Pattern Recognition
On the flight to New Orleans, I finished William Gibson’s latest novel, Pattern Recognition. I hadn’t read Gibson since an extremely cool Regenstein vet recommended Neuromancer way back when.
The critical praise is all right: Gibson’s only gotten better over the past 20 years.
Pattern Recognition hits perfectly on several levels; it’s hard to distill why it’s so rewarding without devolving into recursion; recursive because the book itself talks about the strong influence of subtle links, of buzz factor in influencing purchasing decisions. Clearly, any mention of the book turns me into this exact sort of influencer.
Which creates alot of the book’s brilliance; Gibson seems to know what we’re about today post 9/11, and invoking an interesting corner of psychology, builds a modern detective story around 9/11, advertising, the world of the modern Net, Russia, and of course, Japan. A great Pattern Recognizer himself, Gibson subtly writes a masterful story about Pattern Recognition.
And the trademark Gibson flare for the bon mot hasn’t waned. On that basis alone, it’s worth your time.
(audio colophon: Obscurity Knocks from the album ???Cake??? by Trashcan Sinatras)