The Lost Cause

Ha, I kinda agree with the 1-star reviews... AND the 5-star reviews.

This is a self-indulgent Doctorow romp that I kept telling myself I'd DNF and ended up... finishing it, lol. It's kinda utopian/dystopian: this is the world a specific set of progressive, Democratic Socialists of America would want. It's not a bad world. But it did strain credulity (e.g. the protagonist's housemates praising the ability to move into his affordable home and pay low rent... and then a few months later, happily and readily agreeing to tear that house down and find a new place to live). The “Magas” were all basically caricatures - your worst white male tribalist nightmare.

I'm deep in Learning from the Germans now (which is great btw) and (1) it has made me appreciate that those people-caricatures DO actually exist as living, breathing Nazis/Lost Cause Confederates, but (2) the Hannah Arendtian “banality of evil” masses, the “thoughtlessly” evil, bystander effect people, aka the vast majority of us!, are, well, the VAST majority. That second category simply does not exist in this book - everyone is VERY driven by ideals. And, yeah, the groups are all compelling and I kept wanting to read about them - Brooks (the hero) and his fun world music-listening hacker DSA friends; the Magas; the (VERY DISAPPOINTINGLY BELIEVABLE) Libertarian plutocrat-wannabes on their anarcho-capitalist “Flotilla” of yachts.

Hmm. I guess Cory shines when he, indeed, writes about ideals - the clash of them (this), the passionate having of them (any of his other books lol), the internal struggle of them vs. pragmatism (Attack Surface). So his world makes sense when we're in the head of the idealist, looking out at all those bystander sheeple and trying to shepherd them to the glory land. But when the ENTIRE WORLD is made up of ONLY righteous idealists - for good causes or “Lost”/evil causes - then it starts to feel unreal.

Oh yeah, and is Cory gunning for a cooking show/podcast? He clearly loves to write about food. (Another reason I kept reading, lol! The loving portrayals of hedonistic gourmandy delight!)