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PopCo

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 2,473 ratings · 355 reviews

PopCo tells the story of Alice Butler-a subversively smart girl in our commercial-soaked world who grows from recluse orphan to burgeoning vigilante, buttressed by mystery, codes, math, and the sense her grandparents gave her that she could change the world.

Alice-slight introvert, crossword compositor- works at PopCo, a globally successful and slightly sinister toy company...more

Paperback, 512 pages

Published October 3rd 2005 by Mariner Books (first published October 1st 2005)

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Oct 30, 2010 David rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: intellectual-con-artist-at-work, read-in-2007, disappointing

My earlier review of this book was unduly vicious. I've revised it slightly below and taken Popco off the "utter dreck" shelf. Unfortunately, for this book at least, she still gets stuck with the 'intellectual con artist' label.

Scarlett Thomas is the author of "The End of Mr Y", an impressive book which was highly original and quite entertaining. So I had high hopes for "Popco". Unfortunately, this time it seems that Ms Thomas may have bitten off more than she could chew. The discipline that was...more My earlier review of this book was unduly vicious. I've revised it slightly below and taken Popco off the "utter dreck" shelf. Unfortunately, for this book at least, she still gets stuck with the 'intellectual con artist' label.

Scarlett Thomas is the author of "The End of Mr Y", an impressive book which was highly original and quite entertaining. So I had high hopes for "Popco". Unfortunately, this time it seems that Ms Thomas may have bitten off more than she could chew. The discipline that was evident throughout the tightly constructed "The end of Mr Y" is sorely missing here - one senses early on that things are spiralling out of the author's control.

This is an ambitious, but also a profoundly irritating, book. The author clearly has a point to make, but does so in a fashion that manages to be both preachy and clumsy. There's a lot of faux-erudition, the parading of little tidbits of knowledge for no particular reason. But the author fails the basic requirements of the writer's trade -- she doesn't tell a credible story, and her habit of breaking off the narrative to include assorted heavy-handed, poorly thought out, mini-lectures on everything from prime factorization to networking is disruptive and pointless. These various digressions do not move the plot forward, and ultimately lead nowhere - the account of how the final code is cracked is presented at such a sketchy level of detail that the reader simply has to take it as a given - so why all the little lessons in codebreaking along the way?

Ultimately, the book just collapses under the weight of the various digressions, whose relevance is never really made clear.

Better accounts of some of the topics dragged into this book can be found in:

Simon Singh's "The Code Book"
Naomi Klein's "No Logo"
Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point"

A more successful synthesis of some of the ideas, incorporated in a skillfully told story is in Neal Stevenson's "Cryptonomicon".

But give this book a miss. Hopefully Ms. Thomas will regain her earlier form next time out.

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Sep 11, 2007 Eileen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: britlit

PopCo kind of wants to be Cryptonomicon, but shorter and with less discussion of math, types of economies, and anything else more complex than marketing. It makes me want never to work at any company larger or more corporate than a shoebox. That's kind of the point of the book; it ends up literally saying so. The end was really annoying, due to aforementioned flat moralization plus a boring/not particularly believable solution to the main mystery. The rest of the story was all right, though not...more

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Mar 25, 2007 Eli Brooke rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this after reading Thomas' more recent novel "The End of Mr. Y", which I adored. I actually think that PopCo works better as a cohesive whole, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it didn't have quite the same resonance with me in terms of having a specific set of ideas I was excited to read about as Mr. Y did. I definitely reccomend this one to others, though. It's got a very strong anti-commericalist, anti-herd-mentality, anti-fashion-in-all-aspects-of-life bent, and that's very good. P...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Silletta rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, narrativa-inglese

Disclaimer: questo libro fa emergere la cretina che c'è in me, per qualche strana ragione; la recensione sarà dunque viziata da ciò. Il che è solo un modo elegante per dire che sarò lievemente (e simpaticamente) polemica, e visto che la polemica ce l'ho nel sangue, sarò anche prolissa. Mi scuso.

Prendete una puntata tipo della Signora in giallo. Va bene anche qualsiasi telefilm del genere, ma io sono una fan di Jessica, Jessica über alles! Nella mia mente una puntata tipo della signora in giallo...more Disclaimer: questo libro fa emergere la cretina che c'è in me, per qualche strana ragione; la recensione sarà dunque viziata da ciò. Il che è solo un modo elegante per dire che sarò lievemente (e simpaticamente) polemica, e visto che la polemica ce l'ho nel sangue, sarò anche prolissa. Mi scuso.

