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The Mirage
A mind-bending novel in which an alternate history of 9/11 and its aftermath uncovers startling truths about America and the Middle East
11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.
The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . .
Summer, 2009: Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The prisoner claims that the world they are living in is a mirage--in the real world, America is a superpower, and the Arab states are just a collection of "backward third-world countries." A search of the bomber's apartment turns up a copy of "The New York Times," dated September 12, 2001, that appears to support his claim. Other captured terrorists have been telling the same story. The president wants answers, but Mustafa soon discovers he's not the only interested party.
The gangster Saddam Hussein is conducting his own investigation. And the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee--a war hero named Osama bin Laden--will stop at nothing to hide the truth. As Mustafa and his colleagues venture deeper into the unsettling world of terrorism, politics, and espionage, they are confronted with questions without any rational answers, and the terrifying possibility that their world is not what it seems.
Acclaimed novelist Matt Ruff has created a shadow world that is eerily recognizable but, at the same time, almost unimaginable. Gripping, subversive, and unexpectedly moving, "The Mirage" probes our deepest convictions and most arresting fears.
11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.
The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . .
Summer, 2009: Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The prisoner claims that the world they are living in is a mirage--in the real world, America is a superpower, and the Arab states are just a collection of "backward third-world countries." A search of the bomber's apartment turns up a copy of "The New York Times," dated September 12, 2001, that appears to support his claim. Other captured terrorists have been telling the same story. The president wants answers, but Mustafa soon discovers he's not the only interested party.
The gangster Saddam Hussein is conducting his own investigation. And the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee--a war hero named Osama bin Laden--will stop at nothing to hide the truth. As Mustafa and his colleagues venture deeper into the unsettling world of terrorism, politics, and espionage, they are confronted with questions without any rational answers, and the terrifying possibility that their world is not what it seems.
Acclaimed novelist Matt Ruff has created a shadow world that is eerily recognizable but, at the same time, almost unimaginable. Gripping, subversive, and unexpectedly moving, "The Mirage" probes our deepest convictions and most arresting fears.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published November 29, 2012
190 people are currently reading
6128 people want to read
About the author
Matt Ruff
23 books2,489 followersI was born in New York City in 1965. I decided I wanted to be a fiction writer when I was five years old and spent my childhood and adolescence learning how to tell stories. At Cornell University I wrote what would become my first published novel, Fool on the Hill, as my senior thesis in Honors English. My professor Alison Lurie helped me find an agent, and within six months of my college graduation Fool on the Hill had been sold to Atlantic Monthly Press. Through a combination of timely foreign rights sales, the generous support of family and friends, occasional grant money, and a slowly accumulating back list, I’ve managed to make novel-writing my primary occupation ever since.
My third novel, Set This House in Order, marked a critical turning point in my career after it won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, a Washington State Book Award, and a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and helped me secure a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. My fourth novel, Bad Monkeys, also won multiple awards and is being developed as a film, with Margot Robbie attached to star. My sixth novel, Lovecraft Country, has been produced as an HBO series by Misha Green, Jordan Peele, and J.J. Abrams. It will debut on Sunday, August 16.
In 1998 I married my best friend, the researcher and rare-book expert Lisa Gold. We live in Seattle, Washington.
My third novel, Set This House in Order, marked a critical turning point in my career after it won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, a Washington State Book Award, and a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and helped me secure a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. My fourth novel, Bad Monkeys, also won multiple awards and is being developed as a film, with Margot Robbie attached to star. My sixth novel, Lovecraft Country, has been produced as an HBO series by Misha Green, Jordan Peele, and J.J. Abrams. It will debut on Sunday, August 16.
In 1998 I married my best friend, the researcher and rare-book expert Lisa Gold. We live in Seattle, Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 584 reviews
July 15, 2016
When Christian fundamentalists destroy the Tigris and Euphrates towers on 11/9, the United Arab States declare a war on terror on the nations of North America. Eight years later, Homeland security officers Mustafa, Amal, and Samir stumble upon relics from another world, a world where America is a super power and the Middle East is a fractured region...
On the heels of Lovecraft Country, I knew I had to read more Matt Ruff. This one sounded intriguing and it was definitely that.
The Mirage is an alternate history tale, one where the roles in the War on Terror are reversed, with the Arabians as the super power and the former United States as rogue territories. If I'd ever read The Man in the High Castle instead of only knowing it by reputation, I'd say they were in a similar vein.
The Mirage is essentially a detective story with Mustafa, Amal, and Samir trying to get to the bottom of things, like the relics and who was really behind the 11/9 attack, before falling victim to the machinations of Al Qaeda, the UAS secret police in this tale. Interspersed are entries from the Library of Alexandria, an online Wikipedia type of resource in this world, giving us tantalizing glimpses at the world's history without infodumping them in the text.
While the detective aspect was pretty cool, the fun of the story was seeing where everyone ended up in this reality. Saddam Hussein is an underworld kingpin, Osama bin Laden is a senator, and Dick Cheney is head of the Texas CIA and known for eliminating his rivals in hunting accidents.
I wolfed this book down in three sittings. It was quite readable and I couldn't wait to see how things panned out. By showing the war on terror in the mirror universe, Ruff shows what a shit show the whole thing was.
This is my favorite quote from the book:
"So in the other reality, Osama bin Laden is an Iraqi?"
"No, he's still from Jeddah," Amal said. "A 'Saudi' Arabian."
"Then why the hell would America invade Iraq?"
"Because God put a Texan in charge!"
I don't have many bad things to say about this book. I almost gave it a 5 but I thought the characters were a little skimpy and the ending could have been better. Overall, The Mirage was a great read and an interesting look at how things might have went another way. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
On the heels of Lovecraft Country, I knew I had to read more Matt Ruff. This one sounded intriguing and it was definitely that.
The Mirage is an alternate history tale, one where the roles in the War on Terror are reversed, with the Arabians as the super power and the former United States as rogue territories. If I'd ever read The Man in the High Castle instead of only knowing it by reputation, I'd say they were in a similar vein.
The Mirage is essentially a detective story with Mustafa, Amal, and Samir trying to get to the bottom of things, like the relics and who was really behind the 11/9 attack, before falling victim to the machinations of Al Qaeda, the UAS secret police in this tale. Interspersed are entries from the Library of Alexandria, an online Wikipedia type of resource in this world, giving us tantalizing glimpses at the world's history without infodumping them in the text.
While the detective aspect was pretty cool, the fun of the story was seeing where everyone ended up in this reality. Saddam Hussein is an underworld kingpin, Osama bin Laden is a senator, and Dick Cheney is head of the Texas CIA and known for eliminating his rivals in hunting accidents.
I wolfed this book down in three sittings. It was quite readable and I couldn't wait to see how things panned out. By showing the war on terror in the mirror universe, Ruff shows what a shit show the whole thing was.
This is my favorite quote from the book:
"So in the other reality, Osama bin Laden is an Iraqi?"
"No, he's still from Jeddah," Amal said. "A 'Saudi' Arabian."
"Then why the hell would America invade Iraq?"
"Because God put a Texan in charge!"
I don't have many bad things to say about this book. I almost gave it a 5 but I thought the characters were a little skimpy and the ending could have been better. Overall, The Mirage was a great read and an interesting look at how things might have went another way. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
May 14, 2012
The Mirage is more than an alternate history novel. It’s a thought-provoking inversion that turns the world on its head, portraying a contemporary world in which the United Arab States—the UAS—is the dominant economic and military power, while North America is merely a collection of squabbling territories often divided along socio-religious lines. One of these states, the Rocky Mountain Independent Territories, is home to the World Christian Alliance, a terrorist organization responsible for the November 9, 2001 attack on the Tigris and Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad.
I was fortunate to hear Matt Ruff discuss his book at the Tumwater Timberland Library. It was originally a television pitch commissioned by HBO. While they felt it was potentially brilliant, the likelihood of it being a hard sell to American TV audiences caused it to be shelved. Ruff parlayed his idea into a novel that is both inventive and gripping. The narrative follows a trio of detectives from Homeland Security whose investigation of a team of suicide bombers results in a surprising assertion: The terrorists all believe that what the detectives view as reality is in fact a mirage.
As the agents embark on their search to uncover the origin of these rumors—and the mysterious artifacts lending credence to them—the story accelerates, gradually metamorphosing from its thought-provoking premise into an action-filled finale. While this keeps the reader engrossed, it’s somewhat disappointing after such a high-concept premise.
Some revisionist histories try to deliver a heavy-handed message. However, I’ve always felt the genre works best when it’s merely a setting. Ruff successfully does this, resisting the urge to turn the book into a parable, though he does provide a scathing critique of religious partisanship. He wows with wicked creativity, filling the world with a number of clever details, and provides necessary background through a series of wiki articles entitled the “Library of Alexandria.” There is just enough to satisfy, even if you may not want to peer too closely at the details. This works to the novel’s advantage; the rules for building an ephemeral world are necessarily different than those trying to convince us of a hard-set alternate reality.
Ruff shows a deft hand with his subtle and nuanced portrayal of UAS societal dynamics, and his detectives are sympathetic and relatable. At times, though, his own cleverness turns into indulgence. Ruff fills his novel with several well-known characters; while some, like Saddam Hussein, have prominent (and plausible) roles, towards the end of the novel the amount of cameos shoehorned into the plot becomes overbearing—and somewhat cartoonish. Add a dollop of confusing metaphysics, shallow caricatures, and nebulous motivations, and the plot collapses under the weight of greater expectations.
Still, don’t let that dissuade you--The Mirage is definitely worth reading. It doesn’t open perceptions by superordinating the US or UAS, or placing anyone on a pedestal; instead, it depicts everyday people with everyday concerns. Even when forced to comprehend that the world may not be as it seems, they seem utterly and beautifully normal. In our post-9/11 world, we’ve been force-fed perceptions and rhetoric. This novel reminds us that no matter what religion, society, country, or region, there are not only plenty of extremists, but also plenty of regular people just trying to live their lives.
I was fortunate to hear Matt Ruff discuss his book at the Tumwater Timberland Library. It was originally a television pitch commissioned by HBO. While they felt it was potentially brilliant, the likelihood of it being a hard sell to American TV audiences caused it to be shelved. Ruff parlayed his idea into a novel that is both inventive and gripping. The narrative follows a trio of detectives from Homeland Security whose investigation of a team of suicide bombers results in a surprising assertion: The terrorists all believe that what the detectives view as reality is in fact a mirage.
