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Meatspace
Kitab Balasubramanyam has had a rough few months. His girlfriend left him. He got fired from the job he hated for writing a novel on company time, but the novel didn't sell and now he's burning through his mum's life insurance money. His father has more success with women than he does, and his Facebook comments get more likes. Kitab is reduced to spending all of his time in his flat with his brother Aziz, coming up with ideas for novelty Tumblrs and composing amusing tweets. But now even Aziz has left him, travelling to America to find his doppelganger. So what happens when Kitab Balasubramanyam's only internet namesake turns up on his doorstep and insists that they are meant to be friends?
294 pages, Paperback
First published July 3, 2014
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747 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
January 14, 2018
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. I don’t think it reads too well as a commentary on social media — the bits on online life came across as quite heavy-handed, like they were forced onto the plot and main character’s development even as they were meant to be driving both, and Kitab’s social media usage felt quite alien to me. (Also Kitab and Aziz are just bad at Twitter/blogging and this annoyed me a disproportionate amount.) I wonder, however, how much of this is because this novel is now 3/4 years old and it’s no longer only the Luddite Mitches of the world who’ve developed complex treatises on how Facebook & Twitter are destroying our brains, lives and relationships (shared, of course, on Facebook & Twitter).
I’d also hoped for more on life as an Indian in the UK, the author being who he is, but despite Kitab being set up as “an Asian who only talks about being Asian” the race talk doesn’t go beyond the superficial. I’m not sure how I feel about doppelgänger new migrant Kitab being cast as a hyperbolic sex-obsessed, video game-playing virgin from a repressive family/cultural background — I can’t tell if I should take it all as an ironic joke?
The book works a lot better as a tale about isolation and loneliness, though not consistently: the familial relationships/conversations were great and I wish I’d seen more of that, the relationships with the women in his life significantly less so. None of the characters are particularly likeable but this isn’t in itself a reason to put the book down (especially since a core part of its narrative is the anxiety around being liked) — what did me in, instead, was that I didn’t particularly enjoy feeling a strong sense of secondhand embarrassment for Kitab & co. throughout, and didn’t feel like it was sufficiently redeemed by the twist at the end. The book had enough of its moments and the occasional witty insight to keep me going, but lacked the depth to meaningfully engage with the rather heavy themes it set out to take on.
I’d also hoped for more on life as an Indian in the UK, the author being who he is, but despite Kitab being set up as “an Asian who only talks about being Asian” the race talk doesn’t go beyond the superficial. I’m not sure how I feel about doppelgänger new migrant Kitab being cast as a hyperbolic sex-obsessed, video game-playing virgin from a repressive family/cultural background — I can’t tell if I should take it all as an ironic joke?
The book works a lot better as a tale about isolation and loneliness, though not consistently: the familial relationships/conversations were great and I wish I’d seen more of that, the relationships with the women in his life significantly less so. None of the characters are particularly likeable but this isn’t in itself a reason to put the book down (especially since a core part of its narrative is the anxiety around being liked) — what did me in, instead, was that I didn’t particularly enjoy feeling a strong sense of secondhand embarrassment for Kitab & co. throughout, and didn’t feel like it was sufficiently redeemed by the twist at the end. The book had enough of its moments and the occasional witty insight to keep me going, but lacked the depth to meaningfully engage with the rather heavy themes it set out to take on.
July 2, 2014
"Connections used to be important. Now it's all selfies and sandwiches on Twitter."
The fact that I had to ask my husband what 'meatspace' is will tell you something about me. So while I don't share the protagonist's obsession with all things internet and cyber, I was aware enough to understand the references, the humour, and the irony of the story.
I saw this as a book mocking all things online, for readers who probably spend a lot of their free time online. But so I don't sound hypocritical, I admit that I read this book on an iPhone, using an App, updating my progress on a reading website, and am now reviewing it online for public appraisal. I'm not calling kettles names. It's mocking the cyber-world by showing how reliant we have become on it, how it can replace real life for some, how the distinction between the two can even blur.
It's very, very smart. It's very, very relevant. And it's very, very funny. Asian Brit Kitab Balasubramanyam has published his first book to... no acclaim whatsoever. He's been dumped. He's been fired. His income is fast dwindling. He lives with his more relaxed brother Aziz and sees his born-again-bachelor father once a week for dinner, where his dad's latest dates are related. Two events occur that rock the fragile foundation of Kitab's (mostly online) world, one where he posts carefully thought-out Tweets and counts his 'likes'. Aziz decides to get a tattoo, and discovering that the only bow-tie tattoo owner looks jjust like him, heads to American to track him down. While he's away, the only other online Kitab Balasubramanyam attempts to 'friend' Kitab on Facebook, and then shows up at his door. What is he after?
It's not as if we look down on Kitab and Aziz, slave to the hourly updates, unable to last a conversation without checking their phones for emails and Tweets to respond to. I imagine almost anyone reading this will feel a pull of familiarity, possibly one of guilt, unlikely one of smugness.
Kitab knows this about himself: "I used to read so much... I'd struggle to eat with a knife and fork or with my hands as I navigated sentences on a page. Now that's all been replaced with thinking of arch things to tweet, twitpic'ing my lunch or making up overheard conversations that might make people laugh." He knows he's been sucked in, but can't help himself.
It's funny because it's true. But does that make it sad as well? I assume Shukla is trying to show us the darker side of online living, and he does this very wittily with various characters. Mitch is a friend determined to stay in the 'meatspace' world of real people and interactions. Kitab and Aziz represent the generation who've grown up with technology and embraced it. The reader can see it is to their detriment. In a sex scene, Kitab realises his porn viewing has altered his experience of sex in the real world: "It doesn't fee like the videos I spend days watching. There's too much kissing. Everything flows from one act to another. We don't jump-cut from kiss to blowjob... to her willing face." We live edited and fast-cut lives online. Will this make our real lives pale in comparison?
Aziz's story adds to the issue. Kitab doesn't want him to leave (he's become agoraphobic since his recent setback and relies on his brother somewhat). Aziz is off to discover his bow-tie-tattoo doppelgänger. Why? Because "I need to populate my blog with content... I just need something to write about. A proper adventure." We see his narrative through blog updates (and the comments they solicit) and wonder just how much of the online world represents reality.
There's a lot more to the story than this. Kitab's own doppelgänger plays a huge role in the book and also shows us in one hilarious chapter how whatever we put online is then no longer under our control, the tiniest thing can have huge ramifications, it can't be taken back.
Just when you think you can compare this book to something else - the Joseph Gordon-Levitt film 'Don Jon' maybe, the book throws a curve-ball in the last act (one I'd suspected but was still stunned by). It's satisfying, sad, and makes you rethink everything you've read up to that point.