Prendete una puntata tipo della Signora in giallo. Va bene anche qualsiasi telefilm del genere, ma io sono una fan di Jessica, Jessica über alles! Nella mia mente una puntata tipo della signora in giallo si conclude con un trio: Jessica, il colpevole, e uno sfigato qualunque che si trova in scena solo come espediente narrativo. Jessica scopre abilmente il colpevole, perché lei è intelligente e astutissima, pessima da avere come zia o amica da invitare a casa vostra però, perché immancabilmente finirete o morti o accusati. Dicevamo, Jessica smaschera il colpevole, e prontamente svela anche al colpevole stesso, nonché allo sfigato di turno (duole dirlo, ma spesso costui è lo sceriffo), il piano diabolico nei minimi dettagli. Jessica sa, il colpevole pure, il terzo dunque serve solo a giustificare il fatto che lo stiano spiegando. Ecco, io ho sempre cordialmente detestato queste scenette, e non manco mai di farne oggetto delle mie polemiche acide. Sì, sono una persona simpaticissima, I know.
Tutto questo per dire che la Scarlett Thomas è un'autrice che mi è tanto simpatica, è tanto cara e si vede anche acculturata, nonché attenta nel descrivere con cognizione ciò di cui parla, ma a tratti sembra prendere per fessi i propri lettori. Come se dovesse spiegare proprio tutto-tutto-tutto. Esempio? La protagonista per sua stessa ammissione ha giocato a videogiochi e giochi di ruolo virtuali...come può essere mai possibile che, in una conversazione, chieda al suo amico informatico cosa è un avatar, e che lui glielo spieghi con un linguaggio svilente? Cara Scarlett, non mi sento presa per fessa perché hai sentito il bisogno di spiegarmelo, ma perché pensi che io non possa capire che è inverosimile che parlino in quel modo.
Anche tutte le pagine a parlare dei vari tipi di crittografia! Scarlett, tesoro mio, se ho voglia di approfondire mi faccio una ricerca su google, di certo quando hai scritto questo libro non ti era molto chiaro come tenere il lettore con il fiato sospeso. Almeno Jessica in cinque minuti spiega tutto, tu sbrodoli invece per pagine e pagine (e pagine! tante!), come inserendo tanti saggi all'interno di un romanzo.
La protagonista deve presenziare ad un seminario su un tal argomento? E noi lettori presenziamo insieme a lei, subendo - giustamente, mica possiamo essere così scortesi da non starle vicini, eh - insieme a lei una lunga agonia, perché se il seminario fittizio dura mezz'ora, noi realmente impieghiamo mezz'ora a leggere. Se siete me poi aggiungete cinque minuti buoni spalmati nella mezz'ora per qualche parolaccia gratuita qua e là. Perché ho provato sincero odio per i personaggi che facevano domande al fittizio relatore, come quando all'università il professore sta per dichiarare finita la lezione interminabile del venerdì pomeriggio e si vede un ditino alzarsi accompagnato da uno "scuuusiii?". C'è da dire che la capacità di trasportare il lettore nella scena l'autrice la dimostra. Peccato che sia straziante.

Risultato? Accantonato. Il fulcro della storia poteva anche intrigarmi, peccato che a metà libro (cioè dopo 240 benedette pagine cartacee, duecentoquaranta!) il fulcro lo vedo solo in lontananza. Vorrei tanto continuarlo perché sento che prima o poi ci sarà qualcosa di buono, perché la protagonista mi è simpatica, perché non è del tutto male, e altri perché, ma l'idea di dover superare altre duecentoquaranta pagine così non mi alletta.
Ci sono tanti altri libri che meritano il mio tempo, questo sinceramente ora no.(less)

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Dec 31, 2008 K Nolfi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: partly-read

I enjoyed it but after I put it down to read something else I wasn't motivated to pick it up again. Much better than Going Out, which I wasn't interested in. Thomas is a good writer and this is an important topic to explore but I wasn't able to read an indictment of society at the time. Like the descriptions of sitting on the grass making tea and rolling a cigarette and feeling like a weirdo.
Taking the piss out of the corporate life and selling stuff.

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Aug 10, 2011 Dan S added it · review of another edition

On the good side, there are several interesting plot strands to this - Alice's childhood, the Francis Stevenson story, the map. On the other hand, these are all subplots - the main plot meanders around until the last fifty pages, where pretty much everything we've already read in that part of the book is turned on it's head. And these last fifty pages are, sadly, a disappointment.

