"The Lost Cause" by Cory Doctorow (BR)

[Allison]

A buddy read for Lost Cause! Please use spoiler markers and give the page/chapter/percent read so folks can engage when they are able.

[Charles]

0% read of an audiobook copy. Will I be able to get help explaining Tech-bro humor? 🤔

[Allison]

We'll muddle through. I think we can do it, possibly with a few trips to Urban Dictionary.

[Allison]

Hey!! Awesome, join in!

[Rick]

Read the blurb. No thanks. Equating everyone older with the current MAGA crowd (in the blurb) is basically ageist and just plain bad writing in the "all members of group X are like Y" vein.

Let me know if this is more complex than the description makes it sound. The concept - "we're fully in the climate crisis, addressing it but things are complex" sounds interesting. The blurb tho...

[Allison]

Fully dive in, Rose!! just use the tags so we can respond when we know where you're looking. We don't allow generalizations that malign entire groups, but political is allowed and encouraged as long as it is not libelous

[Allison]

(Not that I thought you would, just that's the only rule. SFF is often a way to examine politics from different lenses and that's ok and I super appreciate you checking in first. I trust you to be thoughtful in your approach :) )

[Allison]

ch 2 / 15%

(view spoiler)[ very hard to read about angry white nationalists. the parallel between the jobs going disproportionately to MAGA folks is a bit on the nose. I'm wondering what the "story" for this book is going to be. so far it just seems to be about waiting for old angry delusional guys to die. (hide spoiler)]

[Charles]

15% Complete Audio Book

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Doctorow is the narrator. I would have preferred either a professional narrator or as with "Walkaway" having his lefty, celeb cronies, like Amanda Palmer doing the narration.

This feels YA at this point, its started reading very much like his "Little Brother" novels.

The antagonists and the protagonist's belief's feel too on the nose from the very beginning.

I did chuckle over the some of the descriptions of the right-wing antagonists.

[Allison]

This is losing me. I don't see a story forming other than rants about American politics and hot button topics. it reads like the argument you have with yourself in the shower to finally win against your racist family member.

[Hank, Hankenstein's Modster]

Charles wrote: "15% Complete Audio Book

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Doctorow is the narrator. I would have preferred either a professional narrator or as with "Walkaway" having his lefty, celeb cronies, li..."

The YA vibe is 100% due to Doctorow's voice and I have the same issue. I forgot how much I dislike his narrations.

1% in

[Charles]

25% Complete Audio Book

...it reads like the argument you have with yourself in the shower to finally win against your racist family member.

Waste of what might be the high point of your day (the hot shower). 🤔

BTW, Doctorow presently lives in Burbank, California, which is part of the Los Angles metroplex.

(view spoiler)[
I'm having issues with Brooks.

Brooks' sexuality is puzzling taking into account the early diatribe with Gramps. Doctorow voicing the narration, and the descriptive prose nudge me into thinking of hir as biologically male. I note that Doctorow's pronoun hygiene is scrupulous.

Interestingly, Doctorow does a better job of Brooks admiring young men than women.

Speaking of women, this is soo... YA. The young, Latina(?) woman in the "boxy" Hooter Hammock, that was part of her Fashion Design School portfolio having a slim "tummy" and "outie" bellybutton? A 9-year old can write a better, more evocative, description?

Speaking of descriptions and repetition. Is every food item that Brooks puts into his mouth "Amazing"? One thing the foodie Doctorow is good at is making me despair. None of the amazing, foods, Brooks is so casually chowing-on is readily available to me.

I note that scumbags have not descended on naïve(?), 18-year old(?), bereaved, Brooks to euchre him out of his: house, Trust Fund, and Krugerrands (literally a pot of gold). He needs a: Money Manager, Attorney, and an Accountant.

A fave trope of Doctorow's is I know a guy or a Guy that knows a Guy. I'm waiting for that shoe to fall.

Back to Allison's point, the story is quickly devolving into an ambiguously gendered human-vs.-"musket fucker" conflict. (I have laughed-out-loud more than once over the lefty's epithets for the opposition.)

It never rains in California
But girl, don't they warn ya?
It pours, man, it pours

-- Song by Albert Hammond
I get that part of the world building.
(hide spoiler)]

[Charles]

Hank wrote: "The YA vibe is 100% due to Doctorow's voice and I have the same issue. I forgot how much I dislike his narrations."

I really like audiobook narrators that have a full range of male and female voices, which they change with the character. It aids the reader in following the narrative.

I get it. Having the author read the book has a lower production cost.

Frankly, when he's on stage or being interviewed by the media, he's a better speaker than reading his own prose?

[Allison]

There's gotta be a joke in there somewhere about the Flotilla mindset

[Hank, Hankenstein's Modster]

Ok, 40% in and I am calling it. I don't even want to make an effort at a review.

(view spoiler)[ I got to the magneshium thing. Is that Canadian or just actually weird? (hide spoiler)]