Customer Reviews

Soft Power

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Matt Segur's book is part murder mystery and part post-modern musings on the twentysomething crowd. The characters are three-dimensional, the writing is tight, the dialogue is believable, and his lucid descriptions of Chicago are reminiscent of works by Saul Bellow. Highly recommended!!

I read this book in less than a week, which is twice as meaningful given that I am in grad school midterms. It was hard to put down. I read it on the train, walking down the street, and stayed up until 2 am to finish it. The everyday characters generate your interest because they are real people as opposed to the idealized characters that are traditionally presented in magazines, films and TV. In addition, the writing; visual and tactile culinary descriptions are great.

Soft Power appeals to mystery readers, understandably. But reader beware, this is no conventional mystery novel. You will not find a mustachioed detective peering through a magnifying glass or pointing at the butler between its covers.

This is a book based around mysterious events, but isn't confined to the search for suspects. Instead you will find an accurate reflection of a familiar place (never mind whether you live in its set locale, it will be familiar to most of the western hemisphere and possibly the rest of the world), but affords us glimpses of darkness beneath, soaking through at the corners. That Segur accomplishes this effect so transparently, so delicately, is no small feat. Creating a subtle, unobtrusive yet realistically detailed habitat for a novel is not easy, and I've seen many authors fail at it repeatedly.

As my meandering tastes have led me through the literary fiction universe, I've read too many books with "flawed" characters, and it seems to me most contemporary authors define "flawed" as "impossibly unlikable, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever." Segur's characters are legitimately, realistically flawed. They do not tug at your heartstrings, begging for pity, nor do they behave such that no human, no matter how saintly, could love them. They are, in fact, infinitely loveable. Each character is fully composed, with his or her own viewpoint, history, and personality realized fully. While nobody is perfect, everybody has purpose and meaning. His characters are not drawn to be cast aside without proper consideration.
To some this book may seem alternately abrupt and meandering, possibly losing its plot along the way. But if one looks beyond the surface, if one reads for the pleasure of experience, not just to complete a task, one will find that this book never loses its purpose. This book is a small journey to be savored, and those predisposed to hurrying, moving the plot along to its final destination, should consider changing their habits.

This book has kept me company for many a days when the weather here in Seattle has been less than cooperative. Segur paints a picture of Chicago that is bleak yet strangely attractive to the young struggling artists and workers. Stanley, the main character lives his life in Chicago on a day to day basis that exemplifies what many early 20's adults are like today in a city that is so giant. The constant feeling of being less than something great. A wonderful book for those that have lived in Chicago or still living there, and for those that have gone through their early 20's wandering. It has certainly made me think of moving back...

I picked up Soft Power because I'd heard it was similar to Dave Eggers, or Douglas Coupland, and an extra treat for someone from Chicago. I initially found it to be verbose, the characters uninteresting, and unlikeable, but convinced it had to get better I kept reading. About page thirty the story seems to get better, and around page one hundred I was really into the mystery. I wanted to know what would happen, but nothing did. Just a commentary on people I wouldn't want to know doing things I'd never do or be interested in knowing about. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't that good.

At 238 pages, this book is about 100 pages too long. Every once in a great while, there are peaks of interest...unfortunately, they usually lead nowhere. I can appreciate an author painting a canvas just as much as the next guy, but I regularly found myself skimming entire chapters. My advice....move on.

This book has what you want in golf but not in literature: fade. It starts off well but as another reviewer pointed out, it is about 100 pages too long. There are way too many characters in the book and very little thematic continuity between them (or none I could discern). The author is very young so there is definitely some potential, though.