Alice, the main character, annoyed me from the start - too self consciously anti-trends. By all means don't follow fa...more

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Jan 20, 2011 _incubus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

sto barando perchè non l'ho proprio finito... la soluzione me la leggo stasera..insomma lei ha aspettato tutti quegli anni io potrò aspettare qualche ora *-*
decisamente il migliore dei tre che ho letto, senza alcun dubbio... e poi tutte queste cose di crittoanalisi sono troppo interessanti anche se la mia mente limitata a volte doveva fermarsi a rileggere per capire.. e poi rileggere ancora.. insomma non pretendiamo troppo da me *-* mia sorella sarà una matematica prima o poi.. già lo è ora anch...more

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Mar 10, 2009 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

PopCo was the novel Scarlett Thomas wrote before The End Of Mr Y, though it's now being re-marketed after the success of the former. I found it as compelling as Mr Y but not as satisfying, particularly the ending.

It's the story of Alice, a twenty-something working for a global manufacturer of kid's toys. At a Thought Camp for creatives in Dartmoor, intended to help the company devise a new hugely successful product to be aimed at teenage girls, Alice wakes up to the immorality of the organisatio...more

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May 04, 2013 Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

I recently reread this and downgraded my rating my one star. It's definitely a much weaker novel that Mr Y and Our Tragic Universe. I enjoy book with a puzzle element, and along with the rather intriguing character of Alice, this absorbed my attention the first time round.

On a rereading however, the shortcomings of this book made it virtually unreadable in some places. Unfortunately, it now also seems incredibly dated, with the 'cultural rebellion' of some of the main characters now just seeming...more I recently reread this and downgraded my rating my one star. It's definitely a much weaker novel that Mr Y and Our Tragic Universe. I enjoy book with a puzzle element, and along with the rather intriguing character of Alice, this absorbed my attention the first time round.

On a rereading however, the shortcomings of this book made it virtually unreadable in some places. Unfortunately, it now also seems incredibly dated, with the 'cultural rebellion' of some of the main characters now just seeming like the whining, ill-informed angst of some very spoilt young people.

I disliked how as you get into the last third of the book, any characters who don't utterly adhere to the 'anti-corporate' message become cardboard cut-outs, suddenly spouting the most tired cliches along the lines of 'who cares?'. I was particularly disappointed in the rather abrupt writing out of Georges and Dan, in favour of one-dimensional anti-corporate warriors.

Having read the acknowedgements, it seems that the view of marketing and business in the book reflects Thomas's own. So it seems rather ironic that she is using the guerilla marketing tactics that are so villified, and quite how she thinks she would make a living as a writer or a university lecturer without someone, at some point, engaging in marketing and business is beyond me.

The views and information about vegetarianism, veganism, business and outsoured labour are incredibly simplisitic and quite frequently poorly informed. I am both a vegetarian and someone who has lived in farming community, and the presentation of farming is bordering on the libellous! Absolutely no differentation is made between the worst farming practices, and the many farmers who take care of their animals and the environment, let alone many of the complexities of the whether or not to eat meat. For example, some land is totally unsuitable for arable agriculture, many rare breeds would be at risk of dying out, some people need to eat meat and animal products for health reasons, and animal manure is a valuable fertiliser for the earth.

Not all factories in China are sweatshops were people regularly 'loose limbs' and shutting down all the factories in China that produce goods for the West would have utterly devasting effects on the Chinese economy. In fact, one person working a factory in a city can often be a step out of poverty for a whole family, as I found out when I lived in an industrial Chinese city. Also, Chinese people are not voiceless victims, unable to change their circumstances unless the white Western middle class destroy the goods they make in shops here! Patronising and ignorant.

Similarly, none of the oh-so self righteous characters come up with any coherant ideas as to what they are trying to replace the current model of the economy with. (less)

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Mar 19, 2013 awbrey rated it 3 of 5 stars

"PopCo" was frustrating for me. I was really interested in the story of young Alice, growing up with her grandparents after her father disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and adult Alice, received coded messages at an equally mysterious corporate retreat. That could have been a really interesting story. Instead, Thomas became more invested in lecturing us about math/history/cryptanalysis (interesting to a point, but I really am not going to understand or care about prime factorization no...more "PopCo" was frustrating for me. I was really interested in the story of young Alice, growing up with her grandparents after her father disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and adult Alice, received coded messages at an equally mysterious corporate retreat. That could have been a really interesting story. Instead, Thomas became more invested in lecturing us about math/history/cryptanalysis (interesting to a point, but I really am not going to understand or care about prime factorization no matter how simply or extensively you explain it) and sharing her eat organic/fight the man/"You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same" cultural rebellion theories.

