Chat (Cyberseries, No. 1)

published	1998 by Pocket
binding	Paperback
isbn	067102339X (isbn13: 9780671023393)
pages	144
description	IT ALL BEGAN WITH A SIMPLE chat:-) This utterly original novel invites you to "eavesdrop" on the electronic correspondence b...more [close] IT ALL BEGAN WITH A SIMPLE chat:-) This utterly original novel invites you to "eavesdrop" on the electronic correspondence between two people who have just met online: Bev, a tough-minded book editor who has been logging on for years, and Max, a restless advertising copywriter who boldly strikes up a conversation. With each e-mail exchange, two people who are at first faceless come vibrantly alive through their sometimes serious, frequently funny, and always believable messages to each other. As Bev becomes less inhibited, Max becomes more fascinated, and their relationship grows more intense -- until an unforeseen event changes the rules of the game forever. Intimate, compelling, and unpredictable, Chat gives a fresh twist to the thrill of romantic adventure. [close]
date added	03-19-07 edit book

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Zinta rated it:

11/04/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in January, 2003

I was reaching for the book next to this book on the library shelf... and I plucked loose this one. Chat? As in online? Hmm.

Frankly, I miss letters. A letter in my mailbox, especially with an exotic overseas stamp on it, with its lines of handwriting... loops and angles and curliques that give a reflection of personality and, perhaps, secrets tucked inside the letter-writer... opening the letter, reading, sipping coffee, reading it again... and that faraway place, even if only across town, e...more I was reaching for the book next to this book on the library shelf... and I plucked loose this one. Chat? As in online? Hmm.

Frankly, I miss letters. A letter in my mailbox, especially with an exotic overseas stamp on it, with its lines of handwriting... loops and angles and curliques that give a reflection of personality and, perhaps, secrets tucked inside the letter-writer... opening the letter, reading, sipping coffee, reading it again... and that faraway place, even if only across town, evoked on the slip of paper... Opening my mailbox to find a letter always felt just a little like Christmas. Yes, there is a romance in writing and receiving letters that seems almost entirely lost to us now. Not to mention how our switch to email and instant messaging has created an entirely new kind of language - of shorthand, emoticons, graphics, poor or nonexistent grammar, missing punctuation, computer slang.

The other side: email and instant messaging are quick and easy. I write more of these shorthand "letters" now than I ever did on paper. Granted, they are much shorter, and surely much blander, but the increased contact with colleagues eases the conducting of efficient business, and the increased communication with loved ones has drawn them nearer still. What would my work day be like without a message window popping up mid-afternoon with a little emoticon pursing big red lips with a "sweet sumthin" message attached, sent by the one I miss the most? Gets me through the day. Indeed, online chat can do wonders for any relationship. A little goes a long way.

A little in this cybernovel, however, does not go as long a way as it could, or should. The idea is undeniably relevant to today, and it is intriguing. Online chat provides an anonymity that allows people to reveal more than they ever would F2F (face to face). It also allows temptation to overcome good sense, and the results can be devastating. The couple portrayed in this online exchange of messages seems drawn to each other too easily, too predictably, and without enough explanation as to why. I'm just not convinced that a few dull exchanges can create such havoc. That they meet unknowingly in "real time" seems completely implausible. The whole exchange takes less than an hour to read, which would classify it more as a novelette than a novel, but it is probably an hour better spent.

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Chat (Cyberseries, No. 1)

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