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jmatkinson1's review against another edition
3.0
Felix is a polemic left-wing journalist who has just lost a trial for defamation and his career is in tatters. Woody is a multi-millionaire friend with suspect motives who commissions Felix to write the story of Gaby, a member of a hacker collective that has infiltrated the Australian and American prison systems. Gaby's mother is Celine, an actress who is a old friend of Felix. Starting with the arrival of American troops on Australian soil during the second world war, the book looks at the underbelly of the relationships between the two nations and also the power of cybercrime.
The first half of this book was really enjoyable, it skipped along paralleling the stories in the present day and backstory of Gaby. However about halfway through it started to get a little bogged down in detail and so did I. Some of Carey's work is lucid, most is complex and some impenetrable, this novel encompasses all three - the best and worst of Peter Carey. It is an ambitious premise but between the complex plot and the complicated writing I got lost.
The first half of this book was really enjoyable, it skipped along paralleling the stories in the present day and backstory of Gaby. However about halfway through it started to get a little bogged down in detail and so did I. Some of Carey's work is lucid, most is complex and some impenetrable, this novel encompasses all three - the best and worst of Peter Carey. It is an ambitious premise but between the complex plot and the complicated writing I got lost.
claire_melanie's review against another edition
2.0
I really liked the concept but I guess Carey's style doesn't really work for me.
gail_dancer's review against another edition
Coming down off a brilliant 5 star Dan Brown book, I set about on Amnesia with excitement. The opening chapter fuelled my interest with the expectation of a story about prisoners being released worldwide from a techno-hacking - but from there the storyline just divebombed and got messy. Deadbeat Aussie journalist Felix rambles on about politics and war, sentences and paragraphs had to be reread to make sense and the overemphasised ocker slang seemed more designed to impress American readers than reflect what I actually experienced growing up in Australia in the 80’s. Peter Carey started with a great story concept then flushed it down the toilet. First book from me in years to be relegated a DNF. There are far too many books more worthy of my reading time to waste any more hours on this one. I’m done!!
essjay2023's review against another edition
2.0
At halfway, thing get so tedious that finding any alternative is worthwhile.
jobatkin's review against another edition
2.0
Love Peter Carey's beautiful prose and the uniquely Australian setting, but got too lost in the histories and complexities of plot in this to thoroughly enjoy it. Felix Moore is a flawed but talented journalist with a passion for progressive politics and the truth, who finds himself in trouble with his wife, his boss and the law. His vulnerable position sees him accept the dangerous and impossible mission to write a biography of Gaby Bailleux, a young hacker wanted by the CIA for extradition for her virus that affects prison security systems, and paint her as an innocent victim. Her activism and Felix's kidnapping and enforced writing are woven together with the history of Brisbane during the war and highlights of Australian politics to create a complex web of background and plot that left me entertained and interested but often confused.
nigelbrown's review against another edition
2.0
At times this was an enjoyable, well written novel. Unfortunately those times were few and far between. It is an incredibly dissonant book by a writer who seems to believe the hype.
bkish's review against another edition
2.0
This is a very strange book. I will read what others say. It is well written. Every character is despicable - there is no retribution no balance. It is all very current so Peter Carey knows what is current with technology. Everyone is narcissistic. Nobody does anything of any value in society for themselves for each other. Why did Peter Carey write this? What was he out to say? to contribute?
from Judy
from Judy
rcbick's review against another edition
2.0
Lucky to get 2 stars. Very hard going, the device of telling the story through play back of tapes was quite confusing, I had to re-read several sections as I had no idea what was going on.
twistinthetale's review against another edition
2.0
This was a pretty tough slog for me. I can see the talent in the writing but the plot and characters were quite unappealing. I found that the blurb, describing a cyber attack on prison facilities in Australia and America, was misleading as the novel really didn't deal with this in any detail. The seedy suburban setting and the unsympathetic characters left a sourness that was difficult to ignore. Only just a 2 star rating for me.