Golden State
Ratings27
Average rating3.5
I am glad I listened to the audiobook as the reader felt PERFECT for the first person narration. He had a Nick Offerman vibe - exactly whom I'd have play the main character in a film version of the novel. Golden State is what remains of (at least) S. California at some point in a distant future. It has a utopian surface - achieved through erradicating all lying. How this is done is clever as it involves both high and low tech. The narrator is part of a special police force who use a physical gift (the origin of which is never explained) to detect when someone is deploying a mistruth. The mystery of the story while borderline elaborate, doesn't make full sense in the story-world. And the end has deus ex machina elements which leaves it unsatisfying. The most thoughtful aspect of the story, in light of the "post-truth" world we live in today, is the exploration of whether a society-wide commitment to total truth makes citizens happier and more free. Our nation feels unmoored and unsustainable b/c "true" for one cult-like group is quite different than what is actually, factually, real. Yet, would a world in which everything was recorded and documented and thus true, be better - or would it just be full of different problems?
I am glad I listened to the audiobook as the reader felt PERFECT for the first person narration. He had a Nick Offerman vibe - exactly whom I'd have play the main character in a film version of the novel. Golden State is what remains of (at least) S. California at some point in a distant future. It has a utopian surface - achieved through erradicating all lying. How this is done is clever as it involves both high and low tech. The narrator is part of a special police force who use a physical gift (the origin of which is never explained) to detect when someone is deploying a mistruth. The mystery of the story while borderline elaborate, doesn't make full sense in the story-world. And the end has deus ex machina elements which leaves it unsatisfying. The most thoughtful aspect of the story, in light of the "post-truth" world we live in today, is the exploration of whether a society-wide commitment to total truth makes citizens happier and more free. Our nation feels unmoored and unsustainable b/c "true" for one cult-like group is quite different than what is actually, factually, real. Yet, would a world in which everything was recorded and documented and thus true, be better - or would it just be full of different problems?
