Intermediate Algebra

by Charles David Miller

See back image for details

860 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[M Burke]

"This reminded me of several of Chuck Palahniuk's novels, in that I generally liked the concept (an irreverent protagonist making wry observations about contemporary life and sabotaging some corporate or governmental stronghold on American sheep), but disliked many of the specifics of the characters. In The Unbinding, the characters are constantly talking/thinking about sex and deception. They're mean to each other, they lie, and they spy, but the underlying purpose is a little blurry. So, Kirn gets tons of credit for publishing his novel on the internet in installments (how neo-Dickensian), and hyperlinking the heck out of it, but loses points for having flat, dislikeable characters.

Selected quotes:

In Florida, I've learned from our trademarked LifeSit maps, which measure things like level of sedative use and divorces within six months of marriage, the misery and mischief clusters once it escapes the small towns and medium-size cities. Those are zip codes I hope I never get mail in, seascapes I never want to see. Lean criminologists in string bikinis, starving pit bulls tied to stakes, Christians-only swingers parties. Florida is the rain forest of human behavior, with ten thousand times the rare species of other environments.

There is no such thing as empty-headedness. All of our brains are full of what they're full of, and all of us are authorities on something. Sadly, my Jesse possessed expertise in a field that mattered only to her.

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