Seen in a Seattle bookstore and put on my to-read list immediately.
When I actually got a chance to read it (I'd been distracted, heh), my
hopes were confirmed. Bruce Sterling's Distraction is perhaps the
most perfect novel it's possible to write under that name, a marvelous
political sleight-of-hand, a Primary Colors for the 21st Century.
Oscar Valparaiso is a campaign manager of particular genius, a
fast-talking manipulator who never, ever lies, because he never has
to. The truth should always be enough, if you spin it right - and
Oscar's the master of spin. But Oscar also has a longstanding
"personal background problem" that even he can't spin enough, a
problem that despite his talents and high-profile childhood keeps him
from taking center stage himself.
As the book opens, Oscar has successfully shepherded an almost unknown
architect into the U.S. Senate (not as wonderful an achievement as it
sounds, what with unConstitutional "Emergency Committees"
running almost everything and sixteen political microparties squabbling
over the rest), and has been shunted off down to Buna, Texas, in an
armored campaign bus with the rest of his election krewe for a little
R&R.
But Oscar gets... distracted, in such a way that the reader also gets
distracted, and neither he nor the reader knows what's coming until it
gets there.
In ideas per second, Distraction is right up there with Neal
Stephenson's Snow Crash, and while it also shares with that book
an abrupt and somewhat disappointing ending, that may just be the
unavoidable letdown you feel at the end of a roller-coaster ride... damn,
it's over, and so soon! Highly recommended.
http://home.pacifier.com/~ascott/nonfic/revsterl.htm
