Unplugging Philco: A Novel [Paperback]

Jim Knipfel (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 14, 2009

Wally Philco is a gentle, midlevel insurance industry operative living with his wife, Margie, in Brooklyn. In the years since those terrible events took place in Tupelo, Mississippi, though, the world -- and Brooklyn, too -- has become a very different place. Nobody's sure exactly what happened on the day now known as Horribleness Day, but it became pretty clear afterward that the Australians were involved somehow. Long after all the initial craziness has petered out, the Horribleness is still being used as an excuse for everything, from insomnia and lower back pain to joblessness, bank robbery, higher taxes, drunk driving, and murder. Likewise, everything from icy sidewalks to earthquakes to casino bus accidents is being cited as the work of terrorists.

Now it's every Mutual Citizen's job to keep an eye on his neighbor and to report anything amiss. Wally's neighbor, Whit Chambers, has been busy practically setting a world record for turning in suspicious characters and Unmutuals to the local authorities and, in fact, Whit's had his eye and his telescope trained on Wally for some time now. When Wally finally snaps, he finds refuge with the Unpluggers, an underground movement fighting for just a few minutes of peace and quiet. With a cast of Dickensian characters, from stroller-wielding Brooklyn mothers to former Kennedy spooks and Norwegian cowboys, Jim Knipfel's Unplugging Philco is a wildly funny look at our life and times, filled with sharp cultural references and vivid, witty prose that testifies to a dangerously perceptive mind behind the madness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in a not-so-distant future, when the United States has declared war on Australia as a result of a mysterious explosion known as The Horribleness, Knipfel's mordant and funny latest charts a year in the life of Wally Philco, a New York City insurance company employee who, fed up with a nosy neighbor, the Stroller Brigade of militant mothers, the advertisements beamed into his brain and government snoops, begins disabling the many devices that monitor him. His unplugging results in his being recruited by the Unpluggers, a group of revolutionaries camped out in an abandoned section of the subway system. As he learns more about the group and its plans to strike back at the totalitarian state, he becomes the group's unwitting figurehead. Though the novel sometimes falls victim to less than refined humor (citizens must carry, for instance, SUCKIE identity cards), the twisty plot (including a surprising turn at the end) combined with Knipfel's sharp wit and dark vision add much satirical sparkle to this dystopian romp. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

The running joke: just wait until they put chips in our heads. Always up for satirical mischief, cult-favorite Knipfel uses this vision of diabolical digital infiltration as the template for a zesty dystopian tale. Mild-mannered Wally Philco tries to be a Good Citizen. He has the requisite chip implants. He works diligently in his cubicle. He puts up with countless surveillance vids, aggressive ad screens, the continual babble force-fed through his Earwig, and television-on-steroids. But he has had it with the vicious Stroller Brigade and their bratty offspring named Amex and Google, his mean wife, the toxic synthetic food, the “ratter” neighbor, the drug tests, and the constant fear of being accused of the crime of “Unmutualism.” Riffing mordantly on 1984, post-9/11 propaganda, mindless consumerism, and techno-addiction, Knipfel gleefully salts Wally’s breakneck adventures with caustically naughty acronyms and wistful romance. As he imagines an unplugged underworld and an all-seeing, all-powerful corporate empire, Knipfel forges a grimly funny condemnation of digital tyranny and the sacrifice of rights and privacy for the pipe dreams called convenience and security. --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Paperback: 374 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Original edition (April 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416592849
• ISBN-13: 978-1416592846
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,289,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun! June 10, 2009

By R. M. Dellifraine

Format:Paperback

I really enjoyed this book! It was a lot of fun to read: try to imagine if Mel Brooks had written George Orwell's 1984 to get a sense of the themes and humor that is pervasive throughout. There also might have been a message about the errosion of our individual freedoms and stuff like that, but I mostly liked the poop jokes.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A June 1, 2009

By Candle light reader

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love that this book is available in kindle. I also love the book. It should be required reading in junior high, high school and college, perhaps it would shake a few awake.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unplugged Knipfel June 25, 2009

By Tito Perdue

Format:Paperback

Far the best of his books, author Knipfel proves here that he understands what it is to live in a supervised society in which individualism is illegal and attitudes are assigned by government -
a world, in other words, that will be ours within, say, about 25 years?
tito perdue