2 1/2 stars
I read another review that cited Vonnegut as a clear influence and stylistically this is certainly true however Kobek purposefully chooses to maintain a disconnected narrative and while this was entertaining and at times supremely effective at skewering contemporary culture, specifically San Francisco and technology, I eventually lost interest and began to skip sections. For me this book would have been more enjoyable if it was about 60 pages (1/4 of the length) shorter.

Granted the author announces upfront that they have no intention of writing a 'good novel', I was still frustrated as with a bit of editing they could have maintained the same structure and style yet leave the reader more affected.... does that make sense to anyone who read it?

My suggestion - read Vonnegut, Lanier, Sontag or Doctorow.

lol

I gave up at the 7% mark, thinking, "if I read another sentence containing any variation on the phrase eumelanin in the basale strata of their epidermises, I will throw my Kindle against the wall".

4.5 stars. Smart, funny, political, and engaging. Most of all, pro-woman, which I so appreciate, especially coming from a male writer—though oddly, I did not feel drawn at all to his main protagonist. On that note, it's less a novel about characters than ideas (by which I mean they feel more representational than human, with the exception of Ellen), but to that end, it's definitely worth reading. The ferocity of his outrage is admirable. His parody of Ayn Rand towards the end is HILARIOUS. On the surface, this is a cynical novel, but it is fueled by a deep concern with humanity.

4.5 stars

This book was amazing. It was such a brilliant and unapologetic blend of fiction and nonfiction; basically Kobek just wanted to discuss nonfictional discourse but created fictional characters to very blatantly illustrate his points, which was something I’ve never seen before in a novel (at least not quite like this). Reading this, I felt like “finally someone gets it!!!” because many of the points made in the book were things I’ve thought about myself and no one ever seems to understand what I mean.
Kobek does such a brilliant job at shoving our society’s hypocrisy in our faces. To some readers this might seem abrasive, but I loved it. Sometimes you need to be obnoxious to get a point through people’s thick skulls.
Overall I absolutely adored this book and thought it was completely brilliant. I’m only taking off points because I think the message could have been more effective if the book had been a little more concise, and because the narrative can get a little too pretentious for my taste at points.
I wish more people would give this book a chance, because seriously...I hate the internet too in a lot of ways haha.

This is definitely for fans of hyper-intellectual fiction; what I - affectionately - refer to as "wanky" fiction. Kobek is very clever and likes to show it, so this reads more like a scathing takedown of the Internet and modern western civilisation than an actual novel, as the front cover claims it to be. It is disjointed and plotless, with slightly too many characters for me to be able to remember which one is which and how they correspond to each other. Ultimately, nothing really gets concluded. Having said that, that may be your type of thing (it's not mine). Regardless, it's very funny, and that was it's saving grace - and why I persevered to the end. Kobek has an extremely effective way of putting things; you realise how absurd the modern day is and laugh...until you consider that you are everything he is laughing at.

Valjana kritika savremene internet kulture koja neprekidno (još od svog početka) srlja u propast. Nešto iritantan stil pisanja koji podsjeća upravo na sadržaj prosječnog internetskog prostora sa komentarima stvara dodatnu nelagodu zvog koje poželite da pobrišete sve društvene mreže kojih ste član, te bacite svoj modem za internet, telefon i računar. Kontinuirano se i slažete i raspravljate s piscem i nadate se da preuveličava i našu stvarnost predstavlja gorom no što jeste.