You'll laugh at this, you'll recognise yourself, you'll refuse to recognise yourself, you'll wonder how it all fits together. And then you'll see.
A great read. One I'd want older teens to read actually, to discuss in English lessons. Full of usable quotes, it's a carefully constructed piece that I really hope does well. Brilliant.
Review of a Netgalley advance copy.
The fact that I had to ask my husband what 'meatspace' is will tell you something about me. So while I don't share the protagonist's obsession with all things internet and cyber, I was aware enough to understand the references, the humour, and the irony of the story.
I saw this as a book mocking all things online, for readers who probably spend a lot of their free time online. But so I don't sound hypocritical, I admit that I read this book on an iPhone, using an App, updating my progress on a reading website, and am now reviewing it online for public appraisal. I'm not calling kettles names. It's mocking the cyber-world by showing how reliant we have become on it, how it can replace real life for some, how the distinction between the two can even blur.
It's very, very smart. It's very, very relevant. And it's very, very funny. Asian Brit Kitab Balasubramanyam has published his first book to... no acclaim whatsoever. He's been dumped. He's been fired. His income is fast dwindling. He lives with his more relaxed brother Aziz and sees his born-again-bachelor father once a week for dinner, where his dad's latest dates are related. Two events occur that rock the fragile foundation of Kitab's (mostly online) world, one where he posts carefully thought-out Tweets and counts his 'likes'. Aziz decides to get a tattoo, and discovering that the only bow-tie tattoo owner looks jjust like him, heads to American to track him down. While he's away, the only other online Kitab Balasubramanyam attempts to 'friend' Kitab on Facebook, and then shows up at his door. What is he after?
It's not as if we look down on Kitab and Aziz, slave to the hourly updates, unable to last a conversation without checking their phones for emails and Tweets to respond to. I imagine almost anyone reading this will feel a pull of familiarity, possibly one of guilt, unlikely one of smugness.
Kitab knows this about himself: "I used to read so much... I'd struggle to eat with a knife and fork or with my hands as I navigated sentences on a page. Now that's all been replaced with thinking of arch things to tweet, twitpic'ing my lunch or making up overheard conversations that might make people laugh." He knows he's been sucked in, but can't help himself.
It's funny because it's true. But does that make it sad as well? I assume Shukla is trying to show us the darker side of online living, and he does this very wittily with various characters. Mitch is a friend determined to stay in the 'meatspace' world of real people and interactions. Kitab and Aziz represent the generation who've grown up with technology and embraced it. The reader can see it is to their detriment. In a sex scene, Kitab realises his porn viewing has altered his experience of sex in the real world: "It doesn't fee like the videos I spend days watching. There's too much kissing. Everything flows from one act to another. We don't jump-cut from kiss to blowjob... to her willing face." We live edited and fast-cut lives online. Will this make our real lives pale in comparison?
Aziz's story adds to the issue. Kitab doesn't want him to leave (he's become agoraphobic since his recent setback and relies on his brother somewhat). Aziz is off to discover his bow-tie-tattoo doppelgänger. Why? Because "I need to populate my blog with content... I just need something to write about. A proper adventure." We see his narrative through blog updates (and the comments they solicit) and wonder just how much of the online world represents reality.
There's a lot more to the story than this. Kitab's own doppelgänger plays a huge role in the book and also shows us in one hilarious chapter how whatever we put online is then no longer under our control, the tiniest thing can have huge ramifications, it can't be taken back.
Just when you think you can compare this book to something else - the Joseph Gordon-Levitt film 'Don Jon' maybe, the book throws a curve-ball in the last act (one I'd suspected but was still stunned by). It's satisfying, sad, and makes you rethink everything you've read up to that point.
You'll laugh at this, you'll recognise yourself, you'll refuse to recognise yourself, you'll wonder how it all fits together. And then you'll see.
A great read. One I'd want older teens to read actually, to discuss in English lessons. Full of usable quotes, it's a carefully constructed piece that I really hope does well. Brilliant.
Review of a Netgalley advance copy.
May 3, 2016
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
I have to admit, at first I was not a big believer in all the hype that came with Nikesh Shukla's third novel, Meatspace; for while it starts out as a funny little character-based comedy about young artists in London, it certainly doesn't seem like "the greatest book on loneliness since The Catcher in the Rye," as Gary Shteyngart breathlessly exclaims on the front cover, and it also doesn't seem to "capture a cultural moment like Generation X" like the Guardian proclaimed. But the farther you get into this witty, cleverly constructed book, the better it gets and the more it starts earning these accolades (hint -- things really start picking up once publicly exposed penises get involved); and what seems at first to be just an endless amount of trendy references to Facebook and iPhones really does start adding up to a bigger statement on society as the storyline expands in scope and stakes. A heftier novel than it might seem at first, with an ending that's surprisingly much sadder than the rest of this sometimes laugh-out-loud book would make you guess, it's one of those extremely rare books that actually gets better as it continues, and it's worth sticking in there through the admittedly only so-so beginning in order to get to the good stuff. Recommended for all, but especially to my fellow middle-agers who want a better sense of what daily life for twentysomething Millennials are like right now, where half your social life is lived on your phone and the opportunities for public embarrassment never end.
Out of 10: 9.2
I have to admit, at first I was not a big believer in all the hype that came with Nikesh Shukla's third novel, Meatspace; for while it starts out as a funny little character-based comedy about young artists in London, it certainly doesn't seem like "the greatest book on loneliness since The Catcher in the Rye," as Gary Shteyngart breathlessly exclaims on the front cover, and it also doesn't seem to "capture a cultural moment like Generation X" like the Guardian proclaimed. But the farther you get into this witty, cleverly constructed book, the better it gets and the more it starts earning these accolades (hint -- things really start picking up once publicly exposed penises get involved); and what seems at first to be just an endless amount of trendy references to Facebook and iPhones really does start adding up to a bigger statement on society as the storyline expands in scope and stakes. A heftier novel than it might seem at first, with an ending that's surprisingly much sadder than the rest of this sometimes laugh-out-loud book would make you guess, it's one of those extremely rare books that actually gets better as it continues, and it's worth sticking in there through the admittedly only so-so beginning in order to get to the good stuff. Recommended for all, but especially to my fellow middle-agers who want a better sense of what daily life for twentysomething Millennials are like right now, where half your social life is lived on your phone and the opportunities for public embarrassment never end.