As the agents embark on their search to uncover the origin of these rumors—and the mysterious artifacts lending credence to them—the story accelerates, gradually metamorphosing from its thought-provoking premise into an action-filled finale. While this keeps the reader engrossed, it’s somewhat disappointing after such a high-concept premise.
Some revisionist histories try to deliver a heavy-handed message. However, I’ve always felt the genre works best when it’s merely a setting. Ruff successfully does this, resisting the urge to turn the book into a parable, though he does provide a scathing critique of religious partisanship. He wows with wicked creativity, filling the world with a number of clever details, and provides necessary background through a series of wiki articles entitled the “Library of Alexandria.” There is just enough to satisfy, even if you may not want to peer too closely at the details. This works to the novel’s advantage; the rules for building an ephemeral world are necessarily different than those trying to convince us of a hard-set alternate reality.
Ruff shows a deft hand with his subtle and nuanced portrayal of UAS societal dynamics, and his detectives are sympathetic and relatable. At times, though, his own cleverness turns into indulgence. Ruff fills his novel with several well-known characters; while some, like Saddam Hussein, have prominent (and plausible) roles, towards the end of the novel the amount of cameos shoehorned into the plot becomes overbearing—and somewhat cartoonish. Add a dollop of confusing metaphysics, shallow caricatures, and nebulous motivations, and the plot collapses under the weight of greater expectations.
Still, don’t let that dissuade you--The Mirage is definitely worth reading. It doesn’t open perceptions by superordinating the US or UAS, or placing anyone on a pedestal; instead, it depicts everyday people with everyday concerns. Even when forced to comprehend that the world may not be as it seems, they seem utterly and beautifully normal. In our post-9/11 world, we’ve been force-fed perceptions and rhetoric. This novel reminds us that no matter what religion, society, country, or region, there are not only plenty of extremists, but also plenty of regular people just trying to live their lives.
May 24, 2012
The date is 11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists from the Christian States of America hijack four jetliners, and launch a suicide attack against the United Arab States. Two jetliners crash into Tigris and Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad. One crashes into the the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The last one, believed to be aimed for Mecca, is brought down by the passengers. The United Arab States declares a War on Terror, and invades the CSA, estabilishing the Green Zone in Washington, D.C. Eight years later, Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The man claims that the world Mustafa knows is a mirage, reality turned upside down - in the real world America is a world superpower, and the Arab states are just a bunch of backward, thirld world countries. A search of his apartment brings up a copy of The New York Times, dated September 12, 2001 reporting a terorrist attack on the Twin Towers in the city...
The premise of the novel is great, potent with possibilities and the author obviously has a lot of fun with creating a world which is standing on its head. Law & Order: Halal and CSI: Damascus are popular TV shows and in bookstores one can find books like Christianity for the Ignorant. On the internet, people can browse the Library of Alexandria, a "user edited reference source". Characters we know appear in reversed roles - Osama bin Laden is a war hero, but Saddam Hussein is still the bad guy. There's a lot of similar references in this novel, and spotting them out is great fun.
However, the biggest flaw of the text is the fact that it gets bogged down with mundanity; the fun of the mirage concept is buried down under the rough parts which slow the pace down and make the reader slog along. The ambitious idea and depth of changes introduced into the world deserved more than this; in parts it reads like any other contemporary thriller, with characters more sketched than developed, focusing more on the plotline, which seems disjointed and unfocused. The idea carries the whole novel along, and hile I felt that the ending was satisfying I couldn't shake off the feeling that this novel deserved more; in the mirage world it would be thought provoking and memorable, while in the real world it never really becomes more than a sum of its parts, depending on the clever gimmicks and idea of its author.
Overall, I am glad that I've read it, and I think that the title suits it well - it is like a mirage, glittering with wonders which slowly evaporate as we approach it to take a good look.
The premise of the novel is great, potent with possibilities and the author obviously has a lot of fun with creating a world which is standing on its head. Law & Order: Halal and CSI: Damascus are popular TV shows and in bookstores one can find books like Christianity for the Ignorant. On the internet, people can browse the Library of Alexandria, a "user edited reference source". Characters we know appear in reversed roles - Osama bin Laden is a war hero, but Saddam Hussein is still the bad guy. There's a lot of similar references in this novel, and spotting them out is great fun.
However, the biggest flaw of the text is the fact that it gets bogged down with mundanity; the fun of the mirage concept is buried down under the rough parts which slow the pace down and make the reader slog along. The ambitious idea and depth of changes introduced into the world deserved more than this; in parts it reads like any other contemporary thriller, with characters more sketched than developed, focusing more on the plotline, which seems disjointed and unfocused. The idea carries the whole novel along, and hile I felt that the ending was satisfying I couldn't shake off the feeling that this novel deserved more; in the mirage world it would be thought provoking and memorable, while in the real world it never really becomes more than a sum of its parts, depending on the clever gimmicks and idea of its author.
Overall, I am glad that I've read it, and I think that the title suits it well - it is like a mirage, glittering with wonders which slowly evaporate as we approach it to take a good look.
October 2, 2012
The best parts of Matt Ruff's alternate War on Terror world are when the story seems like a waking dream: characters sense their version of events is not quite the reality, yet the scenes are infused with details too vivid to be anything less. These parts, especially during the first half of the novel, open the reader's eyes to new perspectives on what Americans must think of as an unchangeable cultural moment. But, also as with a dream, the longer the novel goes on, the more gaps appear to make the story less effective, less believable, and less magical. It plays games with wild pairings that work only to make the characters whose world we wanted to believe in seem less believable themselves. The ending effectively explains "the mirage," but the second half of the book disappoints on a promise: that even a broken mirror can, through inversion and distortion, show us exactly who we are.
April 15, 2012
I just wanted to let you know that I finished reading Matt Ruff’s new book, The Mirage, and I’m over the moon about it, it is so good! It kept me up reading long into the night!!! It begins on November 9, 2001. Members of the Halal Police force are rousting a smuggler of wines and spirits from his boat on the Tigris. Mustafa al Baghdadi is a member of this squad, enforcing Islamic rules against the selling of spirits. But this is a very different Baghdad than we are used to. This is a major metropolis of modern buildings, modern culture and modern crime. We find out Mustafa is upset. He and his wife Fadwa have had another argument. He suspects it might be over his second wife, who he regrets marrying. In a pique he has taken their only car to work, forcing her to take the El to the twin World Trade centre towers where she is meeting someone. As Mustafa and the rest of the Halal squad are standing over their prisoner they hear the roar of a passenger jet engine, impossibly close and incredibly loud, flying in the direction of the twin towers. An explosion is heard, followed minutes later by sirens. Mustafa know in his heart that Fadwa is dead.
The story skips ahead 10 years. The events of 11/9 are long past. The War on Terror against the Christian States of America is winding down. Mustafa is now a member of the AHS (Arab Homeland Security) the federal police force of the UAS (United Arab States) He is still mourning the death of Fadwa. When a Christian Crusader attempts to blow himself up in a crowded market square Mustafa almost gets himself killed. His boss suspects he may have done it on purpose. So he assigns a couple of members to his team-a former ABI (Arab Bureau of Investigation)agent named Amal and his old friend Samir, both to help him and keep and eye on him. As the AHS continues investigating how this Crusader managed to get past the now very tight security, Mustafa and his crew start hearing stories about the Mirage. When they capture a Crusader alive he begins ranting about how all reality is just a mirage-that in the 'real' world America is a superpower and the states of the UAS are just rag tag 3rd world countries. The Mirage, however, is a powerful story, for Christians and Muslims alike; and Mustafa finds out that powerful people like the gangster Saddam Hussein and his sons, and the UAS Senator Osama Bin Laden, are also interested in finding out the truth about it.
Matt Ruff weaves a very believable version of modern history, but from the other side of the looking glass; and in doing so exposes truths about the last 10 years. In its essence it is a great mystery or political thriller. It could also be seen as a fantasy. But whatever genre you may want to call it is one heck of a read!!
Christopher Moore is a huge fan as well, and recently was promoting this book on his website and FaceBook page.
The story skips ahead 10 years. The events of 11/9 are long past. The War on Terror against the Christian States of America is winding down. Mustafa is now a member of the AHS (Arab Homeland Security) the federal police force of the UAS (United Arab States) He is still mourning the death of Fadwa. When a Christian Crusader attempts to blow himself up in a crowded market square Mustafa almost gets himself killed. His boss suspects he may have done it on purpose. So he assigns a couple of members to his team-a former ABI (Arab Bureau of Investigation)agent named Amal and his old friend Samir, both to help him and keep and eye on him. As the AHS continues investigating how this Crusader managed to get past the now very tight security, Mustafa and his crew start hearing stories about the Mirage. When they capture a Crusader alive he begins ranting about how all reality is just a mirage-that in the 'real' world America is a superpower and the states of the UAS are just rag tag 3rd world countries. The Mirage, however, is a powerful story, for Christians and Muslims alike; and Mustafa finds out that powerful people like the gangster Saddam Hussein and his sons, and the UAS Senator Osama Bin Laden, are also interested in finding out the truth about it.
Matt Ruff weaves a very believable version of modern history, but from the other side of the looking glass; and in doing so exposes truths about the last 10 years. In its essence it is a great mystery or political thriller. It could also be seen as a fantasy. But whatever genre you may want to call it is one heck of a read!!
Christopher Moore is a huge fan as well, and recently was promoting this book on his website and FaceBook page.
February 19, 2012
Overall, the book was okay, but problematic.
Some of the worldbuilding in this book was brilliant, from small funny details (CSI: Halal, Christianity for the Ignorant) to the large strokes of the way the UAS (United Arab States) and the alt-USA were set up. The general outlines of Europe -- mostly the eastern bit -- were also fun, though I think that the results of WWI that led to WWII in this world don't entirely fit, but no details were provided so I can make up my own reasons that alt-WWI led to alt-WWII (there are some reasons given in the book, but not exactly geopolitical reasons).
The first half of the book was fantastic. But as we got more and more into the alt-USA, it made less and less and less sense. If the USA is a bunch of independent countries, what about Mexico? (One state appears to be part of Texas.) What about the entire northern half of the US, which -- other than a brief mention of NYC and DC -- seems to not exist? Shouldn't it make a significant difference that North America is big, unlike the Middle East? If a US president/dictator is trying the "all of North America" manifest destiny thing, then Canada and Mexico should be mentioned. I just cannot imagine how different parts of the (southern) US are all at war and Mexico just stands by.
