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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Love the brand and stay ahead of the curve", August 1, 2004
The dark, exploitative side if immigration, the excesses of global capitalism, and the vulnerable inter-connectedness of our electronic world is at the heart of this madcap, lively, yet often messy book by Hari Kunzru. Transmission is truly worldwide, as Kunzru paints a portrait of twenty-first century life from London to Washington State, from Southern California to India, and from Scotland to Brussels. Arjun Mehta is a shy, bright and idealistic young computer programmer who grows up in stultifying middle-class India and dreams of emigrating to America. With the promise of making lots of money, all Arjun wants is to work and be happy and live a life in magic America. So he flies west, with new visa in his pocket and romance and optimism filling his head.
Upon arrival in America, Arjun tries to make the best of it, but with none of the promised jobs materializing, he gradually becomes more disillusioned. All he sees is the "pumping of low rider cars, grown men wearing short pants like children, pastel lycra dressed men and women, and cars as mythical chariots gleaming with window tint." Arjun finally manages to secure a job outside Seattle, testing anti-virus software for a paranoid numbskull of a boss. While reassuring his parents back in India, that he's on track for early wealth and retirement, he embarks on a harried, half-hearted relationship with Christine, a sexually ambivalent American girl, who works for the company. He takes her to a hackneyed Indian movie and misses the fact that she is bored to tears. But Arjun thinks he has it made, and then with an economic downturn on the horizon, he is shown the door.
In desperation, and in order to try to prevent being fired, he unleashes a killer computer virus that features his favorite Bollywood actress, the seductive Leela Zahir. His intention is to cause minor havoc, and then, when his colleagues are stumped, to ultimately stop it and save his job. Kunzru, logically, thoroughly and systematically details the virus's progress through the global nervous system. But the virus eventually morphs into many headed Leelas and eventually becomes known as Greyday - "and informational disaster, a holocaust of bits," disrupting mobile telephony, airline reservations, transatlantic email traffic, and automated teller machines worldwide.
Arjun's virus brings together two sub-stories: Leela Zahir's new movie, a Bollywood, melodrama, which is shooting in the highlands of Scotland, includes a rather pointless foray into the life of its tortured leading man, whose messy sex life has landed him in the control of a violent, calculating mob boss. The other, far more successful story, involves the English Guy Swift, a greedy, self-serving, cocaine-fueled, smarmy young white-boy capitalist who runs Tomorrow*, a brand consultancy company based in London. With his contracts going sour - partly caused by the Leela virus - and his relationship with his girlfriend, Gabrielle on the skids, he thinks he can redeem himself with one last deal.
Kunzru is a blunt and gusty writer with a verbal agility that lends itself well to this subject matter. The plot takes many twists and turns as the three principal characters get caught up in the cataclysmic contemporary electronic collapse. The author rarely takes a breath and the novel barrels along at a furious rate. Kunzru writes with a minimalist style that draws you in, and also allows him to navigate, what is in essence a complicated tale of capitalist destruction, with skill and ease. Mike Leonard August 04.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Amrika, Residence of the Non Resident Indian.", May 24, 2004
Arjun Mehta, a dreamer and innocent, is still living at home with his parents in a middle-class Indian housing complex when he is hired to work as a computer expert in Silicon Valley. Thinking his dreams have come true, he flies to California, only to discover that his well-paying job doesn't exist--that he will be working for almost nothing and paying half his salary for housing. Employed only part-time and living in poverty, he finally gets his "big break," a job at Virugenix, an internet security company in Redmond, Washington, where he works as a "ghost-buster" on the anti-virus team. When cutbacks in the tech industry cost him that job, he desperately devises a plan: to unleash the Leela Virus, named for his favorite Bollywood actress, so he can become a hero by "curing" it. Kunzru satirizes American culture and dependence on technology as the naïve Arjun makes his way in America. Arjun learns that poverty "does not exclude cars, refrigerators, cable TV, and obesity," and that Virugenix features "neat landscaping and plenty of