Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66575 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 247 pages

Synopsis
Statistician Sandra Foster and chaos theorist Bennett O'Reilly are brought together by a misdelivered package and urged into their own chaotic world of million-dollar grants, unlucky coincidences, setbacks, and eventually the ultimate answer. Reprint. PW. NYT.

Customer Reviews

Go with this flow
Probably the most enjoyable book I've read that asks the question: why do people jump on the latest bandwagon only to discover that it doesn't make them any happier than they were before? The protagonist-narrator of the story is a social scientist, working for a research corporation and trying to find how fads begin. The corporation wants to figure out how to use her research to make new fads, and of course gobs of money in the process. The weekly meetings presided over by "management" are hilarious.

This book reads so easily that you might be deceived into thinking that it's simply written. Hardly. Willis has worked very hard to tie together a number of disparate elements. Some of the most enjoyable parts of the book are the short descriptions of dozens of past fads -- everything from coonskin caps to bobbed hair to mah jong. In the process, Willis tells us a lot about what we're willing to do to "belong."

I noticed from previous reviews that some people were disappointed with this book because it really isn't science fiction. It's true, this is not traditional science fiction, with a futuristic setting, new technology, etc. But Willis's remarks that relate fads to chaos theory are very well thought-out. In giving the reader something new to think about, she meets the basic test of science fiction. And in creating an enjoyable, perceptive story, she meets the challenge of being an exceptionally good writer.

LIGHT-HEARTED SATIRE...
This is a light and breezy read. It is humorous and somewhat satiric. What it is not, is science fiction. It is, however, about a group of scientists, and it is definitely fiction. The book is written in an imaginative way, with each chapter beginning with a paragraph giving information about a particular fad that caught the imagination of society at one time or another. Written quite tongue in cheek, the book is a funny and light-hearted look at life, love, corporate dysfunction, and the herd mentality society sometimes adopts. While the book is not at all what I had expected, I rather enjoyed it.

The main protagonist is Sandra Foster, a social scientist who studies fads, tracking down their origins and analyzing what they mean. She works for the HiTek Corporation, a company laden with a surfeit of corporate bureaucracy. So does Bennett O'Reilly, a chaos theorist, whom Sandra meets when a package goes astray within the work place. They eventually join forces and begin working together on a special project with a flock of sheep as their guinea pigs. The book basically shows how chaos serves to unite these two in a way that they could not have imagined.

Light, witty, and readable
This is an excellent book. I believe it is my favorite Connie Willis novel, and that's saying a good deal.

There are already plenty of reviews which go into detail, so I won't. I just wanted to add my five stars, and to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys humor or who has an interest in social trends.