Thomas sacrifices her characters to make this message. After developing young Alice as a girl who loves puzzles and solving mysteries and has a big imagination, Thomas has to show us that pop culture is destructive, so teenaged Alice goes to high school and all she cares about is fitting in and having the right brands - there's even the written equivalent of a montage scene, where Alice and her friend fall in with the wrong crowd, go to parties, lie to their families, steal, cuss, drugs, sex, unplanned pregnancy, classes are failed, lives are ruined -- all of this happens in about two paragraphs! Life is a bit more subtle than that.

And throughout the story, adult Alice keeps making points like, I don't wear the same clothes as them. I don't have the same interests as them. I don't like mainstream popular culture, with the implication that this makes her superior. Defining yourself by what you don't like and who you disapprove of doesn't actually make you unique or interesting or different, it just makes you kind of a bummer to hang out with.

I got the impression that ideas like being a vegetarian or fighting major corporations were new things that Thomas had just become very enthusiastic about, and she wanted to share that through this book. It's great to have passions and really care about something, but the ideas expressed in PopCo are sort of immature, still in development. Destroying a product that a small local store is selling, for example, won't hurt the corporation that produced it - the store already paid for the product. You're just hurting the local store. So I found the long lectures at the end of the book disappointing (and boring), even more so because they were what I got instead of an interesting conclusion to the various mysteries that were introduced.

Also: I have read a few Scarlett Thomas books, and by now there are some recurring things that I recognize and wish I didn't see so much. She brings up homeopathic medicine a lot, which, while interesting in small doses, ends up feeling like she's trying to convert me. And, in multiple books, she's actually written statements that are basically like: people are more likely to believe things that are presented as fiction, because they're reading without the filters and skepticism that they have when approaching non-fiction. Isn't that the same tricky business that Alice complains about in advertising/marketing in this book? And the love story was a bit familiar, as well. Meet a mysterious loner-type, fall into bed with him, discover that he's actually a soft-hearted intellectual (philosophy/theology) who likes flower remedies and pirate radio, intense emotional connection to match the intense physical connection.

I actually thought Thomas managed to develop an interesting character in Georges, but threw him under the bus as well (view spoiler)

So, in the end, I felt like Thomas cared more about her messages than her story and her characters, and so, the story and characters were disappointing. There are lots of interesting ideas, really solid/lovely/funny writing in some sections, and the hints of great characters - I wish that Thomas could have done something else to engage her humanitarian/save-the-world passion separately. (less)

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Nov 29, 2012 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nothing can quite touch "Our Tragic Universe" for me in terms of level of awesomeness, so. There's always something endearingly awkward about Scarlett Thomas' prose. In her earlier novels (the mystery ones) and in this one, she sort of crashes through the novel. The observations are very smart and true, but the scene-making is a little bit awkward. However, she makes novels about smart women thinking about shit. Deep shit. Their love lives are always chaotic and in-between, they tend to to drink...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Rebecca eley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like books that mix meaning with a story

Recommended to Rebecca by: me

Shelves: my-cult-fiction

I really enjoyed reading this. I bought the book a couple of years ago and for some reason never got past the first page. I picked it up again after reading My Tragic Universe and remembering how much I like Scarlett Thomas. I really liked the main character Alice, the story was interesting, it made a point without me feeling lectured and made me want to learn more about codes and maths.

Alice works for PopCo a major toy producing corporation. After going on the annual corporate retreat to genera...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This book is wonderful. When I began reading it I wasn't quite sure what to expect - a book about someone who works for a toy company could have been anything really. But I was pleasantly surprised.
I fell in love with Alice from the moment I read about her - I identified with her in so many way, and in others was completely baffled by her, and I just wanted to know more. Then Thomas sealed the deal with a mention of Alice's mathematical grandparents and their history and the magnificent Bletchl...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

So I could rattle on for hours about how much I love my Kindle. About how it’s easy to continue reading on the Tube with just one hand, still able to desperately cling on to whatever poll space is available with the other. How I can read five different books at once and carry them all around for the weight of less that one (extremely useful when flying EasyJet). How it doesn’t feel any less ‘real’ than reading a paper book. But one of the best things is how it can lead to exciting new discoverie...more So I could rattle on for hours about how much I love my Kindle. About how it’s easy to continue reading on the Tube with just one hand, still able to desperately cling on to whatever poll space is available with the other. How I can read five different books at once and carry them all around for the weight of less that one (extremely useful when flying EasyJet). How it doesn’t feel any less ‘real’ than reading a paper book. But one of the best things is how it can lead to exciting new discoveries you’d probably never have picked up in a bookstore.

