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A review by dee9401
Turing's Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldan
2.0
This was a book that mixed high tech hacking, a Latin American country's movement from dictatorship to something akin to democracy (Bolivia is setting), how to deal both personally and nationally with political violence committed by people who are still in power, or at least wield power, and grassroots movements. It's a lot to cover and many writing techniques are deployed to move the story from start to finish.
This book took me forever to get through. This was in part due to my writing and not wanting to get distracted by reading fiction. Turns out, that hurt me. I need to keep reading even when I'm in the midst of heavy writing.
But, it couldn't be just that. I'm not sure if it was me, the translation (original was in Spanish) or the original author's story, but it took forever to get into the book and I didn't feel it really moving until after 200 pages (it's a 291 page book in the hardcover edition I have).
It was an interesting exercise, though, as the author experimented with different techniques. Chapters would switch between first, second and third person point of view. He also used stream of consciousness, narrative, dialogue and internal monologues, keeping consistency within each short chapter.
Time was also something he played with. The beginning of the next chapter would often start before the end of the last, and then "catch up" and surpass it, but always from a different point of view. I found that kind of neat.
One cool quote, towards the end:
"You're delirious."
"We all are. It's just that some people's delirium is less offensive than others."
This book took me forever to get through. This was in part due to my writing and not wanting to get distracted by reading fiction. Turns out, that hurt me. I need to keep reading even when I'm in the midst of heavy writing.
But, it couldn't be just that. I'm not sure if it was me, the translation (original was in Spanish) or the original author's story, but it took forever to get into the book and I didn't feel it really moving until after 200 pages (it's a 291 page book in the hardcover edition I have).
It was an interesting exercise, though, as the author experimented with different techniques. Chapters would switch between first, second and third person point of view. He also used stream of consciousness, narrative, dialogue and internal monologues, keeping consistency within each short chapter.
Time was also something he played with. The beginning of the next chapter would often start before the end of the last, and then "catch up" and surpass it, but always from a different point of view. I found that kind of neat.
One cool quote, towards the end:
"You're delirious."
"We all are. It's just that some people's delirium is less offensive than others."