Out of 10: 9.2
Read
January 19, 2019Kitab is a novelist with one book, writer's block, and an internet problem. His unhealthy relationship with social media and porn have left him jobless and dumped, he's not writing the next book, and things get weird when his namesake doppelganger from Bangalore turns up in London and sets about (ineptly) stealing his identity. It's a very weird story, in a slightly awkward place between satire and magic realism and I don't quite know if it came together for me. I kept expecting Kitab 2 to be a figment of Kitab's imagination in a Justified Sinner sort of way, but no.
I have to say also, the porn-watching and endless searching for sex on the part of Kitab, his father, his brother and especially Kitab 2 feels a bit wearing as a female reader. It's very much done to show the deadening effects of the internet and the way loud crassness hides loneliness and fear, but even so, it wasn't greatly enjoyable to spend time with. Not my favourite of this author, though still had some fantastic lines and probably the best depiction of the misery of being glued to Twitter that I've read.
I have to say also, the porn-watching and endless searching for sex on the part of Kitab, his father, his brother and especially Kitab 2 feels a bit wearing as a female reader. It's very much done to show the deadening effects of the internet and the way loud crassness hides loneliness and fear, but even so, it wasn't greatly enjoyable to spend time with. Not my favourite of this author, though still had some fantastic lines and probably the best depiction of the misery of being glued to Twitter that I've read.
December 23, 2015
Meatspace in part is a great social commentary on what the internet is doing to us. Kitab spends so much time composing tweets and checking for updates, he isn’t really present in the real world, or meatspace as some would call it. He places so much importance on gaining meaningless interactions online; has his latest tweet been retweeted, or just favourited?
He’s slowing slipping away from the real world though. It sounds like his break up was probably over his social media time and ignoring his girlfriend in order to look at his phone. I all think we’ve been guilty of wanting to check a response to something we’ve posted when there’s someone trying to talk to us at the same time. But real life relationships should always be the priority.
The online interactions and obsessions are spot on, it’s clearly written by someone who spends plenty of time online, specifically Twitter. It’s also kind of scary how some people make identity theft incredibly easy for potential thieves. Not just those seeking to use it for financial gain but just usurping someone’s life online. When you put so much into building your online presence, an interloper can be a real threat.
Some parts did make me cringe though, and I’ll admit to skim reading parts such as some of Aziz’s blog posts and the chapter where they go to a sex party. Aziz’s blogging does highlight how there’s plenty of rubbish on the internet though and the commenter who keeps coming back to complain did make me laugh. Why take the time to read and comment on something you don’t like? I did like how Aziz’s narration kind of tells the same story from the other side, being that person off the internet that just turns up to meet a stranger.
Kitab2 is uninhibited and free from the social constraints most of us abide by. He doesn’t care if what he does is spread on the internet, in fact there’s no one paying attention to him. Apart from what he does reflects badly on Kitab. I suppose Kitab2 is young and immature but I found him a bit irritating. If I were Kitab I probably would have called the police. However it does remind me how people can become over-familiar through the internet. They think they know you so well but in reality, they are still strangers.
The ending was surprising and rather changed the tone of the book into something more emotional. I wonder if I would have considered some parts differently if I had known what I know now…
He’s slowing slipping away from the real world though. It sounds like his break up was probably over his social media time and ignoring his girlfriend in order to look at his phone. I all think we’ve been guilty of wanting to check a response to something we’ve posted when there’s someone trying to talk to us at the same time. But real life relationships should always be the priority.
The online interactions and obsessions are spot on, it’s clearly written by someone who spends plenty of time online, specifically Twitter. It’s also kind of scary how some people make identity theft incredibly easy for potential thieves. Not just those seeking to use it for financial gain but just usurping someone’s life online. When you put so much into building your online presence, an interloper can be a real threat.
Some parts did make me cringe though, and I’ll admit to skim reading parts such as some of Aziz’s blog posts and the chapter where they go to a sex party. Aziz’s blogging does highlight how there’s plenty of rubbish on the internet though and the commenter who keeps coming back to complain did make me laugh. Why take the time to read and comment on something you don’t like? I did like how Aziz’s narration kind of tells the same story from the other side, being that person off the internet that just turns up to meet a stranger.
Kitab2 is uninhibited and free from the social constraints most of us abide by. He doesn’t care if what he does is spread on the internet, in fact there’s no one paying attention to him. Apart from what he does reflects badly on Kitab. I suppose Kitab2 is young and immature but I found him a bit irritating. If I were Kitab I probably would have called the police. However it does remind me how people can become over-familiar through the internet. They think they know you so well but in reality, they are still strangers.
The ending was surprising and rather changed the tone of the book into something more emotional. I wonder if I would have considered some parts differently if I had known what I know now…
July 3, 2014
This is a rollicking read, with a twist at the end that truly caught me by surprise - even though I already knew something extra-good was happening at the end. I could have read more about that ending!
March 24, 2018
This just wasn’t for me
February 27, 2016
“The First and last thing I do every day is see what strangers are saying about me.”
I said to someone recently that between social media and a number of other factors, I feel like I have lost most of my ability to communicate with people on any normal level. It is with this thought that I approached Nikesh Shukla’s Meatspace.
Meatspace is the name that people who spend their lives online give to the world outside—as in, the opposite of Cyberspace. It is the story of Kitab, author of Indian descent living in London who has been fired from his job for writing a book on company time. The book did not turn out to be as successful as he hoped. He is lonely, his girlfriend has left him, and he spends nearly all his time online. When someone from the online world with the same name as him shows up in the real world, he threatens to ruin the life that he has built, the reputation that he has cultivated. No matter how fragile and unreal it is, he values it. And the man he refers to as Kitab 2 stretches Kitab’s ability to handle what the real world throws at him.
Kitab has a brother, Aziz, who is obsessed with a guy who got a bow-tie as a neck tattoo. Aziz gets his own bow-tie neck tattoo and then he writes a blog in which he goes to New York to find this person, his neck-tattoo twin. This narrative runs counter to Kitab’s own as he stays in London dealing with his same name twin. Kitab misses his brother. And missing Aziz factors into Kitab’s loneliness and contributes to the free fall that he takes while Kitab 2 unwittingly tarnishes his life.
Meatspace is an exploration of the role of technology and social media in our society, along the lines of Jonathan Coe’s The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, Dave Eggers The Circle, or Wayne Gladstone’s Notes from the Internet Apocalypse. But it is the heartfelt way in which it ties together that won me over in the end. Kitab’s humanity as it is lived out on a phone or on a computer screen is a shield for his pain. A lot of it rings true. Because sometimes it’s tough out there in meatspace. But you gotta come out sometime.
I said to someone recently that between social media and a number of other factors, I feel like I have lost most of my ability to communicate with people on any normal level. It is with this thought that I approached Nikesh Shukla’s Meatspace.