Another issue is that the UAS is in no ways better than the real-USA. Mostly they're the same, though pork is illegal (possibly other foods that aren't legal in the US are legal there), as is alcohol, though hashish isn't. It's fighting for gender equality and sort of succeeding, etc etc. Racism in the UAS is entirely ignored. It's virulently anti-gay. So the UAS is like the USA, except not as good. They also use the Gregorian calendar, for unknown reasons.
And, of course, the characters. Many of the main players' names will be familiar to you, and their personalities are much the same, though their circumstances are very different. The biggest problem here -- and this is a huge spoiler, so if you want to read the book without knowing this, beware, though I don't think you will actually lose anything if this single plot point is spoiled --
Some of the worldbuilding in this book was brilliant, from small funny details (CSI: Halal, Christianity for the Ignorant) to the large strokes of the way the UAS (United Arab States) and the alt-USA were set up. The general outlines of Europe -- mostly the eastern bit -- were also fun, though I think that the results of WWI that led to WWII in this world don't entirely fit, but no details were provided so I can make up my own reasons that alt-WWI led to alt-WWII (there are some reasons given in the book, but not exactly geopolitical reasons).
The first half of the book was fantastic. But as we got more and more into the alt-USA, it made less and less and less sense. If the USA is a bunch of independent countries, what about Mexico? (One state appears to be part of Texas.) What about the entire northern half of the US, which -- other than a brief mention of NYC and DC -- seems to not exist? Shouldn't it make a significant difference that North America is big, unlike the Middle East? If a US president/dictator is trying the "all of North America" manifest destiny thing, then Canada and Mexico should be mentioned. I just cannot imagine how different parts of the (southern) US are all at war and Mexico just stands by.
Another issue is that the UAS is in no ways better than the real-USA. Mostly they're the same, though pork is illegal (possibly other foods that aren't legal in the US are legal there), as is alcohol, though hashish isn't. It's fighting for gender equality and sort of succeeding, etc etc. Racism in the UAS is entirely ignored. It's virulently anti-gay. So the UAS is like the USA, except not as good. They also use the Gregorian calendar, for unknown reasons.
And, of course, the characters. Many of the main players' names will be familiar to you, and their personalities are much the same, though their circumstances are very different. The biggest problem here -- and this is a huge spoiler, so if you want to read the book without knowing this, beware, though I don't think you will actually lose anything if this single plot point is spoiled --
February 25, 2020
While the world building was cool, it didn't quite live up to Lovecraft Country (which to be fair, this was written first, so Matt Ruff has grown as a writer). I really think the concept, an alternate history version of 9/11, was great. I really think alt history is a cool genre, but usually it's execution is not for me. This, however, was really enjoyable.
There were Library of Alexandria (think Wikipedia) entries at the beginning of each "chapters" (there are no chapter numbers, but you can tell that's what they're meant to be), that really helped to flesh out the world. I would love another novel set in this world that is set wholey in this world version of America. LBJ being a religious dictator was an interesting concept. Israel is also located in Germany in this book, which if you ask me makes more sense than forcing Palestinians out of there homeland.
Between this and the show Messiah on Netflix, I'm really interested in learning more about Islam. I bought a Qur'an on Amazon and plan on reading it soon (I still have the Bible to read, not sure if I'll read them together or not).
There were Library of Alexandria (think Wikipedia) entries at the beginning of each "chapters" (there are no chapter numbers, but you can tell that's what they're meant to be), that really helped to flesh out the world. I would love another novel set in this world that is set wholey in this world version of America. LBJ being a religious dictator was an interesting concept. Israel is also located in Germany in this book, which if you ask me makes more sense than forcing Palestinians out of there homeland.
Between this and the show Messiah on Netflix, I'm really interested in learning more about Islam. I bought a Qur'an on Amazon and plan on reading it soon (I still have the Bible to read, not sure if I'll read them together or not).
January 14, 2020
The Economist made me want to read this. I think you should read it, too.
Four or five stars?
Years later, the five-star justification:
For me, five stars in fiction comes in two flavors.
The first is beauty: it might be the prose, or the story, but something about it just captures me. This usually is going to be in literary fiction, not genre fiction, but there are exceptions (some of Guy Gavriel Kay’s work, for instance).
The second is that it caught something I didn’t expect to see, and value.
I tend to forget most of the details of most books I’ve read, and sometimes so much I can’t recall ever reading it. I’ve looked at books I’ve rated highly here on Goodreads and stared at my review trying to remember even the tiniest glimpse. If I’m successful, I write a few notes to myself in the “private notes” area of the review.
If a book overcame that, then it clearly impressed me. Ruff’s inversion of 9/11 did that. It wasn’t the quality of what he produced — although that was very good — but that it occurred to him in the first place, and that he followed through. Empathy requires an act of psychic dislocation: we need to see the world from another’s perspective.
After that attack, it became very easy to focus on the raw and violent hatred we see among “them”, but reading this made it easy to recognize that there’s plenty among “us”, too. All social groups have within them the capacity to commit unjustifiable evil, and those groups with power usually get around to it sooner rather than later.
Any of numerous simple twists in history could have made Ruff’s version true. When we call other groups “evil” it would be best to remember that we have been evil, too, and are quite capable of doing so again.
Four or five stars?
Years later, the five-star justification:
For me, five stars in fiction comes in two flavors.
The first is beauty: it might be the prose, or the story, but something about it just captures me. This usually is going to be in literary fiction, not genre fiction, but there are exceptions (some of Guy Gavriel Kay’s work, for instance).
The second is that it caught something I didn’t expect to see, and value.
I tend to forget most of the details of most books I’ve read, and sometimes so much I can’t recall ever reading it. I’ve looked at books I’ve rated highly here on Goodreads and stared at my review trying to remember even the tiniest glimpse. If I’m successful, I write a few notes to myself in the “private notes” area of the review.
If a book overcame that, then it clearly impressed me. Ruff’s inversion of 9/11 did that. It wasn’t the quality of what he produced — although that was very good — but that it occurred to him in the first place, and that he followed through. Empathy requires an act of psychic dislocation: we need to see the world from another’s perspective.
After that attack, it became very easy to focus on the raw and violent hatred we see among “them”, but reading this made it easy to recognize that there’s plenty among “us”, too. All social groups have within them the capacity to commit unjustifiable evil, and those groups with power usually get around to it sooner rather than later.
Any of numerous simple twists in history could have made Ruff’s version true. When we call other groups “evil” it would be best to remember that we have been evil, too, and are quite capable of doing so again.
March 10, 2012
The premise to this book is brilliant. It takes place in an alternate world where 9/11 was actually 11/9, and happened to the United Arab States. The highjackers were supposedly Christian Fundamentalists from the Republic of Texas.
But the story gets a little too caught up in its own cleverness. Ruff obviously has a ball with his alternate world, and you can see it in the details like eBazaar instead of eBay, and Sadaam Hussein's new career as a labor union leader/ mob boss.
But here is my problem. In the world, Osama bin Laden is still the architect of the terrorist attacks, this time as a senator, in order to bring the UAS back to what he believes is the correct way to practice Islam. It's like Ruff couldn't bring himself to make Christian conservatives as evil as Muslim Terrorists. I'm not saying that's why he did it, and it works in the context of the novel, but I just wonder if it wouldn't have been more interesting to have someone from the US be behind the terror plot.
Also, when the novel gets to how the "Mirage" was created, it turns out to have been a wish made by an American Commander in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Commander admits to having made the wish, but what wish exactly did he make? Did he actually wish for the United States to become a collection of anti-science, Fundamentalist States? I doubt it. I guess he could have wished that the Middle East was as advanced as and had similiar values to the United States, but why would that necessitate changing the US? There are hints that the Mirage is some kind of judgement by God, but that's never explicitly stated.
All in all, these are relatively minor quibbles with a fun piece of speculative fiction.
But the story gets a little too caught up in its own cleverness. Ruff obviously has a ball with his alternate world, and you can see it in the details like eBazaar instead of eBay, and Sadaam Hussein's new career as a labor union leader/ mob boss.
But here is my problem. In the world, Osama bin Laden is still the architect of the terrorist attacks, this time as a senator, in order to bring the UAS back to what he believes is the correct way to practice Islam. It's like Ruff couldn't bring himself to make Christian conservatives as evil as Muslim Terrorists. I'm not saying that's why he did it, and it works in the context of the novel, but I just wonder if it wouldn't have been more interesting to have someone from the US be behind the terror plot.
Also, when the novel gets to how the "Mirage" was created, it turns out to have been a wish made by an American Commander in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Commander admits to having made the wish, but what wish exactly did he make? Did he actually wish for the United States to become a collection of anti-science, Fundamentalist States? I doubt it. I guess he could have wished that the Middle East was as advanced as and had similiar values to the United States, but why would that necessitate changing the US? There are hints that the Mirage is some kind of judgement by God, but that's never explicitly stated.
All in all, these are relatively minor quibbles with a fun piece of speculative fiction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2012
sorta disappointing - what could have been an amazing novel, just reads like genre fiction, with a purported purpose. the characters are flat and police proceduralish. saddam and bin laden are evil and written with zero depth (and this is a trap many writers fall into - that evil characters should be written with no depth and complexity. but evil actions require the most complex motives, and yet writers settle for simple undiluted motivations: greed, jealousy, etc.) but the biggest letdown of all was the rationale as well as the mechanism for the 'mirage', the answer is really simple, taken from a fairy tale, and the motivation for the mirage is even worse, that is if you can even find it (as it's never explicitly stated). alas, you're left with genre fiction without the plot payoff and capital "L" literature without the depth of character or human motivation that allows a reader to walk away from a novel with satisfaction without a full plot resolution (think infinite jest, gravity's rainbow, pale fire, etc.) and of the two novels of his i've read, i'd stick with bad monkeys which sticks with the paranoid espionage angle throughout and tries not to veer to far from course.
