Sam Leith
You Got Me on My Knees, Leela
ANYONE ON FOOT in suburban California is one of four things, you learn not far into Transmission: 'poor, foreign, mentally ill, or jogging'. What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. You don't have to read too much of Hari Kunzru's second novel before you realise you are in safe hands: a slick, aphoristic joke; a neat turn of phrase; a truth that makes you laugh.
Transmission is essentially a comic novel, the story of a computer virus called Leela which does its semi- - - autonomous very best to bring the world to a halt. Leela is an executable file which you initiate when you open your e-mail. It shows you an animation of a
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Delighted to make my debut in @Lit_Review with a review of Philip Short's heavyweight new bio, Putin: His Life and Times
(Yes, it's behind a paywall, but newspapers and magazines need to earn money too...)
https://literaryreview.co.uk/vlad-the-invader
'As we examined more and more data from the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters ... we were amazed to find that there is almost never a case for permanently moving people out of the contaminated area after a big nuclear accident.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying
'This problem has dogged Labour’s efforts to become the "natural party of government", a sobriquet which the Conservatives have acquired over decades, despite their far less compelling record of achievement.'
Charles Clarke on Labour's civil wars.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/comrade-versus-comrade