Kapitoil

I appreciate that the author didn't make this a typical story where you're meant to laugh at the person coming to another country and learning about it. There was sympathy and it was lovely and still funny and moving. But. The last line of the book seems to have turned everything backward, and I don't know what to make of it as it doesn't seem fit with the rest of the mood. It could either be brutally realistic and not giving me a happy ending, or... something else, I guess, but in my mind that's a very unhappy ending that undoes all the discovery the character had and reduces it to nothing more than a dream-like experience, soon to be forgotten.

Before you read Kapitoil, you should be aware of an earlier book that Teddy Wayne must surely have used as a point of inspiration: Montesquieu's The Persian Letters (1721). Montesquieu's novel consists of a series of letters written by two Persian noblemen, Usbek and Rica, who leave their home country in order to visit Paris. In satirical detail, the letters describe the paradoxes and irrational customs of French society.

Kapitoil tells the story of Karim Issar, a computer programmer from Qatar who is hired by a company in New York City to help deal with the Y2K bug. He arrives there in October 1999, a time that pointedly pre-dates both the new millennium and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Karim Issar works with a team show more consisting of Jefferson (who is obsessed with Japanese culture), Dan, and Rebecca Goldman. We also learn that Karim has ambitions for his younger sister, Zahira, since their mother died while giving birth to her.

In his spare time, Karim develops a computer program that trades on futures so successfully that he is able to generate potentially large profits with it. Eventually this program, Kapitoil, comes to the attention of Derek Schrub, the owner of the company for which Karim works. After further testing, Schrub tries to ingratiate himself with Karim to get him to sign over the program's code, but Karim resists. In the meantime, Karim becomes close to Rebecca, and they eventually start a relationship.

Teddy Wayne is a master of writing in a deceptively simple style, one that builds its complexity by weaving a pattern of resonances and echoes to what has been said before. In both this novel and his later work, Loner (2016), he places a male character who seems emotionally flat, almost robotic. Whereas David Federman in Loner belongs in the American Psycho mould, Karim is a character to which the reader gradually warms. He is rational and pedantic, but he also lives by a clear ethical code that shows up the alienating selfishness of American pragmatism and transactional relationships.

I came very close to giving Kapitoil five stars, but it falls just short in one way. Whereas Loner uses the prism of a single character, David, to make its diagnosis of a toxic masculinity, the (admittedly minor) fault with Kapitoil is that the goodness of the main character, Karim, does not extend from the individual into the particular. Yes, he is an unexpectedly good character, and he does show up the problems of the American system, but Karim can hardly be a blueprint for future behavior. That said, Kapitoil was a truly engaging and enjoyable read, and I like forward to catching up next on Wayne's The Love Song of Jonny Valentine. show less

In Teddy Wayne's KAPITOIL, a young emigrant of Qatar, Karim, flies to New York City to work for Schrub Equities, a prominent banking firm. Karim, a genius of mathematics, economics and computer science, has been hired to help reprogram the company's computers to deal with the Y2K transition in five months' time. At Schrub Equities he's assigned to a group of young colleagues including Rebecca Goldman, a recent college graduate who dreams of being a history teacher.

Karim finds acclimating to U.S. culture troublesome, as language barriers and unfamiliar social norms get in his way. He also has trouble keeping up contact with his father and sister Zahira, a prodigy of the science world, at home in Qatar. Bored by his job, Karim spends some show more free time researching oil trends, and realizes that he can create a program to predict fluctuations in oil prices based on events in the Middle East. Whoever uses the program to predict oil prices can make huge profits, as long as no one else becomes aware of its existence. He creates the program, titling it Kapitoil, and brings it to the attention of his boss, who quickly decides to give it a trial run. After fixing some initial errors, Karim is able to make Kapitoil run smoothly and make big gains for Schrub Equities. In no time at all, he's brought to the attention of the president, Mr. Schrub, who gives Karim a payraise and promotion and begins personally grooming him for a leadership position in the company.

As Karim's standing in the workplace rises, his social standing does as well. He gets a taste of the lifestyle of the wealthy, attending a World Series game with Mr. Schrub and flying out by helicopter to Greenwich, Conneticut for a weekend with the Schrubs at their luxurious home. Meanwhile, his relationship with Rebecca deepens from friendship to romance. But conflict with his father over the best course of Zahira's education (for which Karim is partially paying) weighs on his mind, and some uneasy exchanges with Mr. Schrub cause him to wonder whether his boss is trying to swindle him out of ownership of Kapitoil. When Karim realizes that he might be able to apply the program to fluctuating disease patterns in Third World countries, making it potentially invaluable to the medical community, he must make the choice between unveiling his idea to the public (thereby negating Kapitoil's advantage in the financial market) or protecting the program and his position at Schrub Equities.

Told from Karim's point of view, KAPITOIL is a fascinating look inside the head of a mathematical genius struggling to adapt to a culture a world apart from the one in which he grew up. Given the timeframe of the book (beginning five months prior to the start of the new millenium) and the ethnic background of the protagonist, KAPITOIL could have been a mouthpiece for thoughts on September 11th, but instead author Wayne chooses to tell the unrelated story of a young Middle Easterner who, significantly, doesn't like being boxed in by Americans' expectations of him. Filled with mechanical and clinical verbs that become awkward on occasion, the unique narration nonetheless manages to relate the humanity and humor of its protagonist. Karim, with his mathematical view of the world and awkward attempts at American jokes, is a quirky and lovable character. Wayne deftly weaves in themes of alienation and moral decline, complex familial and romantic relationships, and an ethical dilemma for Karim to deal with in this entertaining first novel. show less

I burned through this in a day - not because I wanted to or was bored or anything like that... but it just zipped by without me even noticing. It's a simple joy of a book: intelligent, well-written, funny, moving, and ultimately just a simple novel. Sometimes we need that. It doesn't try to do anything more than be a simple novel of a time before we are the way we are now... and as a result, it makes you reflect, just for a moment, on just that: the way we are now. Mr. Wayne is a talent to watch and I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I really enjoyed reading this book.

More thoughts on the content at RB: http://wp.me/sGVzJ-kapitoil

If you read this book, read it for the tone. Wayne's first person narrator is funny, unlikely and credible. I imagine you have to be a bit of a nerd or at least be interested in language to enjoy this, though. I am.

The weakness is the plot. It has different incompatible and often formulaic elements. The ending is weak and does not follow naturally. Yet Wayne can write. I am anxious to read what he writes next.

Extremely compelling narrative voice that never breaks character. This is more cute than funny, though. More morally idealistic than subversive. A lot of cute romance. Nicely captures culture clash through well-drawn characters and situations. Fun exploration of the English language and how foreigners seem to speak and understand it better than Americans do.

Wow. I loved this book because the character and voice of Karim are pitch-perfect. And Wayne nailed the ending. I'm very, very impressed, and I will definitely be looking for anything Wayne writes in the future.