November 10, 2011
Taking an interesting perspective on the "war on terror," Matt Ruff turns the events of 9/11 on their head, setting The Mirage in the United Arab States, where the population is still struggling to deal with the aftereffects of a devastating 11/9/01 terrorist attack by Christian fundamentalists in hijacked jets. While the premise is intriguing, and several of the characters are memorable, the novel is ultimately dragged down by too many jokey parallels and references highlighting various real American political figures and situations. The constant name-dropping, paired with dozens of interspersed "entries" from The Library of Alexandria, a fictionalized Wikipedia, to provide background information, ultimately detract from the storytelling. While The Mirage is nowhere near as masterful as Sewer, Gas, Electric or Set This House in Order, Matt Ruff is still one of the most interesting novelists writing today, and I look forward to his next book.
February 26, 2012
The Mirage started off strongly - it has a truly interesting premise, and the atmosphere Ruff creates in the alternate reality Baghdad is pretty engaging. However, as the book moves (too quickly) on, the flaws start to show: the narrative style is a bit flimsy, and it also starts to feel really gimmicky as more and more familiar faces from the "real" world (especially the notable American characters) start to pop up. I can see the usefulness (and even the fun) of making characters out of Saddam and Osama bin Laden, but it gets more and more distracting as the story wears on, especially when references to TV shows like CSI and 24 become more frequent. The ending is also far more sci-fi/fantasy than I was hoping for. I read somewhere that Ruff originally pitched this as a TV show, and I definitely think this would've worked way better had a network picked it up.
August 16, 2020
This is an interesting book and despite it being older than Lovecraft Country, I think most readers of this book found it after the amazing success of Ruff's novel that will be an HBO TV series launching this month. While Lovecraft Country might be a better novel, I think I enjoyed the experience of reading The Mirage even more. This book is an alternate history farce of the War on Terror and the awful foreign policy of the GW Bush years. I think some readers took the alternate history aspects a little too serious and were nitpicking aspects of the false history in a way that I think misses the point.
There are laugh-out-loud moments in the book but this is not a goofy satire. I like the balance that Ruff strikes in this book. It works in three modes. Bizarro satire/political commentary/uncomfortable reflection. I enjoyed all three modes as Ruff's experiment is simple. Flip the War on Terror. Using the tools of science fiction and alternate history Ruff sets his book in the UAS, the United Arab States that was formed after World War 2 out of the ashes of colonialism.
This democracy in the UAS is made up of states who are similar to the middle east nations we know. This country has governors like Baathist gangster Saddam Hussein and Senator Osama Bin Laden the son of the oil tycoon. Yeah, it is corrupt but when this timeline has a tattered plutocracy with Donald Trump can we really talk shit? The story takes place a decade after fundamentalist Christian highjackers send planes crashing into Baghdad's Tigris & Euphrates towers on November 9th,2001.
The main point of view character is Mustafa A Baghdadi a homeland security agent. While many of the well-known characters are sorta cartoonish satire versions of themselves I thought Mustafa was a good anchor for the story. Some of my favorite moments of the book were scenes when Mustafa's investigation brought him face to face with Saddam. I loved all these scenes that sees the Iraqi president as a brutal gangster and every bit as scary as he is in our world.
The narrative is a third-person broken up with fake wiki-pedia like entries from this world's equivalent to the online library of Alexandria. This is a helpful way for Ruff to do world-building without having the characters stop to explain the world. They are nicely laid out like the entry about Osama Bin Laden that comes pages after he is introduced. It gives us a few pages ponder his role on our own before filling in the blanks.
It is not until the second half that Mustafa travels to the fractured North American countries that we find out that the elderly LBJ has been an autocratic dictator since the killing of Kennedy. That he signed a civil rights act that was pretty much not worth the paper it was signed on. That the U.S. is mostly the eastern states and the country has broken apart, Texas for example is an evangelical nation. There several short military conflicts in North America but not much is said about Mexico and Canada. Some of the obvious characters from those years Dick Chainey and Donald Rumsfeld plays roles in the story but there are a few cool surprises I don't see coming when I get to spoilers I will explain.
Comparisons to Man in The High Castle are both obvious and at the same missing the point of both books. In High Castle PKD was making a point that the narrative of history is not always to be trusted. there is no binary On the High Castle world Vs our own. The world where the allies won in the novel inside of the novel of High Castle is not OUR world. The Mirage does set up this binary reality. There is a condition where people believe in our world, Mustafa finds a copy of the New York Times from September 12th that appears to be from our world.
The Mirage is not about the narrative of history it is about the War on Terror. The point is to show Americans how this "war" would look with the roles reversed. So the binary take on it is fine and makes sense. I personally would have preferred if this world just existed and there were no illusions to this other world.
So far so good, I am not sure I agree at all times with Ruff's idea about how this world would shake out but it is his mirror on our society and he can highlight what he chooses. Even if I don't agree I think it is a valuable one to look at. The Mirage is more of a thought experiment than novel, it is clear that Ruff got the episodic nature of Lovecraft Country in mind here but this is more one story.
There are some moments in spoilers I was not a huge fan of that took the book down a bit for me including a problematic core to the final act but it is a big spoiler. I suggest if the topic interests you to read and come back but if you don't plan to after the spoiler warning I will talk about a twist I liked and one I didn't. In the meantime overall I think This book should be read.
SPOILERS:
OK , there is a major twist in the third act when a CIA contacts Mustafa during his mission in the D.C. green zone. This agent is Timothy McVeigh working for the Christian Intelligence Agency on behalf of the republic of texas under the direction of a profit David Koresh who is working with a man called the Quail Hunter -clearly Dick Chainey. I didn't see this coming but it makes sense if you are flipping the War on Terror. I liked this twist.
The Twist I didn't like and thought was a problem is that despite flipping the stories the big twist at the end is that the Truthers in this world who think Bin Laden engineered the 11/9 attacks were proven correct. Yep, the end has an evil Muslims behind the whole thing twist. I was bothered that he couldn't commit in the story to the idea of Christian terrorists. I really didn't like this ending but still liked the book overall.
There are laugh-out-loud moments in the book but this is not a goofy satire. I like the balance that Ruff strikes in this book. It works in three modes. Bizarro satire/political commentary/uncomfortable reflection. I enjoyed all three modes as Ruff's experiment is simple. Flip the War on Terror. Using the tools of science fiction and alternate history Ruff sets his book in the UAS, the United Arab States that was formed after World War 2 out of the ashes of colonialism.
This democracy in the UAS is made up of states who are similar to the middle east nations we know. This country has governors like Baathist gangster Saddam Hussein and Senator Osama Bin Laden the son of the oil tycoon. Yeah, it is corrupt but when this timeline has a tattered plutocracy with Donald Trump can we really talk shit? The story takes place a decade after fundamentalist Christian highjackers send planes crashing into Baghdad's Tigris & Euphrates towers on November 9th,2001.
The main point of view character is Mustafa A Baghdadi a homeland security agent. While many of the well-known characters are sorta cartoonish satire versions of themselves I thought Mustafa was a good anchor for the story. Some of my favorite moments of the book were scenes when Mustafa's investigation brought him face to face with Saddam. I loved all these scenes that sees the Iraqi president as a brutal gangster and every bit as scary as he is in our world.
The narrative is a third-person broken up with fake wiki-pedia like entries from this world's equivalent to the online library of Alexandria. This is a helpful way for Ruff to do world-building without having the characters stop to explain the world. They are nicely laid out like the entry about Osama Bin Laden that comes pages after he is introduced. It gives us a few pages ponder his role on our own before filling in the blanks.
It is not until the second half that Mustafa travels to the fractured North American countries that we find out that the elderly LBJ has been an autocratic dictator since the killing of Kennedy. That he signed a civil rights act that was pretty much not worth the paper it was signed on. That the U.S. is mostly the eastern states and the country has broken apart, Texas for example is an evangelical nation. There several short military conflicts in North America but not much is said about Mexico and Canada. Some of the obvious characters from those years Dick Chainey and Donald Rumsfeld plays roles in the story but there are a few cool surprises I don't see coming when I get to spoilers I will explain.
Comparisons to Man in The High Castle are both obvious and at the same missing the point of both books. In High Castle PKD was making a point that the narrative of history is not always to be trusted. there is no binary On the High Castle world Vs our own. The world where the allies won in the novel inside of the novel of High Castle is not OUR world. The Mirage does set up this binary reality. There is a condition where people believe in our world, Mustafa finds a copy of the New York Times from September 12th that appears to be from our world.
The Mirage is not about the narrative of history it is about the War on Terror. The point is to show Americans how this "war" would look with the roles reversed. So the binary take on it is fine and makes sense. I personally would have preferred if this world just existed and there were no illusions to this other world.
So far so good, I am not sure I agree at all times with Ruff's idea about how this world would shake out but it is his mirror on our society and he can highlight what he chooses. Even if I don't agree I think it is a valuable one to look at. The Mirage is more of a thought experiment than novel, it is clear that Ruff got the episodic nature of Lovecraft Country in mind here but this is more one story.
There are some moments in spoilers I was not a huge fan of that took the book down a bit for me including a problematic core to the final act but it is a big spoiler. I suggest if the topic interests you to read and come back but if you don't plan to after the spoiler warning I will talk about a twist I liked and one I didn't. In the meantime overall I think This book should be read.
SPOILERS:
OK , there is a major twist in the third act when a CIA contacts Mustafa during his mission in the D.C. green zone. This agent is Timothy McVeigh working for the Christian Intelligence Agency on behalf of the republic of texas under the direction of a profit David Koresh who is working with a man called the Quail Hunter -clearly Dick Chainey. I didn't see this coming but it makes sense if you are flipping the War on Terror. I liked this twist.
The Twist I didn't like and thought was a problem is that despite flipping the stories the big twist at the end is that the Truthers in this world who think Bin Laden engineered the 11/9 attacks were proven correct. Yep, the end has an evil Muslims behind the whole thing twist. I was bothered that he couldn't commit in the story to the idea of Christian terrorists. I really didn't like this ending but still liked the book overall.