My PopCo purchase was, actually, one of my first Kindle paid-for purchases (after I downloaded all the free classics that we all know we should read, but…). I only came accross is thanks to Amazon’s genius ’12 days of Christmas’ – for 12 days, a certain number of books were available to download for just £1. Well what’s £1 for filling up your spangly new Kindle? I don’t think I even read the PopCo blurb, but the cover looked pretty, so I downloaded it (come on, it is a rather lovely cover). And while most impulse purchases end up in regret and waste (that £4.50 Bulmers I only drank half of last weekend before I ‘got bored’ of it, for example), this was £1 spent far better than I ever imagined it could be.

PopCo begins as Alice Butler – amateur code-breaker and designer for a global toy manufacturer (PopCo) – is heading to Dartmoor for a company getaway. The story revolves around this ‘getaway’ that is extended as a selected few, including Alice, are put on a top-secret quest to devise the Next Big Thing for teenage girls. This is interspersed with Alice’s discussions of her past – her AWOL Father and her Grandfather’s quest to break the supposedly unbreakable Voynich manuscript while her Grandmother worked at Bletchley Park, alongside general coming-of-age musings that point to a slightly rebellious streak. All this, and she can’t figure out who it is that’s sending her coded messages in Dartmoor.

The majority of the book is excellent. Alice is a character many will be able to identify with, if not for her love of codes and ability to solve them (that excludes me, anyway) then for her constant feelings of being slightly ostracised. She observes from the fringe of society and groups, always slightly uncertain of how (or if) to fit in. The family background is fascinating, too. I had to apologise to my housemate for finding his wanting to go to Bletchley Park amusing, as after reading this I became intrigued by what went on there. Also, despite the numbers talk you don’t have to be that-way inclined to ‘get’ or enjoy the book, so certainly don’t let that put you off.

However, what I enjoyed less was some of the more blunt propagana of Thomas’s views that seep into the second half. From pro-vegan/vegetarianism, to anti-corporations, by way of endorsing homeopathy, this book has some not-very-well-hidden-agendas. And while I’m all for freedom of speech and expressing viewpoints through means such as writing, the messages here are pretty in-your-face. It’s not that I disagree with her views (beside the pro-homeopathy. And I’m a proud carnivore, but I do understand the many reasons people have for giving up meat and dairy. And I’d also be fine with working for a large corporation – Big Five publishers take note). It’s just that, if I wanted to read such a frank discussion of facts (and one side of the facts at that), I’d Google them. Find some leaflets. In writing, for me soliciting ideas and beliefs work best when woven in with the story. Occasionally this was the case in PopCo – although it’s quite clear that Thomas is anti-conglomerates when she describes market research techniques such as two-way mirrors with children and having staff employed to infiltrate teen message boards, these descriptions were, undeniably, unsettling and effective. What worked less well for me were the too-frequent monologues that seemed to be implanted purely for the sake of expressing a viewpoint. These were frustrating, and felt like a sorely disappointing addition to what was, and continued to be in many parts, a really enjoyable, unique and interesting novel.

This said, I would still recommend the story. The code-breaking aspect to it was really interesting, Alice’s family history absorbing and many characters intriguing. There’s many moments of pure wit, making it easy to see how Thomas has garnered comparisons to Douglas Coupland. Also, the most overt of propaganda is, at least, contained to one section of the book, meaning your enjoyment of the entire novel is not ruined by any frustrations you might have with Thomas’s voice occasionally seeming to outshine that of her characters.

Overall, I’m glad I shelled out a whole £1 on this novel. I’d actually say that it was worth spending a reasonable amount more than that, particularly if you’re a fan of Douglas Coupland-esque reflections-on-society. Read past the preaching and you’re left with a funny, vibrant and completely absorbing book that contains a story quite unlike any other I’ve read. Little writing by numbers here.
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Oct 16, 2011 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

One of my friends bought me this book (in return for eggs and cheese.....strange story) and though I enjoyed it as a whole, I found parts of it quite heavy handed and preachy.

Thomas has got a great writing style and manages to create a believable modern day character without falling into a somewhat trite use of overtly modern language and references, which can sometimes grate. I found the parts about the ciphers and codes fascinating, although I hated maths and still don't quite understand why...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Kali rated it 2 of 5 stars

I did enjoy this book. I thought I should make that clear now, because I mostly want to rant about it.

Thomas used homoeopathy as a plot device in The End of Mister Y. Okay, that's fine, you get one magical freebie. However, when it showed up here in PopCo, I realised; Oh...you really believe this, don't you?

There are also severe problems with Thomas' representations of veganism and activism. At one point, a character destroys a PopCo product in a toy store, as a passive-aggressive way of punish...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Chris K rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having greatly enjoyed Ms. Thomas' "The End of Mr. Y", I picked this up with high (probably too high for my own good) expectations.