designated parking." A wry, satiric tone permeates the description of Arjun's life and his conflict of values, and American superficiality is skewered. Kunzru furthers this satire with two subplots, alternating scenes of the "real" Leela Zahir's life as a Bollywood film star with scenes of Arjun, pointing up the excesses of the rich and famous and the contrast with "real life." A third plot line features a European "marketing visionary," Guy Swift, who must keep international venture capitalists at bay while he enjoys the pretentious, international highlife. As the Leela virus caused disasters to systems ranging from water filtration to airport security and international banking and business, the three plot lines come together in a clever conclusion which resembles the films Arjun enjoys. Some readers may tire of the pervasive satire of materialism, since this is an old subject, addressed many times and in many ways. Arjun's naivete, his vision of life as a filmscript, and his relationship with a woman as bizarre as Chris are somewhat implausible, though these may be excusable on the grounds that they open the story to more satire. The relevance of the Guy Swift subplot is unclear, though the irony of Guy's fate will amuse even the most jaded reader. Fast-paced and filled with unique imagery, the novel is humorous but pointed in its criticism, an honest commentary on the transmission of American technology and culture, and its pervasive effects throughout the world. Mary Whipple
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest, November 9, 2005
Hari Kunzru's Transmission is a funny yet thoughtful life and hard times of a young Indian software programmer who journeys from New Delhi to the U.S. to make a name for himself in the software industry. Arjun Mehta is a naïve young programmer who has just graduated from a mid-level technical college in the suburbs of New Delhi. A naïve and sheltered young man, Arjun's primary social activity is to watch and become enthralled with the heroes and heroines of India's (Bollywood) film industry. Leela Zahir, a rising starlet, is the object of his sweetly innocent passion. When not dreaming about Leela, Arjun dreams of a job in Silicon Valley. His dreams are realized when he is offered what appears to be an idyllic job opportunity. Upon arriving in America Arjun soon discovers that this unique job opportunity is a work-for-hire scheme reminiscent of the days of company stores in coal mining communities. Things begin to look up for Arjun when he is taken on by an anti-virus company. There he meets the tattooed, attractive Chris. Chris is a comely girl and for reasons known only to her decides to introduce Arjun to the more physical aspects of love. Of course, much to Chris' dismay the sheltered Arjun thinks that their one night stand amounts to a declaration of love. Arjun's dismay is magnified when his company's economic woes cause him to be laid off. In desperation, Arjun unleashes a computer virus in the hopes that when he finds a `fix' for the virus he will be rehired and his dream will be saved. Of course, not only does he not get his job back but the virus, featuring an animation of his matinee idol Leela in the middle of a Bollywood dance routine causes worldwide havoc. Arjun, hounded by the FBI finds himself hiding in the dark underbelly of America; dingy bus stations populated by the unseen and always avoided underclass. Two other stories track Arjun's journey through the belly of the beast. Kunzru tracks Leela Zahir, filming a movie in Scotland, as the world's press focus on the person after whom the virus has been named. Kunzru paints a picture of a film industry beset by corruption and domineering mothers. At the same time Kunzru introduces us to Guy Swift. Swift is one of those curses of the 21st-century, a quasi new age consultant who cocaine fueled discourse on branding and product development would be hilarious if they didn't track some of the vacuous discourse I have heard from sales and marketing consultants. As the story reaches the end the interconnections between the three story lines become apparent. Transmission was a fun book to read. Kunzru has an eye for the quirks of human nature and has a nice way of pointing out those quirks in a funny, rather than cruel fashion. Although he paints with a broad brush, the nerdiness and naivety of Arjun and the empty-headed drug-fueled portrait of Guy Swift, his broad characterization works. I found myself involved in the characters, particularly Arjun, and kept reading because Kunzru made me want to find out how the story ends. Kunrzu's ruminations on the global economy are funny, on point, and are not overly pedantic. I very much enjoyed Transmission and look forward to reading his first novel, The Impressionist. L. Fleisig
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