Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Pattern Recognition touches on a number of hot button issues with me, as if it were designed to appeal to my interests:  Internet memes, international travel, solving puzzles, etc.  The main character is a marketing consultant, starting the book traveling to London to evaluate an advertising campaign for a client.  She is also active in an online community that's obsessed with a series of video clips that have appeared online, without any attribution.

Early in the book, her employer takes an interest in these same videos, giving her a chance to explore her personal obsession with the financial backing of a very rich man.  Her journey takes her to three continents, and she meets numerous colorful characters.

I enjoy how the characters throw themselves into their obsessions.  Their obsessions are what define them, and how they define themselves.  The allegiance that the main character feels for her particular corner of the internet is familiar to me.  Most of the characters embody the sort of tribal social order that seems more and more common, with people banding together around a shared interest rather than simply shared location or employment.

The book is well written and the mystery is interesting, but I was surprised to realize that there were sequels.  The mystery of the footage is neatly wrapped up at the end, and I didn't quite make the kind of connection with any of the characters to be interested in what they're doing next week.  I'll read them anyway, eventually, but I'm wary of being Ringworlded, where the sequels take the wind out of the sails of a an excellent first book.

Before I go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

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S.J Watson writes analytically, tying up loose ends and answering questions about suspicious plot holes before we can even sniff them out. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. A ludicrous plot line does not cause a lack of trust in the authors skill. On the other hand, the perfectly tied up story lines and too-sensible actions of the character make me feel trapped. She writes as if it is the real world, with gravity heavy enough to support a real life. My life is already like that, and I can not enjoy fiction that does not take risks.

Before I Go To Sleep is about a woman, Christine, that has a rather unusual form of amnesia. She can retain memories for a single day only to lose everything when she goes to sleep at night. The plot moves forward by use of a journal that she writes in and reads from start to finish every day. The book tells the story from the journal's point of view. She finds some things out about her past through selective memory recall, namely that she may not be able to trust her caretakers. Here is where I would normally give you the spoilers, but I have grown as a person and I will acknowledge that only a single tension compelled me to continue reading until the end. It sincerely took me by surprise. I only started sniffing out the twist 30 or 40 pages before it was revealed.

The landscape of the book wasn't very intriguing. It took me days of reflection to realize it. The same things happened everyday, and they weren't that interesting. I could have spent my time looking straight at the walls of my blank bedroom instead and have gotten the same amount of detail about her house and life. Watson spends lots of time reintroducing that house too. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt though, she might have been using that repetition as a illustrative device to demonstrate the tedium of the situation.

The lack of autonomy bothered me. I mean, I know she has amnesia, but she is still responsible for her actions. She has to be reintroduced to her life every single day, and yet she chooses to allow the same thing to happen the next day. She doesn't give up the security that her husband and suburban life give her and allows herself to sit helplessly at the feet of the system. I do not think she is helpless at all, but she acts it. I don't think I can pin this on poor writing. It gives Christine a personality that is completely separate from her memories. Christine is that lady that went to grad school because she couldn't find a job and got married when she wanted to start having children. She thought about it too much, and it led to a boring and too-safe life. I drove me nuts. She could have taken the bus out of there at the drop of a hat, but she was too afraid of what might happen. This is how extreme domestic abuse happens even when women aren't mentally handicapped.

Overall, read if you like amnesia stories.  This one isn't terrible, but its not great either.