The book is interesting in the way many parts are in two sides at once. The whole plot is a dystopia (the default) and an utopia (the walkways). The society seems real and totally made up at the same time, and so does the tech.

It also feels a bit as propaganda against capitalism in many ways, and I'm not sure at all that the pure gift economy could work. Feels like the carefully calculated one with scores that Charles Stross proposed on some of his older novels would be much more likely to work.

Still, as most Doctorow novels, it is very unusual and well worth reading.