After a "painful" month (which should, by itself, say something), trying to stick with it, I finally read the long-awaited conclusion a few minutes ago -and, frankly, feel it was hardly worth the hassle :(

Despite the fact that the characters were interesting (if with loads of unexplored potential) and the criticism of today's society thought provoking (if a bit prea...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Tori S rated it 4 of 5 stars

Alice Butler works for PopCo, the third largest toy company in the world and the book opens with her travelling to the company’s annual retreat. During her stay she becomes more and more unnerved by the company’s marketing ploys, looking at questions that the more concerned consumer thinks about - sweat shop produced? directly marketing to children? Do they deal in manipulation and dishonesty? At the same time, we learn about Alice’s backstory; after her father abandons her, she lives with her c...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Mark Harding rated it 4 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed The End of Mr.Y, but in many ways PopCo is an even better book. PopCo is the ideal book for an intelligent 15 year old boy (I don’t mean that in an insulting way) — codebreaking, Godel, maths, treasure maps, marketing and capitalism. Simultaneously with these delights, Thomas really knows how to write. There’s excitement in Thomas’ prose right from the off: “The station feels like it is on beta-blockers.” “I can actually hear my footsteps as I walk, a D Major scale playing on...more

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Feb 22, 2011 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a love it or hate it book. Because of the significant social issues contained in this story, such as the mistreatment of animals, corporate misdeeds, and guerilla marketing, this will appeal more to socially conscious individuals and those whose principles stand in opposition to the current CEO-type establishment. But, even then, counterculture types may still not like it if they don't want to see these issues advanced in a novel. That said, I applaud Scarlett Thomas for weaving these co...more This is a love it or hate it book. Because of the significant social issues contained in this story, such as the mistreatment of animals, corporate misdeeds, and guerilla marketing, this will appeal more to socially conscious individuals and those whose principles stand in opposition to the current CEO-type establishment. But, even then, counterculture types may still not like it if they don't want to see these issues advanced in a novel. That said, I applaud Scarlett Thomas for weaving these controversies in without sermonizing and laying on dull exposition. Thomas is clearly brainy and imaginative. She is subversive without being cynical, intellectual without condescending.

Two storylines alternate throughout the novel, and eventually merge into a complex whole. As a child, Alice Butler was raised primarily by her grandparents, as her mother died when she was very young and her father took off to find a buried treasure. Alice's grandfather is a formidable cryptanalyst, cracking codes and ciphers and teaching Alice the essentials of prime numbers, poly-alphabetic ciphers, Vigenere enciphering, and other forms of codes and ciphers. The reader is exposed to some fundamental lessons that are thrilling and mind-boggling. The author infuses this in the story so naturally that it feels organically part of the storyline.

Alice's grandmother has been working on the Riemann Hypothesis for many years but has not solved it. Alice's upbringing has made her hyperaware of the layers of complexity that exist in her surroundings, and she is a lover of paradoxes. She is often alienated from her peers, and develops a tough shell due to the immaturity and abuse she endures from her classmates (as well as some teachers). I have never read a book that illuminates adolescent behaviors so well--such as taunting, striving for popularity, the desire to fit in. Not even Margaret Atwood, known for her stark portrayals of teenage predatory behaviors, has illustrated the harrowing anxieties, shame and adversity so baldly and authentically.

As an adult, Alice works for the corporate toy company, PopCo, the third largest toy company in the world. The story opens as Alice is on her way to a "thought camp" retreat. Her job is coming up with marketing strategies aimed at teenage girls. Her team is designated to design a new product, with specific potential to become a craze. Essentially, create a desire where none exists and persuade teenage girls that they have to have it. The ideation seminars at the thought camp instruct PopCo employees to create identity manias, a veritable fever that infects girls and coaxes them to covet a trend and crave a product.

In lesser hands, this could easily become an elongated slogan or a sententious rant. However, Thomas is a gifted writer with a blazing, generous spirit. She is out-of the box and brimming with provocative, piercing ideas that are fleshed out and powerful. This imaginative novel is unclassifiable and yet compelling. The author has a keen sense of adventure, keeping the reader in suspense. Alice's narrative voice has a vital, dynamic sensibility that is suffused with compassion and wisdom beyond her years. The prose is eloquent and her characters fully developed. Thomas is an enormous, brilliant think tank of a writer.
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Dec 30, 2010 Annie added it

I really quite liked her Mr. Y. Add maths and code (and excellent packaging) and you've gotten me to buy. Which, given the particular nature of the rather moralistic bits gracelessly dropped into an otherwise promising story, is rather too much irony for me to manage. I couldn't help but feeling by the end that I'd been swindled, hoodwinked, and a number of other verbs she could not have possibly intended concurrent to getting her point across, unless I'm too thick to peel back the last layer of...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found this book in the bin of leftover books at the hotel where we were staying in Belize. I wasn't expecting much under the circumstances but I was desperate and glad for anything other than a Tom Clancy novel. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The writing is smart and the subject of marketing and corporate malfience definitely needs to be addressed. The story went awry here and there and left me a bit unsatisfied but the ride was definitely easy and fun.