Meatspace is the name that people who spend their lives online give to the world outside—as in, the opposite of Cyberspace. It is the story of Kitab, author of Indian descent living in London who has been fired from his job for writing a book on company time. The book did not turn out to be as successful as he hoped. He is lonely, his girlfriend has left him, and he spends nearly all his time online. When someone from the online world with the same name as him shows up in the real world, he threatens to ruin the life that he has built, the reputation that he has cultivated. No matter how fragile and unreal it is, he values it. And the man he refers to as Kitab 2 stretches Kitab’s ability to handle what the real world throws at him.
Kitab has a brother, Aziz, who is obsessed with a guy who got a bow-tie as a neck tattoo. Aziz gets his own bow-tie neck tattoo and then he writes a blog in which he goes to New York to find this person, his neck-tattoo twin. This narrative runs counter to Kitab’s own as he stays in London dealing with his same name twin. Kitab misses his brother. And missing Aziz factors into Kitab’s loneliness and contributes to the free fall that he takes while Kitab 2 unwittingly tarnishes his life.
Meatspace is an exploration of the role of technology and social media in our society, along the lines of Jonathan Coe’s The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, Dave Eggers The Circle, or Wayne Gladstone’s Notes from the Internet Apocalypse. But it is the heartfelt way in which it ties together that won me over in the end. Kitab’s humanity as it is lived out on a phone or on a computer screen is a shield for his pain. A lot of it rings true. Because sometimes it’s tough out there in meatspace. But you gotta come out sometime.
February 10, 2017
Meatspace is about Kitab Balasubramanyam, a young author living in London with a paralyzing case of writer's block. His first book has garnered tepid reviews. His girlfriend left him because he lacks joie de vivre. He obsesses over maintaining an (often painfully artificial) online "presence".
It's easy to empathize with Kitab because our lives can feel similar to his. Here's a quick checklist -- Have you ever embellished a story to project an idealized version of yourself? Do you catch yourself thinking in fragmented internet-speak? Have you ever lived an unstructured, slovenly life; subsided on take-out; or exercised irregularly? I'd bet that more than a few of your answers are "Yes". If so, you'll find that Meatspace charms and stings at the same time. We connect with Kitab, but it hurts to see him behave so self-destructively.
Another reviewer puts it this way: Kitab's life gets pretty "cringe". This is evident from the get-go, but it really comes to a head when Kitab meets Kitab 2. Our immediate reaction to Kitab 2 is to despise him for being a hapless, revolting leech. Kitab 2 has no idea how to behave. Kitab takes him in anyway. There's a poignant moment when Kitab 2 asks "Why do you hate your own kind? [...] I just want to be you".
Overall I think Meatspace is a good read. The plot has a touch of the surreal and a lot of doppelgangers. I do wish that the language in the narrative sections (outside of the AZIZWILLKILLYOU blog posts) were less awkward. I'll also note that we don't really get a good understanding of Kitab's online relationship with his brother until the end of the book, which is very rushed. Still, Kitab is a good character. It was nice reading about his strange journey.
It's easy to empathize with Kitab because our lives can feel similar to his. Here's a quick checklist -- Have you ever embellished a story to project an idealized version of yourself? Do you catch yourself thinking in fragmented internet-speak? Have you ever lived an unstructured, slovenly life; subsided on take-out; or exercised irregularly? I'd bet that more than a few of your answers are "Yes". If so, you'll find that Meatspace charms and stings at the same time. We connect with Kitab, but it hurts to see him behave so self-destructively.
Another reviewer puts it this way: Kitab's life gets pretty "cringe". This is evident from the get-go, but it really comes to a head when Kitab meets Kitab 2. Our immediate reaction to Kitab 2 is to despise him for being a hapless, revolting leech. Kitab 2 has no idea how to behave. Kitab takes him in anyway. There's a poignant moment when Kitab 2 asks "Why do you hate your own kind? [...] I just want to be you".
Overall I think Meatspace is a good read. The plot has a touch of the surreal and a lot of doppelgangers. I do wish that the language in the narrative sections (outside of the AZIZWILLKILLYOU blog posts) were less awkward. I'll also note that we don't really get a good understanding of Kitab's online relationship with his brother until the end of the book, which is very rushed. Still, Kitab is a good character. It was nice reading about his strange journey.
May 2, 2015
mh. that's a difficult one to review. it was good. it really was. but i would not say i liked it a lot. i'm still super unsure about it.
maybe a good adjective to sum it up might be "awkward". you know, if something is just that little bit "off" and you are embarrassed and ashamed and oh-no-ing on someone else's behalf? that was me while reading. an awkward male lead with awkward family and friends - ah acquaintances - which felt so realistic to me that i felt constantly ashamed for him. the poor bugger. (that by the way is the reason why it took me so long to read.)
so, well done on the characters, that was very good. also the story. two parallel tales in a way. very interesting. kept me interested the whole way. also enjoyed the interspersed references to internet etc. i will most certainly study excerpts with my next a-level group when the topic "media" comes around again (as it does, every last term). lots of little gems to discuss.
so why am i still unsure? i really don't know. maybe it's because i don't really read new serious fiction that often. maybe it was that main character and his off-brother and even "off-er" namesake. maybe it was the prose, it did not flow so very easily for the most part... and then the too-modernness of it, you know, blog quotes, constant checking of phones... but the last bit is something i see every day and it certainly was good to find this reflected in a novel.
well. maybe you go and find out for yourself. a fascinating read. and have i mentioned awkward?
maybe a good adjective to sum it up might be "awkward". you know, if something is just that little bit "off" and you are embarrassed and ashamed and oh-no-ing on someone else's behalf? that was me while reading. an awkward male lead with awkward family and friends - ah acquaintances - which felt so realistic to me that i felt constantly ashamed for him. the poor bugger. (that by the way is the reason why it took me so long to read.)
so, well done on the characters, that was very good. also the story. two parallel tales in a way. very interesting. kept me interested the whole way. also enjoyed the interspersed references to internet etc. i will most certainly study excerpts with my next a-level group when the topic "media" comes around again (as it does, every last term). lots of little gems to discuss.
so why am i still unsure? i really don't know. maybe it's because i don't really read new serious fiction that often. maybe it was that main character and his off-brother and even "off-er" namesake. maybe it was the prose, it did not flow so very easily for the most part... and then the too-modernness of it, you know, blog quotes, constant checking of phones... but the last bit is something i see every day and it certainly was good to find this reflected in a novel.
well. maybe you go and find out for yourself. a fascinating read. and have i mentioned awkward?
