (i.e. any amount of brainpower). But I liked most of the other stuff. Gabrielle (Gabriella? I forget) was cool and I liked her a lot. Guy Swift was amusing in the way it is amusing to watch rich assholes fall to pieces. Leela deserves better. These are my takes and this is my review thank you all so much for enjoying I'm going to go take a nap now
thisisstephenbetts's review against another edition
4.0
Fast-paced, multi-threaded story, centering around an Indian programmer, and his experiences trying to establish himself in a harsh and competitive employment environment, and the resultant streetcar-out-of-control. Would have liked more on the actual practice of programming, and at least one of the plot-threads seemed a little extraneous. But still, very enjoyable, well written, etc.
tonytharakan's review against another edition
3.0
Hari Kunzru's second novel is the story of Indian programmer Arjun Mehta who loses his dream job in America when the IT bubble bursts. He will do anything to stay in the United States, even if it means creating a computer virus featuring the dancing figure of Leela Zahir, his favorite Bollywood actress. "Transmission" seems to have underwhelmed readers, but I think it's underrated. On the whole, this 2004 novel is a compelling read and not just for geeks. Its biggest flaw - a caricaturish British entrepreneur who gets caught up in the havoc unleashed by Mehta.
walmas's review
5.0
With the waning sovereignty of nation states as more and more people get linked up in global (or, if you prefer, translocal) process of trade, immigration or the interconnection of information technology, new forms of organization - massive, almost beyond our comprehension- are emerging. Kunzru's book, situated across the globe, highlighting the strange interconnections between strangers, speaks to the outlines of these forms, giving them faces, highlighting the connections wrought by IT and the "flow" of transnational capital and challenging the reader to try and understand the world we live in. Yet this is not a multi-sited ethnography of globalization but a work of fiction and for purely literary merit this book shines forth. It was one of those books that I picked up and the sheer brilliance of the writing and the plot, the echos of ideas, the strange connections compelled me to not put it down. The literary aspect of the book means that Kunzru explores subject formation and how deeply personal, cultural beliefs become cosmopolitan as people enter the integrated circuit of global capitalism.
Globalization thus emerges not as an impersonal boogyman, the spread of a calculating rational neoliberalism which reforms the world in its image, but as a more complex interaction between people's identity, the market and the transportation and information structures that define our era. Globalization is articulated in local forms and local forms become central to global processes, the exploited indian programmers are not ruled by the processes of that define their lives but they enter into a dialectical relationship, re-forming and asserting their own agency within this global processes. The book poses many of the best problems of modern theories of globalization- How are individuals agentic in the face of global processes, how does technology redefine who we are and how we interact with the world, what is the role of advertising or the nationstate, what happens when very different cultures and moral systems all are integrated into the same economic system. etc. etc.
This book is well worth the reed, a pleasurable and thought provoking page turner. Its scope and clarity, intellectual rigor and commitment to level switching in the systems that make our currant age speak powerfully beyond the page. His writing is reminiscent of Zadie Smith or Amitav Ghosh in the way it explores identity and global forms. I plan on reading all the other books he has written (My Revolutions, also by him, was similarly amazing though dealing with an entirely different set of intellectual and moral questions about political praxis today).
Globalization thus emerges not as an impersonal boogyman, the spread of a calculating rational neoliberalism which reforms the world in its image, but as a more complex interaction between people's identity, the market and the transportation and information structures that define our era. Globalization is articulated in local forms and local forms become central to global processes, the exploited indian programmers are not ruled by the processes of that define their lives but they enter into a dialectical relationship, re-forming and asserting their own agency within this global processes. The book poses many of the best problems of modern theories of globalization- How are individuals agentic in the face of global processes, how does technology redefine who we are and how we interact with the world, what is the role of advertising or the nationstate, what happens when very different cultures and moral systems all are integrated into the same economic system. etc. etc.
This book is well worth the reed, a pleasurable and thought provoking page turner. Its scope and clarity, intellectual rigor and commitment to level switching in the systems that make our currant age speak powerfully beyond the page. His writing is reminiscent of Zadie Smith or Amitav Ghosh in the way it explores identity and global forms. I plan on reading all the other books he has written (My Revolutions, also by him, was similarly amazing though dealing with an entirely different set of intellectual and moral questions about political praxis today).
thehappybooker's review
4.0
The revenge of the overworked and underappreciated computer drone! It felt so sweet - I knew it was coming, I could see it coming, and BAM! there it was. Revenge, served cold. Loved it.
perskaiciau's review
adventurous
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
paperpix's review
3.0
I found myself quite entertained while reading the first half of the book. You can’t not love Arjun and Mrs Zahir. But Guy on the other hand was so horribly boring. I realise he wasn't meant to be an exciting element but i am sure there are ways to make a character colourful despite the obvious blah-ness. Like many of the other reviewers I found myself skimming through Guy's story because it really wasn't worth the effort. Having said that, I still think it’s a pretty decent book.