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Fanonymous
Still recovering from a devastating automobile hack, Winnipeg's autonomous motorized machinery has been effectively and permanently crippled. Someone is to blame. No one is claiming responsibility. Municipal police have succumbed to corruption. Hard currency has gone the way of the dodo. Bison have escaped Fort Whyte Alive. And of course, there are the mosquitoes, lots of them. Dragonflies fill the sky in a futile attempt to control the blood sucking swarms. Thankfully, there's no shortage of Slurpees. Not half bad. Jack couldn't be sure of much, but he knew why he made the move to Winnipeg; it was the one place no one would ever look for him. There was probably better choice. A street artist whose infamy and unique guerrilla art has influenced a number of radical political changes, Jack is now under the scrutiny of international authorities that want him found and stopped. Dead would be best. His only protection is his anonymity (or so he thinks). Tracked by a relentless special agent, Jack has to navigate the absurdity of the city and the eccentric characters that proudly claim it as their home. Sleepy central Canada is about to wake up to a helluva lot of noise, whether the residents like it or not.
408 pages, Hardcover
Published April 16, 2019
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August 4, 2019Excellent, occasionally lyrical prose, but the narrator does something I found difficult to deal with: he sets up far too many questions in that 31-page opener without giving the reader any answers. It became irritating and I stopped trusting the narrator/writer to close the loop on any of the questions, mysteries, or quandaries he posed. As the narrator often says, without explanation, It’s just one of those things. Also, the writer used an omnipotent POV, which I did not mind, exactly, but you see it so rarely nowadays that it was almost jarring to me. And if the narrator was “omnipotent,” why wasn’t he sharing any answers to the questions he posed the reader? It felt like an irritating betrayal, yet the quality of the prose drew me on
The story really started on Page 32. Up until then the main character was a narrator who casually violated the 4th wall at will, with a cast of confusing extras. The other major character was the city of Winnipeg, in odd detail and in the near future, where it had been a victim of a hacking attack against cars and a government monetary move that changed their lives. But these were just added hardships for the residents, the Winnipeg residents who called themselves “Peggers” — another in a slew of their other seasonal challenges (which was also just one of those things). Still, we here finally get the hint of a theme: the question was not, how or why did someone hack things, but…why Winnipeg?
Anyhow, back to page 32. There we get treated to the somewhat tight 3rd person POV of a law enforcement woman who is a hacker. But the next chapters have nothing to do with her; instead, we get treated to some native Peggers like Horace who befriend a newcomer American Winnipeg resident, Jack. Oh, and one of Horace’s friends is a casually efficient hacker. Then the narrative wanders off into more odd things about hackers (okay maybe this is relevant). And banks. It’s got to be leading up to something, right? And it has this great prose, I know I mentioned the great prose, with phrases such as “…he could sell a teenager a second set of parents.”
So you read on, but you begin to worry that the book is going to be a political or philosophical screed by this cynical hipster-I’m-not-a-hipster narrator. (The fact that the chapter headings are printed on protest signs may have had something to do with that impression.) You keep looking for characters, and for things to make more sense. You are told, continuously, that the narrator will tell you more about this or that later, if there’s time. And who is this fellow Dickie that the narrator keeps talking about? Soon there was another clue, involving a factory that makes an herbal tea that keeps in the local mosquitoes from biting, and the man who owns the factory, Kip, who is friendly with Horace and therefore, the newcomer American, Jack. Oh, and it all has something to do with pomegranates. The narrator and the characters repeatedly told us that in Winnipeg, ‘tis the season… for pomegranates. There is a magical pomegranate tree. And I suppose that’s also just one of those things.
Much of the book is the narrator lamenting about the changes in modern life, some of which haven’t happened yet. But he predicts in the past tense because, after all, this book is supposed to be in the near future. These laments are made as commentary on what the characters are doing, mostly, and at 100 pages in I decided I could condense the actual things that happened to actual characters in Fanonymous into about five pages.