Alice Butler, the heroine of t...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Jim Leckband rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Faith Popcorn is who popped into my head as I was reading this book. For those who haven't had the misfortune of reading one of many newspaper/magazine/website articles that have propounded her Ouija marketspeak, she is a trendspotter/marketing guru. The people in this book would despise her as she is working for the "Man" in her futurespeak.

And in the mess of a paragraph above I have conflated at least three things that this book is about - marketing trend spotting, resistance against corporati...more Faith Popcorn is who popped into my head as I was reading this book. For those who haven't had the misfortune of reading one of many newspaper/magazine/website articles that have propounded her Ouija marketspeak, she is a trendspotter/marketing guru. The people in this book would despise her as she is working for the "Man" in her futurespeak.

And in the mess of a paragraph above I have conflated at least three things that this book is about - marketing trend spotting, resistance against corporatism, and codes and ciphers developed from clues embedded in other things. But, wait, there's more! It also has pirates, corporate retreat horrors, veganism, toy development, teen ostracism, unbreakable codes and secret societies! It is a bit much. But hey, I think it worked.

The main thing I focused on was Thomas's various ways of attacking the concept of identity and belonging (seems like a lot of books I read have this that I focus on - what does *that* say about me, hmmm? Hmmm?). Thomas really bangs on about set theory and intrinsic paradoxes in systems - like Groucho's edict "I won't be a member of a club that would have me as a member" or if the Cretan who says "all Cretans are liars" is telling the truth. Various plotlines and symbols bring this out - the adolescent Alice (hmmm...what other Alice has there been...) trying to fit into a clique she doesn't want to be part of, consumers buying stuff to fit into a society that is destroying their individuality, homeopathic drugs that can't have more than a molecule of their "active" substance in them, vegans who define themselves in opposition to the dominant culture, and of course all the discursive talk on Cantor and Gödel's infinities and sets of infinities.

So what is the point of this set theory mumbo jumbo? At the end I think it means to try and create a meaningful life that is of your own choosing - even if it contains paradoxes, because even the basis of Arithmetic contains paradoxes, or as Walt said, "Do I contradict myself? very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes!"(less)

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Nov 07, 2010 Blair rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, favourites

This is the third book I've read by Scarlett Thomas, who is quickly becoming one of my favourite modern authors. I was introduced to her books by The End of Mr. Y (very, very good) and recently read her latest novel Our Tragic Universe (absolutely brilliant). PopCo came before both, originally published in 2004 and repackaged after the success of Mr. Y. I have to confess that I knew of the author before her most recent books, and I think I'd even looked at an earlier version of PopCo and rejecte...more This is the third book I've read by Scarlett Thomas, who is quickly becoming one of my favourite modern authors. I was introduced to her books by The End of Mr. Y (very, very good) and recently read her latest novel Our Tragic Universe (absolutely brilliant). PopCo came before both, originally published in 2004 and repackaged after the success of Mr. Y. I have to confess that I knew of the author before her most recent books, and I think I'd even looked at an earlier version of PopCo and rejected it - the very late-90s-style, brightly coloured covers of Thomas's previous works led me to believe they were either chick-lit in the 'ladette' mould or some kind of slightly more grown-up YA novels (my local library's copy of PopCo has a cover featuring a woman's heavily made-up eyes and lips - god only knows why, as this has nothing whatsoever to do with the content). I quite literally judged her books by their covers, and am beginning to realise this was a huge mistake. I'm now trying to make up for it - I'm attempting to get hold of the earlier ones as we speak - but in any case, PopCo turned out to be excellent.