January 8, 2012
With "The Mirage", Matt Ruff has written the definitive 9-11 novel, a spellbinding, alternative history thriller that is the 21st Century version of Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle"; an often sly, truly memorable, fictional commentary on the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks and America's military response, especially its invasion of Iraq. This is no mere homage to Philip K. Dick's greatest science fiction novel, but instead, one that truly transcends it, with dialogue reminiscent of Elmore Leonard and David Foster Wallace, a plot worthy of Graham Greene and John Le Carre, and more than a passing nod to William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson; indeed it can be seen as a contemporary tale straight out of "One Thousand and One Nights" which perceptive readers will appreciate and understand by the close of Ruff's compelling saga. I have no doubt that Ruff's latest novel will be viewed as his most controversial. There will be those who find objectionable, his heroic portrayal of democratic Muslim and Christian Arabs, in stark contrast to his utterly reprehensible cast of fanatical Fundamentalist Protestant Christian Americans, and they will also claim that his plot is utterly preposterous (But one that is far more rooted in reality than Dick's dystopian vision of a United States conquered and divided into zones of Imperial Japanese and Nazi German occupation in "The Man in the High Castle".). Any novel that will have as characters, the likes of Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz and Osama bin Laden, will be the target of ample criticism, but Ruff's choices make absolute sense as this is truly a compelling work of alternative history, and one destined to be a classic in this genre.
Readers will find ample reminders of 9-11 and subsequent American history, within Ruff's compelling alternative history, starting with an almost poetic prologue that recounts a Baghdad dawn eerily reminiscent of New York City's on that fateful Tuesday morning (which, in Ruff's version is also a Tuesday), seeing the first rays of the sun striking the Tigris and Euphrates twin World Trade Center towers. And then there will be scenes set in the United States, not far from the Green Zone established by United Arab States armed forces in Washington, D. C., that will have unavoidable comparisons with America's recently concluded occupation of Iraq. And yet, despite the gross similarities, there will be differences, based on cultural and religious differences as well as the alternative history timeline, which Ruff cleverly exploits via his "entries" in "The Library of Alexandria", his alternative history clone of Wikipedia, which are often witty, quite clever, "footnotes" which merely add to - not detract from - his engrossing narrative.
Eight years after the 11-9-01 terrorist attacks on the United Arab States, Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured American suicide bomber who claims that their recent history is but a mirage of the truth; one in which the United States of America, a superpower, is attacked by fanatical Muslim terrorists, with the Muslim Arab world fragmented into barely civilized "backward third-world states", not the democratic superpower that is the United Arab States. Other terrorists have been telling the same stories, and Mustafa, along with his colleagues and friends Samir and Amal, soon embark on a perilous trek from the Arab world to the occupied Christian States of America in search of the truth, encountering not only other suspects, but even artifacts, that support the bomber's astonishing claims. Theirs is a trek to uncover the truth before the independent investigations of Baathist labor leader - and gangster - Saddam Hussein and Senate Intelligence Committee head Osama bin Laden succeed.
"The Mirage" is an exceptional work of fiction that warrants a mention in the 2012 "best of" lists, and one worthy of recognition as a potential Hugo and Nebula Award nominee by those within the science fiction literary community. Ruff's latest novel should confirm his status as one of the best American writers of my generation; a noteworthy literary career that includes notable works of fantasy ("Fool on the Hill"), post-cyberpunk fiction ("Sewer Gas Electric: The Public Works Trilogy"), and most recently, a heart-pounding psychological thriller homage to Philip K. Dick ("Bad Monkeys"). Much more so than either Rick Moody or Jonathan Lethem - his closest peers amongst "mainstream" fiction writers capable of writing excellent science fiction - Ruff has created a believable, realistic "world" as memorable in its own right as those envisioned by the likes of William Gibson and China Mieville in, respectively, their celebrated "Cyberspace" and "New Crobuzon" trilogies; it's a "world" that shouldn't be missed.
Readers will find ample reminders of 9-11 and subsequent American history, within Ruff's compelling alternative history, starting with an almost poetic prologue that recounts a Baghdad dawn eerily reminiscent of New York City's on that fateful Tuesday morning (which, in Ruff's version is also a Tuesday), seeing the first rays of the sun striking the Tigris and Euphrates twin World Trade Center towers. And then there will be scenes set in the United States, not far from the Green Zone established by United Arab States armed forces in Washington, D. C., that will have unavoidable comparisons with America's recently concluded occupation of Iraq. And yet, despite the gross similarities, there will be differences, based on cultural and religious differences as well as the alternative history timeline, which Ruff cleverly exploits via his "entries" in "The Library of Alexandria", his alternative history clone of Wikipedia, which are often witty, quite clever, "footnotes" which merely add to - not detract from - his engrossing narrative.
Eight years after the 11-9-01 terrorist attacks on the United Arab States, Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured American suicide bomber who claims that their recent history is but a mirage of the truth; one in which the United States of America, a superpower, is attacked by fanatical Muslim terrorists, with the Muslim Arab world fragmented into barely civilized "backward third-world states", not the democratic superpower that is the United Arab States. Other terrorists have been telling the same stories, and Mustafa, along with his colleagues and friends Samir and Amal, soon embark on a perilous trek from the Arab world to the occupied Christian States of America in search of the truth, encountering not only other suspects, but even artifacts, that support the bomber's astonishing claims. Theirs is a trek to uncover the truth before the independent investigations of Baathist labor leader - and gangster - Saddam Hussein and Senate Intelligence Committee head Osama bin Laden succeed.
"The Mirage" is an exceptional work of fiction that warrants a mention in the 2012 "best of" lists, and one worthy of recognition as a potential Hugo and Nebula Award nominee by those within the science fiction literary community. Ruff's latest novel should confirm his status as one of the best American writers of my generation; a noteworthy literary career that includes notable works of fantasy ("Fool on the Hill"), post-cyberpunk fiction ("Sewer Gas Electric: The Public Works Trilogy"), and most recently, a heart-pounding psychological thriller homage to Philip K. Dick ("Bad Monkeys"). Much more so than either Rick Moody or Jonathan Lethem - his closest peers amongst "mainstream" fiction writers capable of writing excellent science fiction - Ruff has created a believable, realistic "world" as memorable in its own right as those envisioned by the likes of William Gibson and China Mieville in, respectively, their celebrated "Cyberspace" and "New Crobuzon" trilogies; it's a "world" that shouldn't be missed.
July 19, 2014
This has gotten a lot of comparisons with Philip K. Dick's 'the man in the high castle' and while it is an extremely detailed and well researched alternative history, it certainly doesn't have the same subtle blend of themes and paranoia that Dick could evoke. The cosmic role reversal between America and Arabia in 'The Mirage' feels more about grafting one civilizations 'success' over another civilizations 'failure.' At first the Arab characters feel like little more than American characters with Arabic names and fairly conventional american backgrounds. Yet there are a few powerful, emotional moments throughout the book which show the cost of living in this world. Watching a deeply closeted Muslim getting blackmailed, reading about the disintegration of a marriage in a society where having multiple marriages at once are acceptable, someone flicking a cigarette butt off a roof as they wonder if their world is really what it appears to be, etc. Ruff is a strong writer, but I wanted him to focus in more on these moments of pathos and psychological tension than on the constant exposition of this world. The info dumps are well handled, considering what a deluge of new information he throws at you, but ultimately I found myself overwhelmed and often forgetting the precise history of turf wars between a john gotti-esque Saddam Hussein (weird, but effective) and the Mahdi army. The most disorienting (and I think most effective) part was when everyone goes to America and we see a truly bleak, sad vision of what right wing fundamentalist mania would do if it ran amok in the U.S. Everyone saying 'it's gods will' every other sentence, guns with violent biblical verses carved into their stocks (easily the book's most chilling image), and waring paramilitary christian groups engaging in a perpetual cycle of messianic violence. It's Rick Santorum meets the John Birch society. Like many books that try to juggle an entire made up world, The Mirage sets itself up with just too much to resolve and explore fully, and its only with a few handy deus ex machinas that it even makes it to the end at all. But look, Ruff still deserves serious credit, he's one of the few writers thus far who has actually been willing to try and tackle 'the war on terror' as a whole as a literary subject. An ongoing conflict this large, and this poorly defined is hard enough to pin down in reality, much less in fiction. If the war on terror ever develops a literature of its own, I suspect The Mirage will probably be seen as one of its antecedents. Right now, its one of the only works in a field that apparently few novelists want to examine.
February 21, 2012
I loved this book for the first 3/4ths, but it rapidly descended into something that I could scarcely recognize. It began with truly imaginative world-building and a truly tense and interesting investigation into reality itself. So, having built such a daring world that became an inquiry into what is real... why would he go and throw it all out at the end? Some may argue that he didn't actually do that, but to me, the implication is clear- and the characters may as well have woken up from a bad dream instead of what happened. There was such potential for deeply examining the roles of the US, Arab states, Israel, Europe... but it was thin-to-nonexistent, in my estimation. I was mightily annoyed that he would take a gutsy premise and then speed away from it so completely. If you're going to destroy and remake the world, make it stick.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2023
This book was interesting though really the part I found the most interesting was the premise. I like alternate histories but I actually felt like this one had too many info dumps and explanations. I think too because it was published in 2012 - it didn't age as well.
December 27, 2014
I read 92% of it and I have no desire to finish it. What started as a fascinating and unusual novel turned boring and uninteresting to me. I really don't care how it ends so I'm moving on.
April 13, 2012
One of my favorite books is The X-President by Phillip Baruth, which is a book about going back in time to change history but also a story about the life of Bill Clinton. And my favorite part of that book, maybe one of my favorite parts in any book ever, is when 90-something-year-old Bill Clinton has a temper tantrum about not being allowed to go back in time with the rest of the government spook team and the protagonist of the story realizes that it's a particularly bitter pill for Clinton to swallow because time travel is "changing the definition of what 'is' is."
In a lot of ways, the concept of The Mirage is everything I loved about that one scene in The X-President. A parallel universe where the backwater Christian States of America are responsible for the 11/9 terrorist attacks on the United Arab States is already a pretty high-concept plot, and it's made more engrossing because you're both following the story and playing who's who and what's what in the looking glass War on Terrorism.
I think I've talked about this on Goodreads several times before, but a lot of times when I read high-concept world-building genre novels, I have a particular feeling which I always describe as wishing I could have read a children's social studies text book from that author's universe instead of grasping for fragments of interesting information about this universe in the midst of whatever sub-par character-driven story the author is trying to tell. And so I appreciate Matt Ruff anticipating my needs in this area and including intercalary chapters in the form of entries from the Library of Alexandria (the Arabian Wikipedia surrogate).