But still, the prose. And there’s got to be a payoff to the story, right? At this point the author, when he digresses, occasionally even tells us that this information will not be useful later on. Which was good to know because I had started wondering if any of it would be useful later on.
I made it to page 141 before I started to skim. Feral children in IKEA, the cell phone addict neighbor, and more mysteries piled up. Elderly computer game addicts had long discussions about which obsolete games were the best. And I just wanted to get to the end of the book. In the process I discovered that the mysterious Dickie had a last name, which upped the probability that he was an actual character being quoted. Maybe.
Ah, okay. We learned earlier that Jack-the-American was an artist, and that he was running for his life from something in New York. Now we learn that he was a famous street artist who did subversive graffiti, and many governments and corporations want him for taking them down. A scary blind woman finds Jack, blackmails him, and he is forced to do subversive graffiti in Winnipeg. And the hacker detective chick is back. It looks like — please God — the fact that one Pegger we met who does photography and develops his own film, the coke snorting cop, the herbal tea factory, the causal hacker, and others with various quirks are all going to wrap into something that resembles a plot!
Skim, skim, skim. Scary blind lady is doing hacker things, too. Cyberpunky things happen. Yep – it all hangs together now, so I can’t tell you how it ends because there is actually a great ending I don’t want to give away. In a weird way it was good, but unfortunately I was not the target audience for Fanonymous.
I guess it’s just one of those things.
The story really started on Page 32. Up until then the main character was a narrator who casually violated the 4th wall at will, with a cast of confusing extras. The other major character was the city of Winnipeg, in odd detail and in the near future, where it had been a victim of a hacking attack against cars and a government monetary move that changed their lives. But these were just added hardships for the residents, the Winnipeg residents who called themselves “Peggers” — another in a slew of their other seasonal challenges (which was also just one of those things). Still, we here finally get the hint of a theme: the question was not, how or why did someone hack things, but…why Winnipeg?
Anyhow, back to page 32. There we get treated to the somewhat tight 3rd person POV of a law enforcement woman who is a hacker. But the next chapters have nothing to do with her; instead, we get treated to some native Peggers like Horace who befriend a newcomer American Winnipeg resident, Jack. Oh, and one of Horace’s friends is a casually efficient hacker. Then the narrative wanders off into more odd things about hackers (okay maybe this is relevant). And banks. It’s got to be leading up to something, right? And it has this great prose, I know I mentioned the great prose, with phrases such as “…he could sell a teenager a second set of parents.”
So you read on, but you begin to worry that the book is going to be a political or philosophical screed by this cynical hipster-I’m-not-a-hipster narrator. (The fact that the chapter headings are printed on protest signs may have had something to do with that impression.) You keep looking for characters, and for things to make more sense. You are told, continuously, that the narrator will tell you more about this or that later, if there’s time. And who is this fellow Dickie that the narrator keeps talking about? Soon there was another clue, involving a factory that makes an herbal tea that keeps in the local mosquitoes from biting, and the man who owns the factory, Kip, who is friendly with Horace and therefore, the newcomer American, Jack. Oh, and it all has something to do with pomegranates. The narrator and the characters repeatedly told us that in Winnipeg, ‘tis the season… for pomegranates. There is a magical pomegranate tree. And I suppose that’s also just one of those things.
Much of the book is the narrator lamenting about the changes in modern life, some of which haven’t happened yet. But he predicts in the past tense because, after all, this book is supposed to be in the near future. These laments are made as commentary on what the characters are doing, mostly, and at 100 pages in I decided I could condense the actual things that happened to actual characters in Fanonymous into about five pages.
But still, the prose. And there’s got to be a payoff to the story, right? At this point the author, when he digresses, occasionally even tells us that this information will not be useful later on. Which was good to know because I had started wondering if any of it would be useful later on.
I made it to page 141 before I started to skim. Feral children in IKEA, the cell phone addict neighbor, and more mysteries piled up. Elderly computer game addicts had long discussions about which obsolete games were the best. And I just wanted to get to the end of the book. In the process I discovered that the mysterious Dickie had a last name, which upped the probability that he was an actual character being quoted. Maybe.