Having read three of Thomas's novels, I've started to notice patterns in the stories they tell. They all have flawed and kind of neurotic, but really likeable and believable, female protagonists; they're all full of big ideas - this one has lots of stuff about complex mathematics and code-breaking - presented in an accessible way; they all have a central mystery, but they're really about much more than that, about people, relationships and life itself. PopCo is ostensibly about Alice Butler and the mysterious coded messages she receives while on a company retreat, with flashbacks to her somewhat troubled childhood, but there's a lot more to it than that. It's a record of Alice's thoughts about her career, relationships/sex and friendships - particularly the the titular toy corporation (which she works for), the ethical implications of marketing products to children, and the dilemma of choosing between the boss she fantasises about and the new colleague who desires her. Even the young Alice, in flashbacks, ruminates on the difficulties of 'fitting in' (providing several laugh-out-loud moments as she strives not to be labelled a 'gyppo', 'slag' or 'weirdo' by her new, cooler friends) and the mysteries contained within her own family. This all cleverly links back in with the adult Alice's attempts to develop a new must-have toy for teenage girls and the moral battles she has with herself as a result.

If there's anything wrong with this book, it's that Alice's over-analysing and questioning of everything can be a little too much at times. This didn't bother me much as I really liked and in many ways related to the character, but I can see it being off-putting for some other readers. There are also points when the flashbacks, many of which involve Alice learning about maths and cryptography from her grandparents, just seem like a device to simplify these details by approaching them from a child's perspective (a lot of them still didn't make sense to me, to be honest, but you don't need to fully understand all the concepts discussed to 'get' what actually happens in the story). My final complaint is that I really wanted to see Alice with Georges, not Ben! But the relationships Thomas's characters have are nothing if not realistic, and it's fitting that Alice should end up in a believable, imperfect relationship rather than the fantasy option.

It's funny that Mr. Y was the book that introduced me to Thomas, as it's turned out to be my least favourite of the three I've read so far. Her novels always seem to make me have the same reactions; I wish I was best friends with her characters, I envy the conversations they have with one another, and I wonder where/how I can meet people like these, if they even exist! PopCo is a fantastic, ambitious, thought-provoking book (the conclusion certainly got me thinking about the concept of corporate sabotage from the inside, for a start) and well worth a read. (less)

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Jun 08, 2007 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't tend to read two books by the same author in a row (Harry Potter is a collossal exception) because I get bored with the style. However, PopCo was different enough from Mr. Y. and it had a CROSSWORD PUZZLE in the back. Unfortunately, it's a British crossword, and I stink at those. Way too cryptic! But if you like wordgames and buried treasure, OR if you're skeptical of the motives of the toy industry, you'll find this one enjoyable.

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Jun 25, 2012 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars

My review from "I'm Reading": I had a lot of fun reading "PopCo," which is the second Scarlett Thomas novel I've read--the first being "The End of Mr Y." Alice Butler, a young cryptographer, working for the huge toy company PopCo, is the protagonist. I happily followed Alice through plenty of geeky math and cipher explanations, alternating biographical narratives of her quirky adult and childhood selves, a story of pirates and buried treasure, outlines of the lives of her beloved WWII code-break...more

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Oct 01, 2007 Lauren rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Disappointing after reading The End of Mr. Y . Thomas takes an interesting character and flushes her down a toilet of preachy, plot-less drivel, and then tries to salvage the story by tacking on an everything-works-out-just-how-you'd-dream epilogue. Thomas just seems to keen on her own ideas and not concerned enough with her story and characters.

Harsh, I know, but it's just a reflection of my disappointment.

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Apr 29, 2013 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mixed feelings. I really enjoyed reading this book. Alice was a likeable character, she made me laugh, and I liked seeing the dynamics of the group of co-workers develop while on the retreat. But the book had huge amounts of details that didn't seem to serve any purpose (like describing every meal) and story lines that didn't really fit together. I thought it was odd to have Alice receive anonymous coded messages but yet not have that mystery drive the story. The messages were inane (like "Can y...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 28, 2010 Ruthiella rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

Alice, iconoclastic and slightly paranoid, raised by a cryptologist grandfather and mathematician grandmother, is receiving messages in code. Could this have anything to do with the infamous coded manuscript her grandfather is alleged to have cracked before his death? Or is it part of a nefarious plot on the part of the global toy corporation she designs for? Ciphers, lateral thinking and mathematics swirl around a labyrinthine plot. What begins as a conspiracy thriller, á la "Foucault’s Pendulu...more

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About Scarlett Thomas

Scarlett Thomas has taught English Literature at the University of Kent since 2004, and has previously taught at Dartmouth Community College, South East Essex College and the University of East London. She reviews books for the Literary Review, the Independent on Sunday, and Scotland on Sunday. She has written seven novels, including The End of Mr. Y and PopCo.
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“Routine kills creative thought.” — 23 people liked it

“Sometimes you have to trust grownups, perhaps more so when they are not there to actually supervise you.” — 5 people liked it

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