PopCo (Paperback)

by Scarlett Thomas (Author) "Chapter One Paddington Station feels like it should be shut..." (more)
Key Phrases: prime factorise, prime factorisation, shift cipher, Francis Stevenson, Supreme Being, Miss Hind (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The code-breaking and -making heroine of Thomas's latest smart, engaging novel (after Going Out) takes a critical view of the corporate marketing of cool, an exploit she knows from inside the rapaciously hip boardrooms of the titular British toy company, the third largest in the world. Twenty-nine-year-old Alice Butler has parlayed her expertise in "crosswords, cryptography, and cryptanalysis";talents she gained from her mathematically inclined grandparents;into a job at PopCo's Ideation and Design department, where she creates sleuthing kits for kids (KidSpy, KidTec and KidCracker). At a companywide countryside retreat (aka "Thought Camp"), the CEO selects Alice to help invent a product that will spark a craze for teenage girls. While Alice looks into her past for insight to this inadequately tapped market;and for clues to her own identity;she also ponders a locket from her grandfather that may contain the code to a centuries-old puzzle. As Alice works on PopCo's blockbuster product and decodes the ancient brainteaser, as well as encrypted messages from an anonymous PopCo colleague, she becomes increasingly disenchanted with her employer's ubiquitous branding, advertising and exploitation of young consumers. Thomas delivers a captivating heroine and a pointed cultural critique that will especially resonate with the No Logo crowd. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Mathematical puzzles. Mind-bending codes. A secret manuscript. And a cake recipe, too. Thomas' latest (after 2004's Going Out) has a chronic case of attention deficit disorder. As the novel opens, Brit Alice Butler is en route to a retreat sponsored by her employer, PopCo, a cutting-edge--and slightly creepy--toy company. (Alice takes the midnight train to avoid colleagues--and human contact in general--an early indication that she is a little off-kilter.) It's no wonder Alice considers herself an outsider; her father disappeared when she was nine, leaving her in the care of her grandparents, two quirky cryptanalysts privy to the whereabouts of a centuries-old buried treasure. Meanwhile, at the company conference, Alice and her colleagues are charged with developing the ultimate product for the teen-girl market. Alice is soon distracted from the task by mysterious encoded messages slipped under her door. Will deciphering them shape her future, or perhaps shed light on the past? Although Thomas' premise is clever, her digressions into esoteric topics (Godel, anyone?) are likely to leave readers more exhausted than amused. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Harvest Books; 1 edition (October 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015603137X
• ISBN-13: 978-0156031370
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #296,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely brilliant, November 17, 2005

By	hollygolightly (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

One of the most interesting and intelligent books I've read in a long time, PopCo ties together its spiky protagonist Alice Butler's childhood as a junior cryptanalyst with her current job developing products for a massive toy conglomerate. As she wrestles with her latest corporate challenge--how to market toys to teenage girls--she reflects on the nature of codes, cryptanalysis, cryptography, buried treasure, the ethics of marketing, and veganism.

This is definitely one of those books where you either read it and think it's an utter waste of time and mildly seditious, or you really wish the author was a friend of yours and you could call her up just to chat (to paraphrase Salinger).

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, and like nothing you've read before, March 30, 2006

By	D. P. Hock (Healdsburg, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Popco is an intriguing and intelligent novel that manages to present a smart, interesting and likeable heroine, several engaging plot lines, thought-provoking themes, and powerful writing. If you want a fast-paced action adventure story with lots of movement and dialogue, this isn't it. Instead, this story explores fascinating topics well and with depth, while keeping several mysteries humming along. Cryptology, the hierarchies of teen girls, marketing, virtual worlds, math, religion... this story touches on all of these topics and many more, but without being boring or trite. This novel is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to think about what they're reading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clever but somewhat disappointing, February 12, 2006

By	Hal Tepfer "Infomaniac" (Lexington, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an amalgam of many many stories: a young girl's growing up following abandonement by her father (and living with grandparents); growing up as an adoclescent and dealing with problems of fitting in or not fitting in and what that all means; interpersonal relationships as a twenty-something; the creative approach to problem-solving for a toy company; a "down with corporations" group of guerrillas; codes; mathematical theory; homeopathic medicine; have I left anything out?

And, some of these are more successful than others. For instance, the young girl/adolescent passages are very well written and moving and heartfelt. But, the math seems to be ladled on for reasons that stop the story cold, although I did like the dissertations. But I felt that I had to re-start the story at the end.

It's a fine book, one that I truly enjoyed. But, the parts don't really add up and the end of the book comes with a whimper.