Gave up reading this one. I generally dislike dystopian stories, and this one didn't give me a single character to like/root for. So I've shelved it for the time being. ( )

There was a lot to like in this story, particularly the naïve narrator and the fashion. Oh, the fashion.

However, the story itself seemed a tad ham-handed and the highly imaginative world just didn't ring true for me. It wasn't quite alien enough to be another civilization or alternate universe, but I just couldn't ever see a way for human beings to end up like this.

A fun read, but that's all. ( )

This book was definitely not what I expected. I was expecting something with a more serious tone, but instead I found it to be quite bizarre. There was a glimmer of an interesting story in there somewhere, but the insane characters populating the story kept trampling over that glimmer and spitting on it with disdain.

The book started off ok. The main character, Michael, was somewhat likeable and his girlfriend Nora seemed interesting. But, as soon as other characters started entering the picture, things got really weird. Michael’s father had a tendency to start randomly singing and dancing mid-conversation and doing “pelvis thrusts”. Nearly everybody was obsessed with outrageous fashion trends and songs with violent, nasty lyrics. And most of the characters spoke as if their brain hadn’t developed past that of a five-year-old. They used an adult’s vocabulary, not to mention plenty of vulgarity and adult themes, but their actual attitude and their way of expressing themselves was that of young children.

A story about self-absorbed people with weird interests and messed-up priorities could have been interesting to me, but the characters were just so over-the-top that I couldn’t take the story seriously. I also felt like this was practically a romance novel disguised as science fiction. Michael is constantly obsessing over Nora. He’s crazy about her even though they’ve only had four dates, all of which were conducted on camera for public viewing. This book has some unique (if not to my tastes) world building and there was a bit of a mystery in there regarding who was responsible for the incident that occurred at the beginning of the book. There was also an unexpected (and rather disturbing) twist toward the end. However, despite the fact that the book had some different elements to it, it mostly just felt like a romance novel because Michael was so obsessed with Nora that his determination to be with her overshadowed anything else that was going on.

Despite the fact that I didn’t care for the book, I did finish it within a reasonable time frame so I guess somehow it held my interest. But I was definitely rolling my eyes a lot, especially when I got to the final sentence in the book. ( )

Michael Chabon blurbed, but I didn’t like this theater-of-the-absurd if-this-goes-on YA-ish story about Michael Rivers, teenaged scion of one of the privileged corporate overlords who also happens to be a buffoonish sex-and-violence-crazed lout who’s constantly being filmed for a 500-hour documentary of his life. When Michael falls in love with the daughter of a corporate rival, his calm grey life (adopted in rebellion to his father’s color, but also in conformity with a privileged style that depends on massive amounts of resources) turns into Romeo-and-Juliet melodrama. The first sentence probably tells you whether you’d like it: “Nora and I finished our fried whale and plum sandwiches, our cream coffees, and the cocoa and coca pastries, and sat in a comfortable silence as the landscapes of buildings and millions of well-wishers whirred past the windows at six hundred kilometers per hour.” ( )

Grey by Jon Armstrong is a Romeo and Juliet tale set in a hypersensitive, almost synesthetic world. The story is “sensual” in the most literal meaning of the word. Colors, tastes, textures and smells are all described in great detail and juxtaposed in discordant manners. It’s a technicolor phantasmagoria.

Michael and Nora are initially brought together in the hopes of merging the companies of their families. The attempted murder of 19 year old Michael results in the cancellation of the marriage under the belief that Nora’s family was behind the attempt. However, Michael still loves Nora and evades his father’s maneuverings for new matches. Just like the classic tale, Michael and Nora form a suicide pact to be together “in the end.” As part of his demise, Michael plans on also killing his father with his explosive nitrocellulose suit. The author brings the story to a satisfying conclusion in the epilogue.

Throughout the story are continual references to various fashion magazines by which characters live their lives and are identified. Michael and Nora both live for “Pure H.” From descriptions of the layouts and advertisements, this would be similar to a very dark (almost sadistic) version of GQ or Vogue. All of the fashion is neutral and based on shades of grey. Michael is so devoted that he had a surgical procedure to destroy all of the color sensing cones in one eye so that it can only perceive gray tones.

The book also speaks to the insanity of today’s celebrity glorification and commercialization. Every detail of the Michael’s life is broadcast and used to benefit the family business. The portrayal of the media is a caricature of what we might consider to be the worst examples of journalism.

I found Armstrong’s writing to be both unsettling and appealing at the same time. The richness of language overlays the dark subject matter. The reader wants to look away, but can’t. A word of warning that this story is not for the squeamish. It is both violent and gruesome. The Ultra (both a sub-culture and music style that makes punk-rock seem like NPR) performance by Aluminum Anus during the RiverGroup product launch is simply revolting.

This was so different from anything else I’ve read recently that I’m looking forward to investigating Armstrong further in his second novel, Yarn. ( )