I know the counter-argument against intercalary info-dumps is that if the story is good enough, you shouldn't care about the particulars of the universe. And maybe I'm simple-minded, but I've never gotten so engrossed in a genre story that I still wasn't wondering in the background what these people were watching on TV. This format works best if the narrative is already in third-person omniscient (which, in this case, it was) and in this particular case Ruff also takes care to have running bits throughout his Library of Alexandria entries (for ex: repeated mention of the post-11/9 show 24/7 Jihad) and mixes and matches between using them to set up scenes and dismantle them. There's one that particularly hit me in the stomach; the results the Library of Alexandria delivers for the search of the phrase "gay rights movement."
So anyway, there's four paragraphs of generally non-spoilery nattering for everyone I know, who I will probably not be able to convince to read this book anyway, because everyone who knows me knows that I have kind of dubious crap taste and so I spoil all my favorite books with my enthusiasm.
ANYWAY, ON TO THE SPOILERS:
In a lot of ways, the concept of The Mirage is everything I loved about that one scene in The X-President. A parallel universe where the backwater Christian States of America are responsible for the 11/9 terrorist attacks on the United Arab States is already a pretty high-concept plot, and it's made more engrossing because you're both following the story and playing who's who and what's what in the looking glass War on Terrorism.
I think I've talked about this on Goodreads several times before, but a lot of times when I read high-concept world-building genre novels, I have a particular feeling which I always describe as wishing I could have read a children's social studies text book from that author's universe instead of grasping for fragments of interesting information about this universe in the midst of whatever sub-par character-driven story the author is trying to tell. And so I appreciate Matt Ruff anticipating my needs in this area and including intercalary chapters in the form of entries from the Library of Alexandria (the Arabian Wikipedia surrogate).
I know the counter-argument against intercalary info-dumps is that if the story is good enough, you shouldn't care about the particulars of the universe. And maybe I'm simple-minded, but I've never gotten so engrossed in a genre story that I still wasn't wondering in the background what these people were watching on TV. This format works best if the narrative is already in third-person omniscient (which, in this case, it was) and in this particular case Ruff also takes care to have running bits throughout his Library of Alexandria entries (for ex: repeated mention of the post-11/9 show 24/7 Jihad) and mixes and matches between using them to set up scenes and dismantle them. There's one that particularly hit me in the stomach; the results the Library of Alexandria delivers for the search of the phrase "gay rights movement."
So anyway, there's four paragraphs of generally non-spoilery nattering for everyone I know, who I will probably not be able to convince to read this book anyway, because everyone who knows me knows that I have kind of dubious crap taste and so I spoil all my favorite books with my enthusiasm.
ANYWAY, ON TO THE SPOILERS:
April 20, 2022
Matt Ruff gehört zu den Autoren, deren Schaffen ich aufmerksam beobachte. Sein Fool on the Hill war seinerzeit ein Meilenstein meiner persönlichen Literaturgeschichte. Die beiden Folgeromane Sewer, Gas & Electric und Set this House in Order gefielen mir sehr gut, doch Bad Monkeys war eine solch peinliche Katastrophe, dass ich mit Bangen aufs neue Buch wartete. Und zunächst las sich die Inhaltsangabe dieses neuen Buchs, The Mirage, nach einer weiteren Peinlichkeit.
Zum Glück bangte ich unbegründet.
Ruff macht sich also an alternative history. The Mirage spielt hauptsächlich in Baghdad, im Mittelpunkt drei dortige Anti-Terror-Polizisten, die im Jahr 2009 aktuelle Anschläge christlichistischer Terroristen aufklären sollen. Doch nicht nur einer der Verdächtigen erzählt seltsame Geschichten einer Parallel-Historie, in der nicht die arabische Welt die entwickelte und technologisierte Ecke der Erde ist, sondern das heute barbarische und eben erst von Diktatoren befreite Nordamerika.
Der Plot ist ganz gut durchkonstruiert, die Figuren sind durchaus interessant, Ruff hat sich für seine Alternativwelt nette Details ausgedacht (z.B. erfundene Umgangssprache wie ninja für muslimische Vollverschleierung: In einer Szene heißt es von Kommissarin Amal “she had gone full ninja”). Doch das Ganze ist verwirrend komplex: Ruff will zu viel unterbringen, und das schafft er nur mit hölzernen Erzähltechniken (dabei hat er mit Fool on the Hill doch bewiesen, dass er dicht und komplex kann). Es werden über ein Dutzend historische Persönlichkeiten der Politik eingeflochten, nur halt mit anderen Vorzeichen – für jede muss ein wenig ausgeholt werden. Da bleibt kein Raum für Subtilitäten, und so bekommen wir die Hintergrundgeschichten der Hauptfiguren alle explizit und in eigenen Kapiteln serviert. Alternativgesellschaftlicher Hintergrund erscheint sogar in Zwischenkapiteln mit eigenem Layout, nämlich in Form von Wikipediaeinträgen, die in dieser Welt The Library of Alexandria heißt. Die zahlreichen Kampf- und Anschlagsszenen sind so unübersichtlich, dass ich immer schneller über sie hinweg las – für wirkliches Verständnis hätte ich Skizzen zeichnen müssen.
Zusätzlich schwingt mir der Roman seinen belehrenden Zeigefinger ein wenig zu nah vor meiner Leserinnennase: Zum Beispiel sind die Amerikaner der Arabischen Liga nicht etwa dankbar dafür, dass sie befreit wurden – mir wird erklärt, dass das wohl an den Panzern liegt, die vor ihren Eigenheimen stehen und darauf zielen. Auch die Vielschichtigkeit des Islams bekomme ich vermittelt, da hatte jemand wohl eine Mission. Was mich zu einer weiteren Irritation führt: Es tauchen nur religiöse Menschen und Gesellschaften auf, und zwar nur die halbwegs monotheistischen Christen, Muslime, Juden. Die Möglichkeit anderer Spiritualitäten oder gar des Unglaubens gibt es in dieser Utopie nicht. Ob das im Zusammenhang mit Matt Ruffs Danksagung steht? „Special thanks to the late (and sorely missed) Reverend Jack Ruff, whose insight into human nature continue to serve me well”.
Ich habe The Mirage durchaus interessiert und gespannt gelesen – selbst als der Roman im letzten Teil auf die Suche nach den Ursachen der Doppelwelten geht: Diese Suche verschwurbelt ziemlich ins unübersichtlich Esoterische: Sind es Träume, Drogen, neurologische Vorgänge, Gottes metaphysische Prüfungen oder dann doch der sehr physische Flaschengeist, den sich die Handlung zu verkraften zutraut?
Zum Glück bangte ich unbegründet.
Ruff macht sich also an alternative history. The Mirage spielt hauptsächlich in Baghdad, im Mittelpunkt drei dortige Anti-Terror-Polizisten, die im Jahr 2009 aktuelle Anschläge christlichistischer Terroristen aufklären sollen. Doch nicht nur einer der Verdächtigen erzählt seltsame Geschichten einer Parallel-Historie, in der nicht die arabische Welt die entwickelte und technologisierte Ecke der Erde ist, sondern das heute barbarische und eben erst von Diktatoren befreite Nordamerika.
Der Plot ist ganz gut durchkonstruiert, die Figuren sind durchaus interessant, Ruff hat sich für seine Alternativwelt nette Details ausgedacht (z.B. erfundene Umgangssprache wie ninja für muslimische Vollverschleierung: In einer Szene heißt es von Kommissarin Amal “she had gone full ninja”). Doch das Ganze ist verwirrend komplex: Ruff will zu viel unterbringen, und das schafft er nur mit hölzernen Erzähltechniken (dabei hat er mit Fool on the Hill doch bewiesen, dass er dicht und komplex kann). Es werden über ein Dutzend historische Persönlichkeiten der Politik eingeflochten, nur halt mit anderen Vorzeichen – für jede muss ein wenig ausgeholt werden. Da bleibt kein Raum für Subtilitäten, und so bekommen wir die Hintergrundgeschichten der Hauptfiguren alle explizit und in eigenen Kapiteln serviert. Alternativgesellschaftlicher Hintergrund erscheint sogar in Zwischenkapiteln mit eigenem Layout, nämlich in Form von Wikipediaeinträgen, die in dieser Welt The Library of Alexandria heißt. Die zahlreichen Kampf- und Anschlagsszenen sind so unübersichtlich, dass ich immer schneller über sie hinweg las – für wirkliches Verständnis hätte ich Skizzen zeichnen müssen.
Zusätzlich schwingt mir der Roman seinen belehrenden Zeigefinger ein wenig zu nah vor meiner Leserinnennase: Zum Beispiel sind die Amerikaner der Arabischen Liga nicht etwa dankbar dafür, dass sie befreit wurden – mir wird erklärt, dass das wohl an den Panzern liegt, die vor ihren Eigenheimen stehen und darauf zielen. Auch die Vielschichtigkeit des Islams bekomme ich vermittelt, da hatte jemand wohl eine Mission. Was mich zu einer weiteren Irritation führt: Es tauchen nur religiöse Menschen und Gesellschaften auf, und zwar nur die halbwegs monotheistischen Christen, Muslime, Juden. Die Möglichkeit anderer Spiritualitäten oder gar des Unglaubens gibt es in dieser Utopie nicht. Ob das im Zusammenhang mit Matt Ruffs Danksagung steht? „Special thanks to the late (and sorely missed) Reverend Jack Ruff, whose insight into human nature continue to serve me well”.
Ich habe The Mirage durchaus interessiert und gespannt gelesen – selbst als der Roman im letzten Teil auf die Suche nach den Ursachen der Doppelwelten geht: Diese Suche verschwurbelt ziemlich ins unübersichtlich Esoterische: Sind es Träume, Drogen, neurologische Vorgänge, Gottes metaphysische Prüfungen oder dann doch der sehr physische Flaschengeist, den sich die Handlung zu verkraften zutraut?
August 23, 2012
I've been reading a fair amount of heavy, serious literature lately—authors like Philip Roth, Lawrence Durrell and Alasdair Gray—so I thought I'd go back to something lighter for a change, like this novel... about 9/11/2001 and the ensuing War on Terror.
Or, rather, about 11/9/2001, the fateful day when a small group of fanatical Christian terrorists flew hijacked planes into Baghdad's twin Tigris and Euphrates skyscrapers, shaking the foundations of the sprawling Islamic republic known as the United Arab States, and sparking the invasion of North America by UAS liberators in 2003...
