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3.05 AVERAGE
3.05 AVERAGE
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is not for cowards or babies. It is sometimes hard to read, and not always rewarding to read. But if you stick with it, you may (i'll give it a 25% chance based on my sample) end up loving it. I think it's one of the best books of the last 20 years, and I've read at least 10 books published in that timespan.
Read tbrnichols' review far below for a proper analysis, and read the short story My Camp for Joshua Cohen for a proper taste of his writing.
Read tbrnichols' review far below for a proper analysis, and read the short story My Camp for Joshua Cohen for a proper taste of his writing.
challenging
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I made it 400 pages. I started out loving it but as I went on it became more and more grating. At this point I no longer give a fuck and want to read something else. 3 stars is about right for it.
Six hundred pages of emotionally dead but technically clever "intellectual" writing. Somehow I slogged through every bit of it. My two star rating is in praise of its cleverness, but it's the gold star for effort or pity bj of book reviews, I did not enjoy this novel save an occasional chuckle. Extremely disappointing, I read this after loving Cohen's The Netanyahus. But Book of Numbers is as cold and soulless as the title suggests.
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A little too formalistic for what I'm looking for in a book right now. I can see the merit and the writing is good, just not clicking for me at the moment.
A book which deserves a chance for those who are interested in the 'genre' of (post-)postmodernism.
j was able to read about 1/3 of this book before stepping away. the narrative voice didn't flow at all for me, it seemed disjointed and distracted.
A book in 3 movements.
First it's all fractured narrative as unlucky novelist Joshua Cohen (his debut novel published on the day the Twin Towers fall) leads a peripatetic meander through his lifes and loves and the securing of a commission to biographise Tech king Joshua Cohen (no relation) who is modelled on Steve Jobs, Wozniack et al. This meander has some sumptuous writing in parts, with very serrated images and neologisms a plenty.
Second movement is the biographical tale of Joshua Cohen (tech not artist) which flows with the fuel of late night coding sessions on plenty of coffee and glucose. The quality wirting is still there, but I found this section a bit leaden because its narrative was basically a linear one trotting through Cohen (tech)'s life. There's lots of tech stuff here, some of which i could plug into (a Wikileaks Assange character for example), but the main antagonist an Indian developer and partner (developmental not amorous) called Moe left me a bit uninvolved tbh. The straight up and down nature of the plot here in trad biographical style, even if the writing style was still fractured and the personal history revealed being anything but trad, jarred against the more experimental style of the writing itself.
Third movement was one of drift, where Cohen (artist) had finished the writing ahead of time but seems unable and unwilling to deliver it so that a forfeit of it going to Wikileaks shadow looms large. And Cohen isn't getting paid and mooches around the Frankfurt Book Fair. This was a return to form of the First Movement, though in its drift perhaps even more fractured than what came before, though I wouldn't say this injecting any more pace. It was a slow drift into decay and stasis.
So much for me to enjoy, but was it a coherent whole? Probably not. I don't mind that, but others will.
The book was nominated for a "Bad sex in literature" award which was utterly ridiculous since it's the only sex in the book, is no more than 6 lines and utterly befits all that preceded stylistically. Anyway, Morrissey won the award which is good, cos I hate him. I like Joshua Cohen though (artist, not tech).
First it's all fractured narrative as unlucky novelist Joshua Cohen (his debut novel published on the day the Twin Towers fall) leads a peripatetic meander through his lifes and loves and the securing of a commission to biographise Tech king Joshua Cohen (no relation) who is modelled on Steve Jobs, Wozniack et al. This meander has some sumptuous writing in parts, with very serrated images and neologisms a plenty.
Second movement is the biographical tale of Joshua Cohen (tech not artist) which flows with the fuel of late night coding sessions on plenty of coffee and glucose. The quality wirting is still there, but I found this section a bit leaden because its narrative was basically a linear one trotting through Cohen (tech)'s life. There's lots of tech stuff here, some of which i could plug into (a Wikileaks Assange character for example), but the main antagonist an Indian developer and partner (developmental not amorous) called Moe left me a bit uninvolved tbh. The straight up and down nature of the plot here in trad biographical style, even if the writing style was still fractured and the personal history revealed being anything but trad, jarred against the more experimental style of the writing itself.
Third movement was one of drift, where Cohen (artist) had finished the writing ahead of time but seems unable and unwilling to deliver it so that a forfeit of it going to Wikileaks shadow looms large. And Cohen isn't getting paid and mooches around the Frankfurt Book Fair. This was a return to form of the First Movement, though in its drift perhaps even more fractured than what came before, though I wouldn't say this injecting any more pace. It was a slow drift into decay and stasis.
So much for me to enjoy, but was it a coherent whole? Probably not. I don't mind that, but others will.
The book was nominated for a "Bad sex in literature" award which was utterly ridiculous since it's the only sex in the book, is no more than 6 lines and utterly befits all that preceded stylistically. Anyway, Morrissey won the award which is good, cos I hate him. I like Joshua Cohen though (artist, not tech).
As you'll sense from others here, this is not an easy book to read. But it is ultimately a rewarding story about identity and meaning, and about the ultramodern commingling of truth and fiction. Ultimately, I found it an incredibly sad story wittily told. This one's going to stick with me for quite some time. And I'm already looking forward to whatever is next for Cohen.