Jack Womack

The trouble with reading dystopian fiction all the time is that bad dystopias are annoying, good dystopias are depressing, and excellent dystopias are devastating. This is the third kind. ‘Random Acts of Senseless Violence’ tells the story of America’s implosion in the brilliantly immediate format of a tweenager’s diary. The writer is plunged straight into the life of Lola, a twelve year old girl living with her parents and younger sister in New York. The way that total social show more breakdown plays out in the background of her daily doings is nothing short of brilliant. The world-building through teenage slang is cleverly done and has aged well. The language unerringly walks the line between otherness and comprehensibility; the pacing is relentless and absolutely compelling.

Even though I wanted to read something more cheering, I could not put this novel down. A major part of this was emotional investment in Lola, who is a heart-breaking and unforgettable character. It's genuinely distressing to be periodically reminded that she and her friends are only twelve. She is old before her time, clear-eyed and pragmatic. When her parents try to reassure her that everything is going to be fine, she knows immediately that they’re lying and it isn’t. Indeed, she feels a strong sense of responsibility and protectiveness towards her parents and sister. Yet she is also preoccupied with school work and friendships.

I won’t spoil the events of the book, merely comment that they are told in an unusually vivid fashion. First person narration is challenging to get right, but when done well it can be uniquely involving. (Examples from my favourite novels shelf include [b:The Kindly Ones|3755250|The Kindly Ones|Jonathan Littell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347999215s/3755250.jpg|2916549] and [b:The Goldfinch|17333223|The Goldfinch|Donna Tartt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451554970s/17333223.jpg|24065147].) Political instability, economic collapse, and the escalation of violence are recounted subtly, woven into the fabric of Lola’s daily life. The narrative has a level of emotional conviction that lends it disturbing plausibility. That said, a few years ago I wouldn’t have considered this scenario of total social implosion in the US at all likely to occur. Yet here we are.

The significance of the title is that the book shows why senseless violence is not random. Violence is systemic and its apparent senselessness conceals personal and social causes. I am incredibly impressed with the nuanced analysis of social breakdown that is concealed in the format of a twelve year old’s diary, somehow without Lola becoming a precocious caricature. I won’t soon forget this novel or its narrator. Pity about the lurid cover design, though. show less

This book encapsulates the transition from running an "honest" business under corrupt communism to running an "honest" business under a corrupt post-Soviet gangster oligarchy. Although the events of the book take place over just a few months, they describe the rise of the gangster class that birthed Putin. Like all good satire, the utter absurdity of it reveals a lot of truths.

Max is a wealthy businessman. He runs a document forgery business - an essential service in Russia's bureaucratic show more system. He is happily married, although the relationship with his wife is tense. He also has a young mistress, who is married to another businessman. His mistress's husband hires him for a huge forgery project to cover up his past involvement in a scandal (his company took government money to build a railroad, pocketed the money, never built the railroad, and pretended it had been built) so that he can impress potential partners in a new business venture. Max finds himself drawn into this new business venture against his wishes, and has to risk his life dealing with gangsters.

The author is not Russian, and in some ways this is very obvious (for instance, he sticks to the same nickname for each character throughout the whole book, which makes it so much easier for non-Russians to read), but it also seems to perfectly capture Russian black humor and twisted relationship with reality.

This is an engaging thriller. It can be gory (you can't really write about Russian gangsters without a torture scene or too). The humor is rarely in the form of outright jokes (except for the scenes where Max's brother is planning a theme park called Sovietland that will allow American tourists to enjoy the full Soviet experience, including secret police interrogations and the gulag), but instead relies on the normalization of utterly ridiculous situations (going to a sauna, getting drunk on vodka because there's no socially acceptable way to not drink as much as the naked gangster next to you, then just casually walking away after someone comes in and shoots everyone in the sauna). Everything in the book is totally over-the-top without ever feeling totally implausible. show less

Following the trend so easy to see for all of us who lived through the early 1990's, this book takes everything we experienced and amped it up to a fever pitch.

Womack takes all the increasing poverty, the general decline across the board, the massive riots, unrest and all the various drugs making it into every home (including prescription abuse), and tops it with violence on a very scary and down-to-earth scale.