It's a high-concept role reversal, you see, a book whose elevator pitch could be on the level of Freaky Friday, but here turned into a fully-realized alternative universe. In this topsy-turvy world, for example, Israel is a central European state with its capital in Berlin, and Wikipedia has been replaced with the "Library of Alexandria," an online service curated by Muammar Gaddafi's technically-inclined nephew (although the Library's science-fictional roots go back much further than Jimmy Wales' brainchild, to John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider and Stand on Zanzibar, if not even earlier).
These role reversals are not always entirely plausible. There's no way that the same taxonomy of URLs—like libraryofalexandria.org—would have been developed by an Arabic-speaking culture. But they do generate plenty of wry chuckles:
Also—far too many public figures from our own history show up in roles similar to (or with only ironic differences from) our own. This is a common issue with alternate histories, of course, difficult to resist when an author wants to comment on our own universe. For the most part it did not detract significantly from my enjoyment of the story, and Ruff does eventually explain—within the context of the story—just why it is that there are so many parallels between the world of the Mirage and our own... but I balked (even in the midst of greater implausibilities) at seeing LBJ and JFK and even Leonard Nimoy show up in the roles they play here.
If that were all The Mirage turned out to be... well, it wouldn't have been much.
But you can trust Matt Ruff not to be that shallow. Every book of his is unique; not for him the grinding out of endless series. When Ruff does invent, rather than merely reflect, the result is sly and effective... the significance of "T.A.B." being one example. The opening scenes, in which the immediately likeable Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi has to take down a Methodist "homicide bomber" while bantering with his partner Amal bint Shamal, daughter of Baghdad's first female mayor, are as tautly written as any thriller. And, later, I felt chills when I read "Nous sommes tous Américains" (p.82) over al Baghdadi's shoulder.
There are a few spear-carriers, redshirts and cutouts assembled from news stories, to be sure, but Ruff's major characters are well-rounded individuals, whose warmth and wit carry the story forward as the situation in the UAS gets weirder. The Mirage turns out to be a serious work of speculative literature after all (not that I necessarily forgive you, Powell's, for retroactively reassigning all of Ruff's works from the skiffy ghetto to general literature upon the publication of this one sf novel).
In the end, the villains of The Mirage look much like our own crop of wicked princes. Ruff shows sympathy even for his devils, although he does not apologize for them—a phrase repeated more than once is that "A wicked prince in one world is a wicked prince in all[...]", and al Baghdadi's simple declaration to one of them is a moral directed as easily to our own universe's seemingly endless host of hijackers, homicide bombers and holy warriors:
Their lives are not yours to take.
Or, rather, about 11/9/2001, the fateful day when a small group of fanatical Christian terrorists flew hijacked planes into Baghdad's twin Tigris and Euphrates skyscrapers, shaking the foundations of the sprawling Islamic republic known as the United Arab States, and sparking the invasion of North America by UAS liberators in 2003...
It's a high-concept role reversal, you see, a book whose elevator pitch could be on the level of Freaky Friday, but here turned into a fully-realized alternative universe. In this topsy-turvy world, for example, Israel is a central European state with its capital in Berlin, and Wikipedia has been replaced with the "Library of Alexandria," an online service curated by Muammar Gaddafi's technically-inclined nephew (although the Library's science-fictional roots go back much further than Jimmy Wales' brainchild, to John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider and Stand on Zanzibar, if not even earlier).
These role reversals are not always entirely plausible. There's no way that the same taxonomy of URLs—like libraryofalexandria.org—would have been developed by an Arabic-speaking culture. But they do generate plenty of wry chuckles:
"Even in cases of extraordinary rendition, where prisoners were shipped overseas to be questioned in a human-rights vacuum like Texas[...]" (p.65)Heh. It's funny, see, because in our universe Texas is... oh, wait.
Also—far too many public figures from our own history show up in roles similar to (or with only ironic differences from) our own. This is a common issue with alternate histories, of course, difficult to resist when an author wants to comment on our own universe. For the most part it did not detract significantly from my enjoyment of the story, and Ruff does eventually explain—within the context of the story—just why it is that there are so many parallels between the world of the Mirage and our own... but I balked (even in the midst of greater implausibilities) at seeing LBJ and JFK and even Leonard Nimoy show up in the roles they play here.
If that were all The Mirage turned out to be... well, it wouldn't have been much.
But you can trust Matt Ruff not to be that shallow. Every book of his is unique; not for him the grinding out of endless series. When Ruff does invent, rather than merely reflect, the result is sly and effective... the significance of "T.A.B." being one example. The opening scenes, in which the immediately likeable Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi has to take down a Methodist "homicide bomber" while bantering with his partner Amal bint Shamal, daughter of Baghdad's first female mayor, are as tautly written as any thriller. And, later, I felt chills when I read "Nous sommes tous Américains" (p.82) over al Baghdadi's shoulder.
There are a few spear-carriers, redshirts and cutouts assembled from news stories, to be sure, but Ruff's major characters are well-rounded individuals, whose warmth and wit carry the story forward as the situation in the UAS gets weirder. The Mirage turns out to be a serious work of speculative literature after all (not that I necessarily forgive you, Powell's, for retroactively reassigning all of Ruff's works from the skiffy ghetto to general literature upon the publication of this one sf novel).
"And if I swallow anything evil,
Put your finger down my throat..."
—"Behind Blue Eyes," by The Who
In the end, the villains of The Mirage look much like our own crop of wicked princes. Ruff shows sympathy even for his devils, although he does not apologize for them—a phrase repeated more than once is that "A wicked prince in one world is a wicked prince in all[...]", and al Baghdadi's simple declaration to one of them is a moral directed as easily to our own universe's seemingly endless host of hijackers, homicide bombers and holy warriors:
Their lives are not yours to take.
July 29, 2016
Do you remember where you were when the towers fell? Mustafa al Baghdadi does. He was busting whiskey smugglers on the Tigris River when he saw the planes, hijacked by Christian fundamentalist insurgents, crash into the Tigris and Euphrates Twin Towers, ultimately bringing them down. That act, on November 9, 2001, sent the United Arab States into a full-blown “War on Terror,” driven by President Osama bin Laden, against the struggling theocracy in America. The UAS military forces maintain a presence there for many years, suffering losses from the forces there, led by such terror masterminds as Donald Rumsfeld, “The Quail Hunter” (a man who gets rid of his opponents by inviting them out on quail hunts and then “accidentally” shoots them), and a reference to a man who sounds a lot like George W. Bush. Add in some wild conspiracy theories behind how the UAS government was behind the attacks, and you start to find a lot of familiarity in a novel that upturns the entire history of 9/11 into the alternate history of 11/9.
Matt Ruff has created a compelling read that could have been just a thought experiment into jingoism, racism, patriotism, and the role of government following 9/11, but he also adds a fantastic plot to go along with this story to further cement it into our own history. The plot itself feels like a maguffin, since the point seems to be more about making the reader think, but the plot raises enough questions along the way to keep the reader moving forward through the story, and keeps it from being just a satire. It’s controversial, to say the least (it’s certainly disconcerting to read the words “President Osama bin Laden”), but it all feels deliberate, as if the point of this story is to make us a little uncomfortable by considering the viewpoint of the War on Terror from the other side.
That point makes it a little difficult to rate the novel on its story. It’s a little strange, and requires a significant suspension of disbelief in regards to the plot as the conspiracy begins to unravel, and ultimately I just found it to be hokey and disappointing. It also relies heavily on creating characters out of real people, which grew a little tiresome. They became charicatures of sorts, and as Ruff peppered the novel with more and more of them, swapping their moral and political sides from history to the novel, it turned into a guessing game where you wondered who was going to be the next bad guy or good guy. Thematically, it works, as it drives home the point of which is which in the War on Terror and how much of it depends on one’s perspective; story-wise, it was a bit of a failure for me.
The thing is, I liked the book. I can rely on Matt Ruff to write a compelling, interesting story with some wild suppositions, and that was certainly the case with The Mirage. It’s not as good as Sewer, Gas, Electric (though, admittedly, I should stop comparing his works against that novel, as it’s one of my favorites), but it raises some interesting questions and will keep you thinking long after you finish the book. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone (conservatives would find a lot to argue against here, I think), but if you’re curious about it, I think it’s worth reading.
Matt Ruff has created a compelling read that could have been just a thought experiment into jingoism, racism, patriotism, and the role of government following 9/11, but he also adds a fantastic plot to go along with this story to further cement it into our own history. The plot itself feels like a maguffin, since the point seems to be more about making the reader think, but the plot raises enough questions along the way to keep the reader moving forward through the story, and keeps it from being just a satire. It’s controversial, to say the least (it’s certainly disconcerting to read the words “President Osama bin Laden”), but it all feels deliberate, as if the point of this story is to make us a little uncomfortable by considering the viewpoint of the War on Terror from the other side.
That point makes it a little difficult to rate the novel on its story. It’s a little strange, and requires a significant suspension of disbelief in regards to the plot as the conspiracy begins to unravel, and ultimately I just found it to be hokey and disappointing. It also relies heavily on creating characters out of real people, which grew a little tiresome. They became charicatures of sorts, and as Ruff peppered the novel with more and more of them, swapping their moral and political sides from history to the novel, it turned into a guessing game where you wondered who was going to be the next bad guy or good guy. Thematically, it works, as it drives home the point of which is which in the War on Terror and how much of it depends on one’s perspective; story-wise, it was a bit of a failure for me.
The thing is, I liked the book. I can rely on Matt Ruff to write a compelling, interesting story with some wild suppositions, and that was certainly the case with The Mirage. It’s not as good as Sewer, Gas, Electric (though, admittedly, I should stop comparing his works against that novel, as it’s one of my favorites), but it raises some interesting questions and will keep you thinking long after you finish the book. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone (conservatives would find a lot to argue against here, I think), but if you’re curious about it, I think it’s worth reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2016
This book reminded me not so much of The Man in the High Castle but of the TV miniseries based on it. The alternate history posited is glib, a clearly deliberate mirror of our reality rather than a logical extension of some pivotal event going a different way, and at first I thought, "Okay, but what is the point?" And then the point became apparent, as bits of our reality intrude into this alternate world, much to the consternation of the characters, and I got a lot more interested.
