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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book centers around a flu pandemic, and it’s kind of weird to think it’s been written in 2015. Taking a look at resulting supply chain problems, power shortages, lack of running water, and death counts of a new branch of the Spanish flu, it gets a eerie lot of things kind of right. Still, I’m so thoroughly unimpressed by this book. It’s a load of pseudo-philosophical babbling, the protagonist is so naïve and boring, and the whole thing reads like a skim through r/MenWritingWomen.
But let’s back up and take look at it (read with caution, spoilers ahead):
Joe Haak, a blond, blue-eyed prettyboy analyst working for a big investment bank, develops a computer program that can see into the future. He gets picked up by a sickly, wise old jew, his boss, who wants the program to predict other crises than financial ones. The two of them engage in highly philosophical “debate”, which is to say, Lew Kauffman, the boss, lectures innocent Jon on Hobbes, Darwin, and other smart men. Joe is very clueless! Doesn’t matter that it makes no sense, if he’s truly such a gifted mind. He has never heard of Hobbes? Really? Well, now Lew can explain everything, and isn’t that nice.
Both of these men are financial masterminds, but they are good people! They Care! They believe in the good in people!
Joe also has a very limited experience in seeing women as people who consist of more than a flirty attitude, too-short tops, swinging hips, high heels and a vagina. He thinks liking to look at someone’s backside means being in love! And isn’t it true? After all, he is very pretty boy with his blue eyes, and every woman who sees him wants to bed him. And he always falls in love with the ones he can’t have. Even if there is no chemistry whatsoever apparent to the reader, we are somehow to believe that Polly is Joe’s true love, but she doesn’t even want to cheat on her husband with him. Rude, right?
Joe is also a “hybrid”, meaning his parents are from different countries. This apparently gives him the right to be creepy towards Aminata, a mixed raced nurse, describing her skintone in a fairly creepy way, and defining her only by the way she looks, her job, and the fact that she is, apparently, loud in the sack.
Enough about the creepy things about Joe.
And on to other creepy things. As mentioned, I’m not sure Ironmonger has ever talked to a woman. None of the many female character is especially well fleshed out, all of them are rarely described by anything other than looks (or occupation), they are passive and heavily stereotyped. They communicate only via flirty glances, swinging hips, and telling Joe he needs to get a woman, but only one they approve of, and not one who is to loud in bed, or smells like fish. As you can see, especially the whole spiel about Aminata being loud really weirded me the fuck out.
One of the other women Joe actually has a conversation with, Marcia Brody, is his therapist (or rather, a company doctor dipping her toes in hypnotherapy). Marcia is hella inapropiate, and no therapist worth a grain of salt would do as Marcia does, I hope. I think Ironmonger has never grasped the concept of therapy, or spoken to anyone who has been in therapy, or a therapist. It weirded me the fuck out.
To be fair, many men were also not really well fleshed out. There was one apparently gay man, who turns out to be bisexual, and ends up with a woman. Which in and of itself is fine, naturally, but to me it read like Ironmonger chickened out of going through with the thing.
And, last but not least, the whole pandemic thing. Yes, he has thought of this way before our current predicament started, and he clearly has done (some of) his homework. Still, I found a lot of it lacking. The other stuff seemed mostly unrealistic and a whole lot of too fluffy. The whole thing is solved with a vaccine – there have been robberies of supplies and livestock, mugging for petrol, etc, and we’re supposed to believe the vaccine is so easily and fairly distributed? Solidarity is one of the major themes of the book, but where was the solidarity with people who can’t give back in the same way? The old doctor gives his medical knowledge, but still, he is a valued member of society. What about sick people? People with a chronic illness or a disability? NO mentions of these people.
All in all, this book is 10 per cent good idea, 70 per cent underwhelm, and 20 per cent cringe. Extra points for mysoginistic and racist undertones. No Idea why so many people rate this so high, and a loving middle finger to my friend A. who urged me to read it.
But let’s back up and take look at it (read with caution, spoilers ahead):
Joe Haak, a blond, blue-eyed prettyboy analyst working for a big investment bank, develops a computer program that can see into the future. He gets picked up by a sickly, wise old jew, his boss, who wants the program to predict other crises than financial ones. The two of them engage in highly philosophical “debate”, which is to say, Lew Kauffman, the boss, lectures innocent Jon on Hobbes, Darwin, and other smart men. Joe is very clueless! Doesn’t matter that it makes no sense, if he’s truly such a gifted mind. He has never heard of Hobbes? Really? Well, now Lew can explain everything, and isn’t that nice.
Both of these men are financial masterminds, but they are good people! They Care! They believe in the good in people!
Joe also has a very limited experience in seeing women as people who consist of more than a flirty attitude, too-short tops, swinging hips, high heels and a vagina. He thinks liking to look at someone’s backside means being in love! And isn’t it true? After all, he is very pretty boy with his blue eyes, and every woman who sees him wants to bed him. And he always falls in love with the ones he can’t have. Even if there is no chemistry whatsoever apparent to the reader, we are somehow to believe that Polly is Joe’s true love, but she doesn’t even want to cheat on her husband with him. Rude, right?
Joe is also a “hybrid”, meaning his parents are from different countries. This apparently gives him the right to be creepy towards Aminata, a mixed raced nurse, describing her skintone in a fairly creepy way, and defining her only by the way she looks, her job, and the fact that she is, apparently, loud in the sack.
Enough about the creepy things about Joe.
And on to other creepy things. As mentioned, I’m not sure Ironmonger has ever talked to a woman. None of the many female character is especially well fleshed out, all of them are rarely described by anything other than looks (or occupation), they are passive and heavily stereotyped. They communicate only via flirty glances, swinging hips, and telling Joe he needs to get a woman, but only one they approve of, and not one who is to loud in bed, or smells like fish. As you can see, especially the whole spiel about Aminata being loud really weirded me the fuck out.
One of the other women Joe actually has a conversation with, Marcia Brody, is his therapist (or rather, a company doctor dipping her toes in hypnotherapy). Marcia is hella inapropiate, and no therapist worth a grain of salt would do as Marcia does, I hope. I think Ironmonger has never grasped the concept of therapy, or spoken to anyone who has been in therapy, or a therapist. It weirded me the fuck out.
To be fair, many men were also not really well fleshed out. There was one apparently gay man, who turns out to be bisexual, and ends up with a woman. Which in and of itself is fine, naturally, but to me it read like Ironmonger chickened out of going through with the thing.
And, last but not least, the whole pandemic thing. Yes, he has thought of this way before our current predicament started, and he clearly has done (some of) his homework. Still, I found a lot of it lacking. The other stuff seemed mostly unrealistic and a whole lot of too fluffy. The whole thing is solved with a vaccine – there have been robberies of supplies and livestock, mugging for petrol, etc, and we’re supposed to believe the vaccine is so easily and fairly distributed? Solidarity is one of the major themes of the book, but where was the solidarity with people who can’t give back in the same way? The old doctor gives his medical knowledge, but still, he is a valued member of society. What about sick people? People with a chronic illness or a disability? NO mentions of these people.
All in all, this book is 10 per cent good idea, 70 per cent underwhelm, and 20 per cent cringe. Extra points for mysoginistic and racist undertones. No Idea why so many people rate this so high, and a loving middle finger to my friend A. who urged me to read it.
Wat toffe quotes, interessante ideeën, de mooiste cover van het jaar, maar op een of andere manier kwamen de personages en het verhaal voor mij net niet tot leven. Voor mij daardoor ergens tussen de twee en drie sterren.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes