Walkaway

I picked this up on a whim from the new shelf at the library. I enjoy reading Doctorow's brand of tech-focused near-futurism, even if I don't think they're that /good/. (Although: where are they here on Ex Libris Kirkland? I don't seem to have recorded any but I know I've read several.) Anyway, a novelization of the last few years of boingboing.net posts, extrapolated out 50 years, is pretty fun, if only for the ideas.

But this one was ... better than I expected! Despite some structural weaknesses, it was actually enjoyable to read. But a few things that bugged me:

- This book has no shape to it that I can discern. Stuff just happens but it doesn't feel like a plot

- Anytime a main character gets separated from the group, you can assume there is some trauma coming. This happened so often I wonder how intentional it is, or what Doctorow is trying to say.

- CD has this habit of learning new words or phrases and using them too frequently. A good example is 'flumpfed' - a word he uses when someone flops down into a chair or bed. Flop mostly would have done as well, but he started using it 2/3s of the way through the book, and then characters 'flumpf' there way thru the last 1/3. It's not like this is a diagetic sound or word - it's not like a future word that the characters use. It's just something the narrator picked up.

Noted on July 7, 2017