re Ah. I mean, OOF. This satire might actually be as clever as it purports to be. At the very least, it cuts through the modern state of affairs in the US like hot knife through butter. Mind you, the sociopolitics of the last few/several years are the proverbial low hanging fruit, ripe for being satirized, but nevertheless kudos to the author for doing it so well.
With a multimedia compendium structure of WWZ, though interviews, tweets, blogs, etc. OOF tells a story of one author’s descent into infamy which provides a catalyst for the country’s descent into abyss of its own making. To think, it all begins with a book. Not an especially well written book, even, but a politically charged one. And before it even sees the light of day, it’s not merely ripped to shreds, but those shreds get embroidered into the very fabric of the social media obsessed, paranoid, conspiracy mad culture, serving every ugly bias, every crazy notion, every lamentable discourse. The ensuing circus is determined to destroy the book, the author and those around him, ugly ignorant people doing ugly ignorant things to each other in the name of their own ugly ignorant version of truth and justice. The distinctly American way. OOF is almost too good for its own good. It’s a satire that’s too close to reality. Wildly messed up and yet disturbingly plausible. It makes for a somewhat uneasy read. Fun, but uneasy. It’s an ode to the age of misinformation, spectacularly unbreachable ideological division and pervasive toxicity of social media. The metafiction approach only maximizes the effect. The culture we live in absolutely deserves to have the strobelight exposure. Just slap a seizure warning on it and dare people to read it. A very interesting very timely read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
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