Genre: Thriller
358 pages
This novel tells the story of Naomi and Nathan who are both writers and kind of have a relationship in airport departure lounges and hotel rooms and mostly through e-mail, Skype and text. Naomi becomes fascinated by the savage murder of a celebrated philosopher by her equally celebrated philosopher husband. Soon the two of them become involved in a bizarre world of sex, surgery, cannibalism and technology, in a tale that takes in political and philosophical conspiracy, 3D printing, North Korea and Sailor Moon.
David Cronenberg is best known as a movie director, and this is his first novel. It's intelligent and well-written but, like his movies, kind of cold and unemotional. It is definitely Cronenberg, but belongs more to his later work like Crash and Cosmopolis, than to The Fly and Scanners. It's worth bearing in mind that, although there is some pretty horrific stuff in here, this isn't a horror novel. It's more like a techno thriller.
It's worth reading, but it is too detached to be particularly involving or exciting, and there isn't really an ending, it just feels like it just stops. I don't know if there will be a sequel or not.
For a debut novel, it definitely shows that Cronenberg has enough talent to be a really good prose writer.