Ah, okay. We learned earlier that Jack-the-American was an artist, and that he was running for his life from something in New York. Now we learn that he was a famous street artist who did subversive graffiti, and many governments and corporations want him for taking them down. A scary blind woman finds Jack, blackmails him, and he is forced to do subversive graffiti in Winnipeg. And the hacker detective chick is back. It looks like — please God — the fact that one Pegger we met who does photography and develops his own film, the coke snorting cop, the herbal tea factory, the causal hacker, and others with various quirks are all going to wrap into something that resembles a plot!
Skim, skim, skim. Scary blind lady is doing hacker things, too. Cyberpunky things happen. Yep – it all hangs together now, so I can’t tell you how it ends because there is actually a great ending I don’t want to give away. In a weird way it was good, but unfortunately I was not the target audience for Fanonymous.
I guess it’s just one of those things.
October 10, 2023
One of the finest books I've read and a very unique book. The style of prose is refreshing, but takes some getting used to. The author is clearly concerned with pace, which is controlled masterfully by the unconventional line and paragraph breaks. In fact, I wish more writers would adopt this style. I thoroughly loved the treatment of Winnipeg as a character unto itself. I live in Winnipeg and the author knows the terrain and must have lived in Winnipeg at some point because the idiosyncrasies of the city are portrayed in hilarious fashion.
One of the key points of interest were the well written female characters. Layered, tough, intelligent, sometimes ruthless, vulnerable, and flawed. As a woman (and lesbian) who must often navigate the difficulties and complexities of a male world obsessed with physical beauty, I found the struggle of one of the female leads to prove her worth beyond her superficial attributes to be both upsetting and true. She's never allowed to let her guard down, even for a second because the world doesn't have a place for her to be physically beautiful and intelligent all at once. As if it's impossible for a woman to be both. The author allows for the character to defy that notion, but not without loss.
Lorraina (the other female lead) was my favorite character. She is uncompromising, resourceful, and unapologetic about her desires. She is cunning and fearless. There is one possibly vulnerable moment we witness with her character, it is fleeting and then replaced by her hard exterior.
(Spoiler) There is a crushing scene a third of the way into the book that really hit me hard, as it reminded me just how predation and manipulation are still serious concerns for woman, especially lesbian.
The book's treatment of urban fantasy elements is done so well and is so believable that you do feel like all of it will happen (like the note says at the beginning of the book).
Certainly not a convectional read, by any means, but one I would definitely recommend, especially if you enjoy female characters that break from convention.
One of the key points of interest were the well written female characters. Layered, tough, intelligent, sometimes ruthless, vulnerable, and flawed. As a woman (and lesbian) who must often navigate the difficulties and complexities of a male world obsessed with physical beauty, I found the struggle of one of the female leads to prove her worth beyond her superficial attributes to be both upsetting and true. She's never allowed to let her guard down, even for a second because the world doesn't have a place for her to be physically beautiful and intelligent all at once. As if it's impossible for a woman to be both. The author allows for the character to defy that notion, but not without loss.
Lorraina (the other female lead) was my favorite character. She is uncompromising, resourceful, and unapologetic about her desires. She is cunning and fearless. There is one possibly vulnerable moment we witness with her character, it is fleeting and then replaced by her hard exterior.
(Spoiler) There is a crushing scene a third of the way into the book that really hit me hard, as it reminded me just how predation and manipulation are still serious concerns for woman, especially lesbian.
The book's treatment of urban fantasy elements is done so well and is so believable that you do feel like all of it will happen (like the note says at the beginning of the book).
Certainly not a convectional read, by any means, but one I would definitely recommend, especially if you enjoy female characters that break from convention.