What I didn't like: "11/9" was cute, but - the US is one of very few countries where dates are written month/day rather than day/month! Iraq would write November 9th as 9/11! In general there were a few too many in-joke type equivalences, such as the band "Green Desert" with their hit "Arabian Idiot". A lot of the equivalences seemed forced, particularly the role of Israel in the alt-world, and the simultaneous existence of powerful women and the societal rules that relegated them to secondary roles.. The characters were thinly-drawn, and I didn't find myself caring much about them - I think maybe they just needed to be delved into more deeply, particularly Mustafa and Amal. I think the structure could have been improved, with a little more foreshadowing and gun-hanging early.
What I did like: the "Library of Alexandria" excerpts - the alt-world equivalent of Wikipedia - were wonderful, a great way of infodumping without being infodumpy, and very entertaining besides. I rolled my eyes at some of the famous characters' new roles (Timothy McVeigh! David Koresh! DONALD RUMSFELD and his unknown unknowns!) but still they made me grin, especially the ones who were never named but obvious by their descriptions and roles (Dick Cheney, the Bush father and son). Osama Bin Laden being a 'wicked prince' in all worlds. The mirage artifacts, and the slow realization that leads to the truly nifty reveal, and the denouement. And I appreciate the holding of a mirror to our actions, the Arab Marines in Washington DC hoping to bring democracy to the backward Christians, and the way it makes the American reader ruefully understand how our behavior in actual history is viewed by the actual people we have affected.
What I didn't like: "11/9" was cute, but - the US is one of very few countries where dates are written month/day rather than day/month! Iraq would write November 9th as 9/11! In general there were a few too many in-joke type equivalences, such as the band "Green Desert" with their hit "Arabian Idiot". A lot of the equivalences seemed forced, particularly the role of Israel in the alt-world, and the simultaneous existence of powerful women and the societal rules that relegated them to secondary roles.. The characters were thinly-drawn, and I didn't find myself caring much about them - I think maybe they just needed to be delved into more deeply, particularly Mustafa and Amal. I think the structure could have been improved, with a little more foreshadowing and gun-hanging early.
What I did like: the "Library of Alexandria" excerpts - the alt-world equivalent of Wikipedia - were wonderful, a great way of infodumping without being infodumpy, and very entertaining besides. I rolled my eyes at some of the famous characters' new roles (Timothy McVeigh! David Koresh! DONALD RUMSFELD and his unknown unknowns!) but still they made me grin, especially the ones who were never named but obvious by their descriptions and roles (Dick Cheney, the Bush father and son). Osama Bin Laden being a 'wicked prince' in all worlds. The mirage artifacts, and the slow realization that leads to the truly nifty reveal, and the denouement. And I appreciate the holding of a mirror to our actions, the Arab Marines in Washington DC hoping to bring democracy to the backward Christians, and the way it makes the American reader ruefully understand how our behavior in actual history is viewed by the actual people we have affected.
March 28, 2012
From his amateurish but exuberant Fool on the Hill to his pynchonesque Public Works Trilogy to the high octane Bad Monkey, Matt Ruff is a versatile writer whose experience you can see accreting in the quality of his work.
Mirage is a straightforward novel, but don't let that fool you. It's no less complex, the complexity arising from the many moral issues its characters grapple with. Densely researched, the Arabian analogues to post 9/11 America are clever and brilliantly done. A strange but familiar Arabia rises from the prose, revealing a cultural startling similar to us, but wit the trappings of a Islam centered society. You will find characters from our own history occupying unexpected moral roles, as well as more contemporary figures.
I don't know if it means anything coming from a non-Muslim writer like Ruff (I am only assuming he's not Muslim) but I think Mirage portrays the much demonized Islam in a very positive and appealing manner. Obesiance and a show of gratitude to God is central to the Muslim character, but you also see there are Muslims who have "strayed from the fold."
The ultimate message of Mirage is of love, and the difficult choices we all make for love.
Mirage is a straightforward novel, but don't let that fool you. It's no less complex, the complexity arising from the many moral issues its characters grapple with. Densely researched, the Arabian analogues to post 9/11 America are clever and brilliantly done. A strange but familiar Arabia rises from the prose, revealing a cultural startling similar to us, but wit the trappings of a Islam centered society. You will find characters from our own history occupying unexpected moral roles, as well as more contemporary figures.
I don't know if it means anything coming from a non-Muslim writer like Ruff (I am only assuming he's not Muslim) but I think Mirage portrays the much demonized Islam in a very positive and appealing manner. Obesiance and a show of gratitude to God is central to the Muslim character, but you also see there are Muslims who have "strayed from the fold."
The ultimate message of Mirage is of love, and the difficult choices we all make for love.
January 27, 2016
Look, I don't know who you are, reading this. I don't know where you live or what you like or how much you've done. But I still feel pretty confident saying this: You have never read a book like Matt Ruff's "The Mirage." I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.
You may have read historical fiction, with recognizable names and events from the past, and maybe an exotic foreign culture you've always wondered about. But not twisted 'round, the way it is here.
You may have read alternative reality tales, where the world matches ours except for some one major twist. But not an alternative reality intertwined with lived reality the way it is here.
You may have read political thrillers with the fates of peoples and nations at stakes. But not where the ticking bomb to be diffused is magical-real the way it is here.
You may have read high-concept contemporary fiction. But not layered on top of real human characters and driving plot the way it is here.
No. You haven't. So you should read this. To see how this author has grabbed his high concept and worked it over like a potter casting a clay Rubik's cube... well, it's a thing of wonder.
You may have read historical fiction, with recognizable names and events from the past, and maybe an exotic foreign culture you've always wondered about. But not twisted 'round, the way it is here.
You may have read alternative reality tales, where the world matches ours except for some one major twist. But not an alternative reality intertwined with lived reality the way it is here.
You may have read political thrillers with the fates of peoples and nations at stakes. But not where the ticking bomb to be diffused is magical-real the way it is here.
You may have read high-concept contemporary fiction. But not layered on top of real human characters and driving plot the way it is here.
No. You haven't. So you should read this. To see how this author has grabbed his high concept and worked it over like a potter casting a clay Rubik's cube... well, it's a thing of wonder.
December 4, 2013
I remain incredibly torn about this book. On one hand, it's an incredibly complicated novel that forces you to think - it is, at times, uncomfortable but that has to have been the point. 9/11 is, after all, a sensitive subject (as it should be) and it has shaped the way we think, the way we act and the way we react. Seeing parallels between the real world and the mirage was intriguing and, again, at times uncomfortable and thought worthy and the characters, especially Mustafa, were intriguing and immediately drew me in.
However. I found myself growing a little tired of what seemed to be random people shoehorned into positions - basically once they go to America does it feel like the book is trying to be clever for cleverness' sake, instead of the sake of the story. How this new world came about was clever but it seemed a little glossed over and a little random.
I liked the ambiguous ending but the build up fell a little flat. I wish it had been another 100 pages longer to flesh it out just a little more but I'll probably read more by this author. He's got some interesting ideas.
However. I found myself growing a little tired of what seemed to be random people shoehorned into positions - basically once they go to America does it feel like the book is trying to be clever for cleverness' sake, instead of the sake of the story. How this new world came about was clever but it seemed a little glossed over and a little random.
I liked the ambiguous ending but the build up fell a little flat. I wish it had been another 100 pages longer to flesh it out just a little more but I'll probably read more by this author. He's got some interesting ideas.
April 30, 2012
This is going to be a little stream-of-consciousness as I completed the book late last night.
Wow. I was kinda nervous about where Ruff was going to go with this book; very touchy territory, particularly in a book where relativism seems to be the primary point. I liked the police procedural element of the plot, and found the UAS equivalents to USA to be clever in most cases, but 'cute' in others. The need to name drop historical figures into the book got a little tiresome for me; I get that evil men are likely to be evil in any world, but I felt that this concept was presented to excess. The three protagonists (Mustafa particularly) are all fleshed out nicely; I cared about all three and was invested in their story. On the flip-side, the bad guys are not quite so well delineated, although Sadam was more interesting then I expected.
The end? It was satisfying to me, although it may be a bit allegorical for some folks. Worth a read.
Wow. I was kinda nervous about where Ruff was going to go with this book; very touchy territory, particularly in a book where relativism seems to be the primary point. I liked the police procedural element of the plot, and found the UAS equivalents to USA to be clever in most cases, but 'cute' in others. The need to name drop historical figures into the book got a little tiresome for me; I get that evil men are likely to be evil in any world, but I felt that this concept was presented to excess. The three protagonists (Mustafa particularly) are all fleshed out nicely; I cared about all three and was invested in their story. On the flip-side, the bad guys are not quite so well delineated, although Sadam was more interesting then I expected.
The end? It was satisfying to me, although it may be a bit allegorical for some folks. Worth a read.
April 25, 2019
Most alt-history novels have a wink for the readers every so often: an important player is vaguely described and then revealed at the end of the chapter to be a historical figure. But this book has so many winks that if it were a person I'd think they were having a seizure. That could be a good or a bad thing depending on what you like.
Beyond that, I don't understand objections to this book that Bin Laden and Saddam are portrayed as evil: as a major character says, evil men are evil men in all universes. The same goes for all the American characters: they are as evil in this book as they are in real life. It's not Ruff's job to write a pro-bin Laden book any more than it would be his job to write a pro-Dick Cheney ("Quail Hunter" as he's hilariously called here) book.
Beyond that, I don't understand objections to this book that Bin Laden and Saddam are portrayed as evil: as a major character says, evil men are evil men in all universes. The same goes for all the American characters: they are as evil in this book as they are in real life. It's not Ruff's job to write a pro-bin Laden book any more than it would be his job to write a pro-Dick Cheney ("Quail Hunter" as he's hilariously called here) book.
February 24, 2017
No. This entire book is gimmicky nonsense. Like someone went, "hey man, what if like, 9/11 happened in the middle east and it was the Americans who did it?" That's it, the whole book is that. It wasn't 9/11 it was 11/9, there's an Arabic Jack Bauer, Green Day, etc. I spent every page reading this just rolling my eyes and groaning. Even the vague hint of a supernatural element fizzled away into nothing . I had been wanting to read a few things by Matt Ruff, and I still will someday, I just wish this hadn't been my first exposure to him.
January 8, 2016
I got over half way through and realized I was just skimming the pages and not really caring about the characters or even the plot. This book had promise in the preface but went down hill after that.
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