April 22, 2016
Meatspace is the first book I’ve read that really gets to the heart of Twitter. This amusing book is about Kitab, a young man who spends his entire time perfecting his online persona. His obsession comes at the expense of his real life, from which he becomes increasingly isolated.
This book makes a lot of great observations about society’s increasing reliance on the Internet. The jokes were occasionally too “blokey” for me and I found myself cringing at some of the scenes I’m sure were meant to be funny. But, overall I found it sadly relevant to some aspects of my life. Recommended to anyone who spends too much time on social media.
This book makes a lot of great observations about society’s increasing reliance on the Internet. The jokes were occasionally too “blokey” for me and I found myself cringing at some of the scenes I’m sure were meant to be funny. But, overall I found it sadly relevant to some aspects of my life. Recommended to anyone who spends too much time on social media.
February 20, 2015
For the first three quarters of the book I'd say it was a solid three stars. Engaging but not addictive, interesting if slightly unbelievable. However the last quarter was much better pace-wise and authenticity-wise and more of a 4 star so I thought I'd write this to explain that I can't decide on my star rating for this book... 3.5 I guess.
June 23, 2014
I got a review copy of this book from Netgalley. You can read my review on the Writers' Hub:
http://www.writershub.co.uk/reviews-p...
http://www.writershub.co.uk/reviews-p...
May 17, 2017
From time to time, normally when I’m walking through London, I have a little fantasy that I like to indulge. I pretend that I’m accompanied by someone from hundreds of years ago, and I’m trying to explain to them the things around us. (For some reason the person always looks like that old portrait of William Shakespeare, complete with receding hairline, twiddly little moustache, ambiguous smile.) I tell them what we are doing here, on a giant mechanical stairway that carries us many storeys below the streets; I point out the digital billboards, the adverts for estate agents and dating services and food delivery apps; as best I can I describe the lines and lines of hidden protocol in a poster for this week’s worst movie.
If I wanted to explain to them the position of a young, ambitious writer in the second decade of the twenty-first century, I would probably lend them a copy of 'Meatspace' by Nikesh Shukla. It’s a book which very neatly captures the dilemma of anyone trying to make a living as a writer in our time. I’ve read it described as a ‘techno-thriller’, which doesn’t seem quite right to me; it has more in common with Spaced than it does William Gibson. But though it was published almost three years ago, it still cuts quite close to the bone in terms of its contemporary relevance.
Say you’re a young person and you want to write for a living. Perhaps you have published something already, perhaps not; either way, it hasn’t sold well enough for people to want to pay you to write more things. So you have to build a kind of double life for yourself: you go on twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and you create a persona. You put yourself out there as a funny, likeable, charismatic person, and you try to make people laugh, or get them to laugh at someone or something else. The end goal is not simply the accumulation of followers and friends; you want a responsive audience who might one day put down money for what you want to sell them.
This is the hustle. Whether there is anything inherently wrong with this depends in part on how you feel about creative self-promotion in the first place. One thing that I hope we can all agree on is there’s a good way and a bad way to go about this sort of thing. The bad way is probably exemplified by the protagonist of 'Meatspace', Kitab Balasubramanyam. Kitab has taken some time off to try writing full time, funded partly by the first novel he’s released (to muted acclaim) but mostly by a grant of money from his dad. He can’t seem to get much done: his most successful work happens on twitter, where his witticisms find a willing audience instantly. But then something weird happens: he starts receiving facebook messages from someone also named Kitab in India, someone who bears a remarkable resemblance to him. At the same time, his brother Aziz develops an obsession with an American who shares the same name, and flies over the pond to meet and surprise him; why? Because it’ll look great on his blog is why.
It’s only when ‘Kitab 2’ turns up on Kitab’s doorstep that things start to get really strange. It’ll be obvious to anyone who has seen Fight Club that there’s a sort of ego/id situation here between these two, and for a while it seems decidedly unclear where the true base of reality lies in Kitab’s life. In between his narration, we’re treated to excerpts from Aziz’s blog, which play out like a weird sort of picaresque adventure story: larger than life, and deliberately so.
The novel is a bit smarter than it seems at first, but not that much smarter. It is entertaining, and often quite funny and perceptive. It’s a very timely glimpse at the way in which social media holds and twists our attention. But it doesn’t really have much new to say. Social media is characterised as a sort of bizarre performative game that takes up way too much time and energy. Twitter is brilliant for a writer but also terrible; facebook is a mess of memes and family in-jokes; Instagram is an endless dance of light and colour, signifying nothing. But there’s something wearily familiar about all this. It’s only a fresh spin on the same old anxieties.
The book ends with Kitab effectively quitting social media, and knuckling down to some proper old-fashioned writing. He gets the girl, and he discovers something important about himself in the process. It’s supposed to be a happy ending, I guess, but it also feels like a kind of surrender to the most conservative outlook on digital culture. I’d expected, and wanted, Kitab to take the opposite approach: to disappear entirely into the world created for himself. At one point he wanted to do something big and strange and ambitious with the internet, but in the end he settles for something safe and conventional. That’s true of many of us, I suppose - myself included. But you would never have a clue from reading this that it might be possible to use the internet for something other than the messy expression of our worst impulses.
If I wanted to explain to them the position of a young, ambitious writer in the second decade of the twenty-first century, I would probably lend them a copy of 'Meatspace' by Nikesh Shukla. It’s a book which very neatly captures the dilemma of anyone trying to make a living as a writer in our time. I’ve read it described as a ‘techno-thriller’, which doesn’t seem quite right to me; it has more in common with Spaced than it does William Gibson. But though it was published almost three years ago, it still cuts quite close to the bone in terms of its contemporary relevance.
Say you’re a young person and you want to write for a living. Perhaps you have published something already, perhaps not; either way, it hasn’t sold well enough for people to want to pay you to write more things. So you have to build a kind of double life for yourself: you go on twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and you create a persona. You put yourself out there as a funny, likeable, charismatic person, and you try to make people laugh, or get them to laugh at someone or something else. The end goal is not simply the accumulation of followers and friends; you want a responsive audience who might one day put down money for what you want to sell them.
This is the hustle. Whether there is anything inherently wrong with this depends in part on how you feel about creative self-promotion in the first place. One thing that I hope we can all agree on is there’s a good way and a bad way to go about this sort of thing. The bad way is probably exemplified by the protagonist of 'Meatspace', Kitab Balasubramanyam. Kitab has taken some time off to try writing full time, funded partly by the first novel he’s released (to muted acclaim) but mostly by a grant of money from his dad. He can’t seem to get much done: his most successful work happens on twitter, where his witticisms find a willing audience instantly. But then something weird happens: he starts receiving facebook messages from someone also named Kitab in India, someone who bears a remarkable resemblance to him. At the same time, his brother Aziz develops an obsession with an American who shares the same name, and flies over the pond to meet and surprise him; why? Because it’ll look great on his blog is why.
