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So far one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. Reminds me of “V.” by Pynchon or “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell, with some of the faux biography of Charles Yu thrown in as well. Really remarkable.

A remarkable book - extraordinary insights into the invention of our modern world

Pynchon in his most entertaining and surrealist mode - more Inherent Vice or Vineland than Gravity’s Rainbow or V. - but weirdly powerful and evocative, even while making dumb jokes or inventing non-existent Broadway musicals about Amy Fisher. Strangely relevant, as always, despite being (essentially) a paranoid shaggy dog story (also as always!)

One of the greatest works of modern history I’ve read

Basically like if Don DeLillo wrote Crying of Lot 49 - amazing so far

Kleeman writes the best Don DeLillo novels since DeLillo gave up on being Don DeLillo (he became someone else after White Noise). Her first novel, You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, was an incredible piece of literary terrorism, but this may be even better.

This book is remarkable - a 17th century epistolary mashup of Rashamon and Name of the Rose, with the size and curious momentum of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle. Once you get past the slow second section it really starts to move. An absurdly long read but looking like it may justify the effort