It works so well here in this novel. The gentle diary of a 12-year-old girl in a show more money-troubled middle-class house slides step by step into chaos. It's so easy to get lost in her everyday concerns, but just like the proverbial frog in the stovepot, it's a cinch to get boiled in the end. :)

From being hounded by true asshole collectors, to moving to a rougher neighborhood, to being ostracized by her old friends, to getting involved in street gangs, this is one hell of a frightening tale. It's just normal life. Twisted inexorably to a dark fate.

And this isn't some novel about one single example. The whole world is going to shit. The riots continue much farther than what we saw. Presidents were mauled by angry mobs. Poverty is rampant everywhere.

The slide is not so quick that people don't TRY to hold it all together. But the slide happens despite everything and this made the book one hell of a horrific read. There's no way out. Anywhere.

Goodbye, normalcy. This SF is a supremely understated sociological SF that instead relies on great characters with great personalities driven into ever-increasing bad circumstances. As an idea novel, it's pretty damn brilliant, but as a dark realistic horror, it's even better.

Very worth the read. Scary. show less

Brilliant! Ambient is a 1987 (publication date) update of A Clockwork Orange with some additional ultraviolence and a new language thrown in. The author even pays tribute to A Clockwork Orange early in the book.

In this book, we follow O'Malley, a bodyguard for a dysfunctional CEO of a major company in a 21st century dystopian New York City. Avalon is Mister Dryden, his boss's, mistress/concubine. She's very young and very hot and has a thing for wigs. And O'Malley is in love with show more her.

O'Malley has another side to him. His sister is an "ambient," or a genetically modified mutant living amongst each other who have their own language-within-a-language and who tend to be pretty violent. But hey, everyone in this book is violent. Rapes, muggings, murders, etc., are commonly seen and passed on by. O'Malley lives with Enid, his sister, in a run down nightmare of a place where no sane non-ambient would go. He's accepted there because of her. Oh, and in addition to naturally occurring mutants, there are those who wish to join them and become ambients. Enid is one of these. She's 6'3" tall and has spikes sticking out of her head, pointed sides out. She's also had her breasts cut off. She has a girlfriend who's a psychopathic midget. Normal, right?

The army is fighting another army on Long Island and boys are being chewed up left and right. It's your duty to serve, unless you can get a sweet gig like O'Malley has. The army boys are always shooting at people, into crowds, on buses and trains, raping girls in the streets -- they're insane.

Meanwhile, Mister Dryden's father, who worships Elvis, owns the corporation and seems to be wanting to re-take control of what he's given his son. He views his son as unstable. His son views him as unstable. Something's got to give, right? Well, Mister Dryden convinces O'Malley to put a bomb under his father's desk next time they're visiting his estate, so he does. And he and Avalon finally hook up. Mister Dryden tells O'Malley he'll have to get out of the country for awhile until the coast is clear, so he makes plans to do so. He and Avalon decide to go together, so after the bomb is set, they take off. And encounter some problems. People are out to get them. But why? Turns out Avalon knew about the plan, knew where the bomb was and went into the office and changed the time for it to go off when both Mister Dryden AND his father would be in there. However, they don't know if it went off, or if it did, if the men were in there. So, they don't know if there's a manhunt on for them or not. And apparently there is.

O'Malley takes Avalon to his place in the Ambient part of town to hide out. The next morning, there's a car outside, waiting. So they take off. And a chase ensues. They wind up down in the subway tunnels and come across a religious service the ambients are having, who do not like being interrupted. Just as they're about to be killed, Enid intervenes and saves their hides. She and her girlfriend then take them through the sewers to a safe house. Tired, they fall asleep. When O'Malley wakes, he finds Avalon gone with a left for him note saying, "You're next." He's both frightened and livid. He figures Mister Dryden has done it, so he goes after him. Then he goes after his father. He's introduced to Alice, a monster computer that knows just about everything and is reunited with Avalon, who appears to have betrayed him to Mister Dryden's father. He can't believe it. And then ... what? Do you actually think I'm going to tell you the ending? No way! It's a great book and you'll have to get it and read it and find out for yourself what happens. Apparently, this book is part of a series, perhaps the first one. If so, I want the others. It's kind of cyberpunk, but not really. It's kind of sci fi, but more just dystopian, so if you want to classify that as sci fi, have at it. It was a hard book to read because of all of the violence, and I've seen and read more than my fair share. At some times, it felt like a nightmare. I was honestly glad when it was over and I had finished. But I loved it. It was really original and really awesome. The characters were great, the plot was great, the dialogue was insane. Good stuff. Five stars. Strongly recommended, if you can stomach it. show less