It’s only when ‘Kitab 2’ turns up on Kitab’s doorstep that things start to get really strange. It’ll be obvious to anyone who has seen Fight Club that there’s a sort of ego/id situation here between these two, and for a while it seems decidedly unclear where the true base of reality lies in Kitab’s life. In between his narration, we’re treated to excerpts from Aziz’s blog, which play out like a weird sort of picaresque adventure story: larger than life, and deliberately so.
The novel is a bit smarter than it seems at first, but not that much smarter. It is entertaining, and often quite funny and perceptive. It’s a very timely glimpse at the way in which social media holds and twists our attention. But it doesn’t really have much new to say. Social media is characterised as a sort of bizarre performative game that takes up way too much time and energy. Twitter is brilliant for a writer but also terrible; facebook is a mess of memes and family in-jokes; Instagram is an endless dance of light and colour, signifying nothing. But there’s something wearily familiar about all this. It’s only a fresh spin on the same old anxieties.
The book ends with Kitab effectively quitting social media, and knuckling down to some proper old-fashioned writing. He gets the girl, and he discovers something important about himself in the process. It’s supposed to be a happy ending, I guess, but it also feels like a kind of surrender to the most conservative outlook on digital culture. I’d expected, and wanted, Kitab to take the opposite approach: to disappear entirely into the world created for himself. At one point he wanted to do something big and strange and ambitious with the internet, but in the end he settles for something safe and conventional. That’s true of many of us, I suppose - myself included. But you would never have a clue from reading this that it might be possible to use the internet for something other than the messy expression of our worst impulses.
March 13, 2018
3.5/5. laugh out loud funny, and i personally didn't see the ending coming with aziz living on in kitab's mind. i enjoyed it, and it was timely in my life (still is, as i catch myself mindlessly staring at other people's highlight reels/hot takes/inane thoughts on a tiny fucking screen, when i could be doing better things). copy-pasting an exerpt from another reviewer:
The novel is a bit smarter than it seems at first, but not that much smarter. It is entertaining, and often quite funny and perceptive. It’s a very timely glimpse at the way in which social media holds and twists our attention. But it doesn’t really have much new to say. Social media is characterised as a sort of bizarre performative game that takes up way too much time and energy. Twitter is brilliant for a writer but also terrible; facebook is a mess of memes and family in-jokes; Instagram is an endless dance of light and colour, signifying nothing. But there’s something wearily familiar about all this. It’s only a fresh spin on the same old anxieties.
The book ends with Kitab effectively quitting social media, and knuckling down to some proper old-fashioned writing. He gets the girl, and he discovers something important about himself in the process. It’s supposed to be a happy ending, I guess, but it also feels like a kind of surrender to the most conservative outlook on digital culture.I’d expected, and wanted, Kitab to take the opposite approach: to disappear entirely into the world created for himself. At one point he wanted to do something big and strange and ambitious with the internet, but in the end he settles for something safe and conventional. That’s true of many of us, I suppose - myself included. But you would never have a clue from reading this that it might be possible to use the internet for something other than the messy expression of our worst impulses.
The novel is a bit smarter than it seems at first, but not that much smarter. It is entertaining, and often quite funny and perceptive. It’s a very timely glimpse at the way in which social media holds and twists our attention. But it doesn’t really have much new to say. Social media is characterised as a sort of bizarre performative game that takes up way too much time and energy. Twitter is brilliant for a writer but also terrible; facebook is a mess of memes and family in-jokes; Instagram is an endless dance of light and colour, signifying nothing. But there’s something wearily familiar about all this. It’s only a fresh spin on the same old anxieties.
The book ends with Kitab effectively quitting social media, and knuckling down to some proper old-fashioned writing. He gets the girl, and he discovers something important about himself in the process. It’s supposed to be a happy ending, I guess, but it also feels like a kind of surrender to the most conservative outlook on digital culture.
May 10, 2022
Sometimes, you are just drawn to a book. Something about the cover, or the title, or a hint of what it's about speaks to you, and that spontaneous pop into a secondhand book shop has been worthwhile.
You discover a new friend, a new favourite author, a new favourite book that you are sure you will revisit time and again.
It is a moment of rare delight.
Meatspace is not such a book.
A satirical look at how the real world and social media world collide, Nikesh Shukla has attempted to be smart, clever and funny – and if the quotes on the cover are to be believed, has nailed it.
I can only assume Matt Haig read a different book.
Published in 2014, Meatspace falls at the first fence by using social media terms that were out of date when the book came out.
Then there's the second crime of needlessly namedropping tech details to attempt to illustrate what sort of character we are dealing with.
Hate to break it to you, but the fact the narrator wrote a book in work time using Google Docs adds nothing to the narrative.
What it does suggest is Shukla is writing something way out of their comfort zone. Like when James Patterson started feeling the need to drop in 'hip' and 'modern' music references to show us how Alex Cross was a modern guy, but instead showed us Patterson wasn't.
Setting the whole thing in the first person is also an issue, as you both fail to get to grips with the character but also if you take against them early doors (hi there!) the rest of the book becomes more a war of attrition, the ragged end of a relationship rather than the beginning.
This, sadly, is one of those occasions where the idea far outweighs the final result.
You discover a new friend, a new favourite author, a new favourite book that you are sure you will revisit time and again.
It is a moment of rare delight.
Meatspace is not such a book.
A satirical look at how the real world and social media world collide, Nikesh Shukla has attempted to be smart, clever and funny – and if the quotes on the cover are to be believed, has nailed it.
I can only assume Matt Haig read a different book.
Published in 2014, Meatspace falls at the first fence by using social media terms that were out of date when the book came out.
Then there's the second crime of needlessly namedropping tech details to attempt to illustrate what sort of character we are dealing with.
Hate to break it to you, but the fact the narrator wrote a book in work time using Google Docs adds nothing to the narrative.
What it does suggest is Shukla is writing something way out of their comfort zone. Like when James Patterson started feeling the need to drop in 'hip' and 'modern' music references to show us how Alex Cross was a modern guy, but instead showed us Patterson wasn't.
Setting the whole thing in the first person is also an issue, as you both fail to get to grips with the character but also if you take against them early doors (hi there!) the rest of the book becomes more a war of attrition, the ragged end of a relationship rather than the beginning.
This, sadly, is one of those occasions where the idea far outweighs the final result.
June 22, 2017
This was really readable, so I've bumped it up to 3 stars. The ending infuriated me so much I marked it as 2 originally!