September 6, 2023
DNF maybe halfway through the book, couldn't be bothered to check before dropping it back off at the library
I'd been so excited to read a book set in Winnipeg, a place often at best mentioned in passing for me to get exceedingly excited about hearing at all. and the opening of the book was genuinely really interesting! I wanted to lose myself in this writing style and see what the story of a futuristic yet recognizable Winnipeg would hold
but instead the book only grew worse over each chapter as it became glaringly obvious how misogynistic this book is on many levels. maybe there's a good story in there somewhere, but I just couldn't see it as the male characters got infinite sympathy no matter what they did while a woman daring to not be actively attractive would be chastized for such a thing. it was more than enough to distract me to the point that I couldn't bother finishing the book at all. I vaguely remember the narrator commending a woman for being pretty without makeup, as if it's some herculean feat to match cultural beauty standards without trying
as a fat enby trans not-conventionally-attractive guy who's spent far too many years being treated as though my only value can come from the way that I can appeal to cishet men, this book was interesting at first and eventually just nauseating to read. maybe the one star rating has some emotion behind it but I think it's entirely fair because the misogyny permeating nearly every chapter in this book made it impossible to enjoy the story lying underneath it
if anything the one good thing this book did was inspire me to write a better book set in Winnipeg so that maybe someone else can read a less hateful story about a city I love
I'd been so excited to read a book set in Winnipeg, a place often at best mentioned in passing for me to get exceedingly excited about hearing at all. and the opening of the book was genuinely really interesting! I wanted to lose myself in this writing style and see what the story of a futuristic yet recognizable Winnipeg would hold
but instead the book only grew worse over each chapter as it became glaringly obvious how misogynistic this book is on many levels. maybe there's a good story in there somewhere, but I just couldn't see it as the male characters got infinite sympathy no matter what they did while a woman daring to not be actively attractive would be chastized for such a thing. it was more than enough to distract me to the point that I couldn't bother finishing the book at all. I vaguely remember the narrator commending a woman for being pretty without makeup, as if it's some herculean feat to match cultural beauty standards without trying
as a fat enby trans not-conventionally-attractive guy who's spent far too many years being treated as though my only value can come from the way that I can appeal to cishet men, this book was interesting at first and eventually just nauseating to read. maybe the one star rating has some emotion behind it but I think it's entirely fair because the misogyny permeating nearly every chapter in this book made it impossible to enjoy the story lying underneath it
if anything the one good thing this book did was inspire me to write a better book set in Winnipeg so that maybe someone else can read a less hateful story about a city I love
October 7, 2018
Still recovering from a devastating automobile hack, Winnipeg's autonomous motorized machinery has been effectively and permanently crippled. Someone is to blame. No one is claiming responsibility. Municipal police have succumbed to corruption. Hard currency has gone the way of the dodo. Bison have escaped Fort Whyte Alive. And of course, there are the mosquitoes, lots of them. Dragonflies fill the sky in a futile attempt to control the blood sucking swarms. Thankfully, there's no shortage of Slurpees. Not half bad. Jack couldn't be sure of much, but he knew why he made the move to Winnipeg; it was the one place no one would ever look for him. There was probably better choice. A street artist whose infamy and unique guerrilla art has influenced a number of radical political changes, Jack is now under the scrutiny of international authorities that want him found and stopped. Dead would be best. His only protection is his anonymity (or so he thinks). Tracked by a relentless special agent, Jack has to navigate the absurdity of the city and the eccentric characters that proudly claim it as their home. Sleepy central Canada is about to wake up to a helluva lot of noise, whether the residents like it or not.
April 17, 2019
Spoiler... I'm about to curse. JK. But what the heck! Why am I just discovering this author now? The most interesting and engaging novel I've read in a long time. The book is unconventional in style. Be prepared for that. But the style is a riot and inventive. The author's control of pace is astounding. The characters are strange and vibrant. Also, I should note, I've never been to Winnipeg, but the author managed to put that city on my radar of places to visit. It sounds like the most surreal place on earth.
November 29, 2019
Easily the strangest novel I've read in a long time and a welcome change. I savoured ever bit of this unique, magical book. It is odd, but that's what makes this book great and compelling. And here I bought it for the cover, which is almost as beautiful, baffling, and stunning as the author's prose. Some seriously funny moments, as well as sad. I've never been to Winnipeg (the novel's setting) but now I need to visit what is likely the weirdest Canadian city.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews