JENNIFER EGAN — LOOK AT ME

Look at Me came out in 2001. My experience of reading this novel (on the beach on Cape Cod with my wife and my in-laws) was to blast through a stellar and inspired first hundred or so pages (which could have been written any time between, let’s say, the ‘80s and today) and then, after that, grow steadily more distracted as the novel rolls out some big ideas and prognostications. The ideas are about the near future. Jennifer Egan seems to predict not only the rise of Islamic terrorism but also social networks — in 2001, let’s not forget. She puts a lot of plot-effort into developing these concepts and their associated characters. 

The effect was distracting on two fronts: one, because it’s impressive to see what she accurately predicted; two, because she got things wrong, which is okay, but dissonant. There’s no blame to be doled out here. But it’s impossible to read this story and not track where it does and does not line up with the past twenty years. Watching the movie 2001 in 2001 may have been a similar experience.