The book follows a writer struggling to write his second novel (so far so meta). He and his brother Aziz have simultaneously discovered their doppelgangers on the internet and embark on slightly awkward adventures as they meet them in real life.
The main character Kitab is only vaguely sympathetic. He's grieving, he has a strained relationship with his father, he's recently broken up with a long term girlfriend, and he's struggling to write whilst rapidly running out of money and only making the most half-hearted attempts to find a day job.
The book is funny in parts, and this is the work of a skilled writer - despite never really gripping me it did zip along quickly and was entertaining enough and well written that I kept going.
The ending however was atrocious. There are hints throughout that something is off, and that the information our narrator Kitab is giving us isn't quite right. I won't spoil it, but it makes use of a common fiction cliche, and in my opinion didn't provide the character development or proper closure I felt the book needed.
So I wasn't a fan, particularly, and I wouldn't recommend it per se, but I will seek out Nikesh's other work because he's certainly very talented. And if you want an entertaining light read then you could definitely do worse.
The book follows a writer struggling to write his second novel (so far so meta). He and his brother Aziz have simultaneously discovered their doppelgangers on the internet and embark on slightly awkward adventures as they meet them in real life.
The main character Kitab is only vaguely sympathetic. He's grieving, he has a strained relationship with his father, he's recently broken up with a long term girlfriend, and he's struggling to write whilst rapidly running out of money and only making the most half-hearted attempts to find a day job.
The book is funny in parts, and this is the work of a skilled writer - despite never really gripping me it did zip along quickly and was entertaining enough and well written that I kept going.
The ending however was atrocious. There are hints throughout that something is off, and that the information our narrator Kitab is giving us isn't quite right. I won't spoil it, but it makes use of a common fiction cliche, and in my opinion didn't provide the character development or proper closure I felt the book needed.
So I wasn't a fan, particularly, and I wouldn't recommend it per se, but I will seek out Nikesh's other work because he's certainly very talented. And if you want an entertaining light read then you could definitely do worse.
August 3, 2017
A story about social media, identity and the struggle to fit in. A failing writer and his laddish brother each encounter their doppelgangers online, and end up meeting them face-to-face, with strange and troubling consequences. The main plot was interesting, and often genuinely unpleasant to read, with a queasy Chris Morris-esque sense of helplessness. There's romance, which is sweet enough, though for me it didn't do enough to flesh out the rest of the book. The last chapter in particular spoiled a cathartic ending with an unexpected twist that I'm not sure if I liked, but in hindsight made some sense. I like the way Shukla writes, and I definitely want to explore more of his stuff, but there was something lacking in this particular book.
January 10, 2018
This book isn't in my usual wheelhouse but I enjoyed it a lot without being able to really put a finger on why. I was just rooting for Kitab! It's interesting how fast technology changes, because a lot of this book is influenced by it's setting in a world where Facebook and social media is still kind of new to people, which feels like such a far off time even though it's only a few years. Anyway, I'm still thinking about why I liked this book but I will say I think it's going to stick with me. Also I'm not one who is interested in ranting about how technology is ruining us, and this refreshingly does not stray too far into that despite tackling the issue of what's too much retreating into oneself and the internet for the protagonist.
May 17, 2018
....there’s a certain kind of ‘male lit’, usually British, which you can identify by how long it takes the main character to get to a description of his dick or a comment about his preferences in porn. This is one of those books.
I was hugely disappointed with this, not least because Nikesh Shukla is an inspiring writer / inspiration (cf, The Good Immigrant). I’d only read his columns before now, which have left me mildly unsatisfied; I thought he’d be better in longform. It was not to be. Flat, leaden and utterly drippy.
And yet. I did finish this, so it must have had some compelling points.
I was hugely disappointed with this, not least because Nikesh Shukla is an inspiring writer / inspiration (cf, The Good Immigrant). I’d only read his columns before now, which have left me mildly unsatisfied; I thought he’d be better in longform. It was not to be. Flat, leaden and utterly drippy.
And yet. I did finish this, so it must have had some compelling points.
July 6, 2018
A firm 3.5 but it was a bit too weird for me and a use of a clichéd literary device meant a mark down. Also, I don't understand how someone who's meant to be living his life online and on social media doesn't have the sense to block people on Twitter or do simple things to protect his various accounts. Though I guess if Kitab knew how to do all that there wouldn't be much of a story. I liked however the portrayal of how technology/social media controls lives and how online personas are so carefully curated.
January 7, 2015
Is it not fitting that right after I decide to cut back social media/email, I get a book from Netgalley about the drain, yet the draw, of cultivating one's online persona?
But before I review, I need to make one thing clear: Meatspace isn't one book. Meatspace is two books. In my ePub copy, there's a charming book that's a fun diversion from real life from pages 1 to 216. Then from near the top of page 216 to the last page of book on page 229, comes a book that is such a waste of my and everyone's time that I wanted to throw my kobo against the wall and DSAFJADSLRFE*RF#@%$!$GFSDAF.
So let's divide this review in two then. I'll try to get a nifty spoiler box for my review of the ending, as it gives all away and perhaps my upbeat review of the earlier 94% of the book will convince you to take a chance, no matter how idiotic the ending is.
So, here we go:
Meatspace Review page 1 through to the first few lines of page 216
Is lad-lit a thing, like chick-lit? Probably, and if so, this book is firmly ensconced in lad-lit, but, dropping the gendered boxes book marketers shove books into, this is a funny book about contemporary London. This is a book about the guy with the same name as you showing up at your door and expecting you to take him in because name buddies!. This is a book about someone who decides to get the same tattoo as a Doppelganger he finds online. This is a book about how now all your family is on facebook and twitter and following you and maybe having someone tweet you're going to a masquerade sex party for all the world to see isn't how one should properly engage with social media. It's a lark. It's a farce. I spent two afternoons and an evening reading the book and giggling. To take a quote from the book itself:
(Although I must say that I loathed The Line of Beautythe one book by Hollinghurst I read, and I've never read Rushdie.)
And of course, if you're a minimally successful writer (like myself) reading about an author who, while higher up the success lattice than myself, but still pretty low to the bottom, there are the quotes and scenes you recognize because your family has, well-meaningly, said them to you too:
I do not believe there is a writer on the planet who has not heard some variation of the above quote.
Part that made me smile the most: Kitab fretting about correcting kerning when getting his tattoo. If I were getting a tattoo, that would be exactly the thing that I would be freaking out about. I spent over an hour moving font around on my kid's birthday invitations this year. I totally get it.
Annoying stylistic tic: Writing out all numbers as numerals. I don't need to see The 2 of us drank wine in a novel. I don't care if it's a comment on the twitterfication of literature. Write out the darn number.
