Tell the Machine Good Night

Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This new novel from Katie Williams is set in the near future, where a company offers a technology that gives people simple advice that, when heeded, will bring happiness almost 100 percent of the time. It is called the “Apricity System.” (“Apricity” means the feel of the sun on your skin in the winter.) And the advice resembles the advice one might receive in a fortune cookie, only at times way more screwed up.

Example: eat tangerines.
Work at a desk that receives morning light.
(and oh, by the way…)
Cut off your finger with a knife.

This technology is proprietary, and well-guarded, or at least it is supposed to be. Pearl is in charge of administering the test to wealthy clients, one of whom is a famous movie star who insists upon getting one of these tests every day. But in her own life, things are much less clear than they are for her clients; her path to happiness is obscured by her home life and her son Rhett, who will have none of this whole “apricity” business. Rhett seems to defy classification or easy answers. He has serious eating issues and it worries Pearl but he also doesn’t seem to care much about it.

The book shifts perspectives a few times, which can be confusing but it also makes the narrative livelier. The gentle satire of pseudo pop psychology certainly landed with me (and I was once a big Dr. Phil fan, though that was more because I didn’t have cable and was underemployed at the time I was most into the program…I digress…). Could be the whole point of the “apricity” device is that everyone is looking for answers: they don’t care if they are the right ones or if they even make sense or if there is any authority behind the answers given.

It might have been that I read this too slowly and too disjointedly to get the full impact--it really is quite good and it’s certainly clever enough to hold my attention. I’d go with a high 3 for my rating but Goodreads only deals in whole numbers, so we’ll give it the full 4.






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