Pattern Recognition

Pattern Recognition (William Gibson) is a pretty good read, but I only recommend it for airplanes. It’s a post-nine-eleven-what-is-the-meaning-of-art-in-the-digital-age kind of novel. While this is a cool thing to think about, I kind of wish someone had just told me the plot of the novel, and then explained what was cool about it. The reading of it was rather laborious.

The novel is basically an artistic detective novel. I like learning about the finer points of art, and I enjoy detective novels. Unfortunately, it’s hampered on both fronts by the main character.

The main character, Cayce, has an INTENSE FEAR of brand names, so INTENSE that she spends the entire novel undergoing WAVES OF NAUSEA every time she sees words like Prada or the Michelin Man.

She’s also basically inert. To go along with her “contemporary culture makes her nauseas” affliction, she also seems to have a mentality that her personal pain is so precious that she can’t bear to risk it doing anything except pining for the one truly beautiful thing in the world. This is fine, and I get that she’s stuck in her grieving process, but it does hamper her detective abilities in a way that makes the book annoying to read. Luckily for Cayce, despite her peculiarities, she’s surrounded by people who are all incredibly wealthy/talented, and so, despite her general unwillingness toward life, everything turns out okay.

This is my first Gibson novel, and I’m told he’s better at creating human symbols than he is at building characters. It’s possible to read this ineffectual person, obsessed with their own personal 9/11-based tragedy, and near-drowning in a swamp of corporate advertising, as a nice allegory for an “American Consumer.” And, if you look at it that way, the books has some interesting observations. But like I say, I wish someone had just told me about it. 2 out of 5.