Read this part of the book if you liked: the first two Bridget Jones books (don't worry about the third one or the movies - those, like the ending of Meatspace, aren't necessarily worth your time, unless your a completist and not finishing things causes you undue anxiety).
Meatspace Review most of page 216 through to page 229
We can all agree that the twist ending at the end of The Sixth Sense was worth it. I'm sure there have been some other forms of media with an equally appropriate twist ending, not that I can think of any because most of the time twist endings are simply a schlock way adding drama or intrigue or depth at the expense of the attachment the reader/viewer forms with the characters. Kitab is an amusing narrator. Silly things happen to him. He's kind of a dick, but you love him anyway. I one hundred percent do not need to have the last thirteen pages of the book be all He's having a break from reality. All that says to me is that Shukla couldn't think of a clever ending or he got lazy or he was up the night before the deadline and this is what got banged out. It's a total cop-out ending. Of course Aziz's story of saving the baby from out under the New York subway while dressed as a masked vigilante was fake. Trust the reader to know that. Then adding in Azis being fake, I don't think wordpress has emojis or whatever, but I'm sure there's a gagging emoji to express my disgust. Picture on in your head. If I never read another Oh, it was all in the protagonist's head ending again, it will be too soon.
There are not enough stupid's in the world to describe the inanity of this ending.
Meatspace by Nikesh Shukla went on sale July 3rd.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
But before I review, I need to make one thing clear: Meatspace isn't one book. Meatspace is two books. In my ePub copy, there's a charming book that's a fun diversion from real life from pages 1 to 216. Then from near the top of page 216 to the last page of book on page 229, comes a book that is such a waste of my and everyone's time that I wanted to throw my kobo against the wall and DSAFJADSLRFE*RF#@%$!$GFSDAF.
So let's divide this review in two then. I'll try to get a nifty spoiler box for my review of the ending, as it gives all away and perhaps my upbeat review of the earlier 94% of the book will convince you to take a chance, no matter how idiotic the ending is.
So, here we go:
Meatspace Review page 1 through to the first few lines of page 216
Is lad-lit a thing, like chick-lit? Probably, and if so, this book is firmly ensconced in lad-lit, but, dropping the gendered boxes book marketers shove books into, this is a funny book about contemporary London. This is a book about the guy with the same name as you showing up at your door and expecting you to take him in because name buddies!. This is a book about someone who decides to get the same tattoo as a Doppelganger he finds online. This is a book about how now all your family is on facebook and twitter and following you and maybe having someone tweet you're going to a masquerade sex party for all the world to see isn't how one should properly engage with social media. It's a lark. It's a farce. I spent two afternoons and an evening reading the book and giggling. To take a quote from the book itself:
Not Hollinghurst or Rushdie. Just funny and twee and harmless.
(Although I must say that I loathed The Line of Beautythe one book by Hollinghurst I read, and I've never read Rushdie.)
And of course, if you're a minimally successful writer (like myself) reading about an author who, while higher up the success lattice than myself, but still pretty low to the bottom, there are the quotes and scenes you recognize because your family has, well-meaningly, said them to you too:
You'd be better writing a bestseller. One with police detectives in the countryside. One with murders and car chases. Something you can buy in an airport and a supermarket.
I do not believe there is a writer on the planet who has not heard some variation of the above quote.
Part that made me smile the most: Kitab fretting about correcting kerning when getting his tattoo. If I were getting a tattoo, that would be exactly the thing that I would be freaking out about. I spent over an hour moving font around on my kid's birthday invitations this year. I totally get it.
Annoying stylistic tic: Writing out all numbers as numerals. I don't need to see The 2 of us drank wine in a novel. I don't care if it's a comment on the twitterfication of literature. Write out the darn number.
Read this part of the book if you liked: the first two Bridget Jones books (don't worry about the third one or the movies - those, like the ending of Meatspace, aren't necessarily worth your time, unless your a completist and not finishing things causes you undue anxiety).
Meatspace Review most of page 216 through to page 229
We can all agree that the twist ending at the end of The Sixth Sense was worth it. I'm sure there have been some other forms of media with an equally appropriate twist ending, not that I can think of any because most of the time twist endings are simply a schlock way adding drama or intrigue or depth at the expense of the attachment the reader/viewer forms with the characters. Kitab is an amusing narrator. Silly things happen to him. He's kind of a dick, but you love him anyway. I one hundred percent do not need to have the last thirteen pages of the book be all He's having a break from reality. All that says to me is that Shukla couldn't think of a clever ending or he got lazy or he was up the night before the deadline and this is what got banged out. It's a total cop-out ending. Of course Aziz's story of saving the baby from out under the New York subway while dressed as a masked vigilante was fake. Trust the reader to know that. Then adding in Azis being fake, I don't think wordpress has emojis or whatever, but I'm sure there's a gagging emoji to express my disgust. Picture on in your head. If I never read another Oh, it was all in the protagonist's head ending again, it will be too soon.
There are not enough stupid's in the world to describe the inanity of this ending.
Meatspace by Nikesh Shukla went on sale July 3rd.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2018
I really enjoyed both the characters Kitab and Kitab 2 - think Kitab 2 felt so familiar! It lost a star simply because I couldn't relate as well to Kitab's social media use. I personally am not one for twitter, so it's likely just because of that. The characters were beautiful and felt like real people, and it got me laughing out loud at times.
April 1, 2018
I enjoyed this in a reading through my fingers way... Kitab wasn't always a sympathetic character and as soon as Kitab 2 turned up I was cringing, awaiting something awful- and the situation just kept getting worse!
But the final few pages with the truth about Aziz... Wow. I totally did not expect that.
But the final few pages with the truth about Aziz... Wow. I totally did not expect that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 4, 2017
Interesting, original, and quirky read. At times I wasn't sure I liked it, yet I couldn't put it down. I did not see the twist coming and it truly blew my mind and made me want to read it again with the knowledge I now had. Touching ending.
May 9, 2017
Didn't make it very far into the book, so my review is not conclusive, but I decided not to finish reading it because I was getting annoyed. It probably does capture a cultural moment, as the back of the book says, but I guess I'm not interested enough in the cultural moment it's describing.
November 25, 2018
I laughed. I cried.
July 29, 2021
A bit derivative
July 20, 2022
Not a bad book just one that I didn’t care about the people in it.
Found it in a free library and returning it so someone else may enjoy.
Found it in a free library and returning it so someone else may enjoy.
March 19, 2017
I picked this up on a whim at my local library and have to say it's a terrible book. it wants to be Fight Club but doesn't quite pack the same punch.
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