Customer Reviews

Turn of the Century

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

This is one of those books that buzzes in your head for weeks after you've read it. "Turn of the Century" is loaded with dazzling riffs and observations about contemporary life, of course, but the people in it are equally memorable and sharply drawn. You really start to see folks you know in light of characters from Andersen's novel. ("Oh, he's a sort of Timothy Featherstone type," I found myself saying of an acquaintance.) The satire -- of the worlds of media and entertainment -- is unsparing, and yet the book has surprising warmth. Andersen has pulled off something remarkable here: a 21st-century version of Trollope's "The Way We Live Now." It's really true: the novel is stippled with present-day counterparts of Augustus Melmotte, Sir Felix Carbury, and the rest of Trollope's immortal cast. As with Trollope, Andersen's essential humanity infuses the book with a sense of worldly compassion. (Tom Wolfe seems tinny and shrill by comparison.) "Turn of the Century" is a novel that will make you laugh out loud, without feeling bad about it later. I can't remember when I've had a better time with a novel, or learned so much along the way.

Anderson has done some admirable heavy lifting to present a just-in-time, high concept, bullet train of mild satire and cleverness. It takes awhile get used to and wade through the topical references to events, people, places, and things, both real and vividly imagined, that five years from now will make this novel seem like it was written in a dead language. Readers seem to have widely differing opinions about whether the characters are compelling,it's funny, etc. If you don't have any interest and affinity for the Fast Company/Hollywood/Web culture you'll hate it. I'm familiar enough with the worlds of the novel (at the grunt level anyway) to get the jokes and admire the imagination. But if you want a book that deals deeper with whether we lose our "soul" and connection to others by what we do for work, try JR, by William Gaddis (an author whose movie rights Anderson's character Ben Gould buys up in one of his "charitable" schemes). Overall, Turn of the Century is a too-long, although often amusing piece that relies so heavily on a reader's existing knowledge of the scene that I found myself holding the characters at arm's length. I prefer being a little more intimate.

When this book first came out in 1999, I thought about reading it, but was too daunted. When it came out in paperback, I bought it and decided to give it a try. I literally could not put it down. The 659 pages was almost too short. I could have read about George and Lizzie and LuLu and Sir (max) and Ben and Featherstone for another 1000. These characters, while satirical are magical. To inhabit their world is a gift.

Andersen just "gets" it, his book is filled with media-saavy references (some will argue too many). The more you know about the media, the more you will love it. From Barbie World to MBC to The Casino Royale in NYC to 100 hilarious TV shows, it never ends. It is interesting to see that some of the predictions he made have actually come true. Many of Andersen's ideas aren't that crazy.

George is a terrific leading man. Lizzie is a fascinating woman. You learn to love them and their family. Their friends, including Cubby, Featherstone, and Ben are my among my favorites, are spectular. At it's core, this is a love story. The story of George and Lizzie and all their luck and loss. It is engrossing.

The last quarter of the book is all over the map, but it fits. It is fun, surprising and even a bit moving. This is our time, our places, our new century. Entertainment Weekly was right in it's review, Andersen is the 1st great writer of the 3rd Millenium. This book takes it place among my very favorite works.

I can't wait to see what is next. I raise my glass to Featherstone.

I don't know why this novel had to be 659 pages! Starts out with a bang. Loved how the author drew me into the techno/media word with the cool jargon, like Doug Coupland's GENERATION X, but unlike GEN X, this book was waaaaay too long and all the hip-slick-cool language grew tiresome and the characters grating. I didn't feel for Lizzie or George and their gimme-gimme lives and by the end---yes I read the whole damn thing, brought it to the beach with me and had no other reading material---secretly hoped that George's plane was going to crash en route to Mexico! Wouldn't recommend reading it unless you have alot of time to waste...life's too short!

This book has marvelously drawn characters and a deft plot. But what lingers in my mind are the constant, droll little absurdities that abound in the characters' world, understated seeming little asides which charactertize postmodern American urban and media life. And give Andersen credit that he was actually prescient, in that things we accept as unremarkable are getting more postmodern and more absurd all the time. Every time I see or read about something like the Secretary of the Treasury touring the Third World with Bono, I think to myself, "this is just like something out of 'Turn of the Century.'"

"Tour de force" is no doubt an adequate label for this book. Kurt Andersen's first novel is a gigantic feast on "the modern" in the high lanes of today's American business. It is constantly entertaining indeed in a "Tom Wolfish" way. But you can sense a certain freshness in Andersen's book that you can't find in works like A Man In Full. The dialogue is more catchy and somehow it's structure has greater appeal to a young reader than myself than that of an (please excuse me) old-timer like Tom Wolfe. If you were to use a musical expression you could say that this book consists of a magnificent longwinded accelerando. The intensity rises for some 700 pages +. But there are things that Tom Wolfe juggles smoothly and sometimes bites vigorously that Andersen doesn't really try to take hold of in "Turn of The Century". The milieu is portrayed slightly superficially and the social critique seems a bit vague. A harsh judgement would be that this is more entertainment than fiction. But that would also be too harsh. Kurt Andersen has written a very smart, VERY entertaining and very long book. It marks a very impressive debut - but I await even greater nourishment from his hands. I give it three big stars.

Sure there are plenty of comparisons to Tom Wolfe. Yes, the book may be a bit long for some. But what a great story Kurt Anderson has put together. And it finishes just as strong as it starts. Remember all the television coverage ringing in the new year? How we all became glued to the hype and hoopla? Now imagine all those TV and marketing and software execs spinning their wheels right now trying to come up with the Next Big Thing. Basically, that's where Anderson takes you with Turn of the Century. I personally liked the character of George McTier a great deal (most of the time). Harold Mose offers reminders of those media titans we all read about in the magazines and see on TV. And the world Anderson creates really isn't that far off the mark. This novel moves at top speed. And speed kills... at least careers and brain cells for some characters. A great (and long) read that kept me entertained from start to finish.

I picked up Andersen's long novel with hesitation but found it all but impossible to put down. His plotting is intricate but impeccable in terms of plausibility and every thread was quite satisfyingly resolved. His characters, down to the marginal bit players, are nailed in three dimensions. Finally, as a contemporary morality tale it will stand the test of time.

Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I can't think of any other writer who could have pulled this off. It's the best reading I've had in the past year or so.

The author made more amusing and accurate observations in any two pages chosen at random than other books or magazines do in their entirety. He does not just name-drop, as some of the reviewers have claimed; rather, he sharply and often very funnily comments on TV, education, Wall Street, computers and their use, the kind of people who are involved in each of the above cited areas, families, love, relationships, the United States and the world. He casts a deadly accurate eye on various topics, most of which bring a smile or a nod by the reader. For example, there is a Howard Stern interview on the radio that is scripted exactly as I believe it would sound. It is true that the book is a bit long(and for that reason, I give it 4 instead of 5 stars), but the point is more than the plot. The incisive observations are worth the journey (to the Millenium), and there is a real story as he races to the finish line. I definitely think it is worth the time to read as there is no book like it.