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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Our Panoptic World: I Am No One by Patrick Flanery

5/8/2016

6 Comments

 
What is crazy is to imagine we are living private lives, that a private life is a possibility any longer, and this is not just true for those of us living out our sentence in the developed world, but anyone anywhere, except perhaps those hidden underground, for the satellites we have launched into space and the aircraft, manned and unmanned, patrolling the air above the Earth, gaze down upon us, producing finely detailed images of all our lives, watching us, perhaps you could say we are merely watching ourselves …

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Fifty-something university professor, Jeremy O’Keefe, is feeling rather lonely when we first meet him on the Saturday before Thanksgiving in a cafe in his native New York. Recently returned from more than a decade in Oxford, he finds his country changed since he left it, a few days after the 9/11 bombs. Although thrilled to have landed a plum job after having previously failed to achieve tenure, and delighted to meet regularly with his somewhat affluent grown-up daughter, it’s impossible to reconnect with his last-century friends. As he’s about to discover, however, that sense of separation from his fellow human beings is a luxury in today’s panoptic world.

When a stranger seems overfamiliar, he wonders if he’s become too British in his time away. When his emails show that he’s rescheduled an appointment with no memory of having done so, he wonders if it’s an early sign of dementia. When it appears that someone is watching his apartment, he is afraid to tell anyone else in case they think he’s becoming paranoid. When he receives a parcel containing a printout of his digital footprint since his departure for England, he has to conclude he’s being watched.

In parallel with Jeremy, the reader also questions what’s going on; not only regarding the particulars of the narrator’s predicament, but what kind of novel this is. Was it about how we’ve all traded our privacy for supposed protection, or about how a series of seemingly-innocent choices can make anyone a suspect? For me, this made the novel slow to get going, with lots of philosophising on the irritations of being taken for British in America, and on what it means to be observed. But as the novel progressed, the constantly changing focus proved a strength.

This is a multi-layered novel about cultural identity, mental health, and the madness of how we’ve sculpted society. It’s particularly thought-provoking on how being observed is fundamental to the human condition, in which not “to be observed is, in fact, regarded as a crime, the crime of parental neglect or abandonment” (p72), yet too much scrutiny can erode our sense of self. On a lighter note, I enjoyed the very occasional references to places in the Peak District (leading me to wonder whether the author had a particular affinity for the village of Stoney Middleton or he just liked the name).

Reading I Am No One, I was reminded of other novels I’ve recently reviewed: Jihadi for a man writing his response to real or imagined accusations in relation to the war on terror; The Long Room for the other side of state surveillance; Amnesia for another novel about a father unexpectedly forced to take a political stand.

As a story about guilt-by association and the workings of the human mind, it also connects to Andrew’s Brain.

While we’re on the subject of cognition (p313):

Can the conscious mind partition what it knows, keeping one part in the dark as another part works frantically behind the curtain, turning gears and knobs, pressing buttons, amplifying and distorting the voice to deceive both its other self and those that encounter physical person?

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I Am No One also connects with the non-fiction book, The Voices Within, which I recently reviewed for Shiny New Books. I didn’t have space to include the following quote, which Jeremy might find interesting (p33):

Stealing is wrong, but there is something particularly repugnant about making off with thoughts which the owner cannot even recognise as missing.
Thanks to Atlantic books for my review copy of I Am No One; it’s an interesting, somewhat different, novel and I wonder what connections resonate for you?

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
Paula link
5/8/2016 02:25:52 pm

What connects with me right now, Anne, is how exhausting maintaining a public persona is, and yet how apparently necessary in a world in which if you do not write your story, someone else writes it for you. What I also connect with is how you balance an appreciative review with an honest response. Of all the book bloggers out there, you've gotten me to read more authors I have not previously read than anyone I know. That's something.

Reply
Annecdotist
7/8/2016 05:52:49 pm

Interesting, Paula, that’s the other side of the coin makes me wonder if the author has his public persona well taken care of by others, so he doesn’t see the strain of keeping up. I thought I might be able to relax mine after the book birthday celebrations, but I now feel compelled to make as much of the Polari Prize shortlisting as I can in terms of publicity for my novel.
And thank you, I do feel it’s a compliment that I’ve influenced your reading – and I do hope you enjoyed the suggestions you’ve followed up.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
6/8/2016 12:57:12 pm

Thanks Anne. This sounds like an interesting read. I am always questioning myself, so I found Jeremy's questioning of himself interesting. It is sad to think that we have forsaken privacy. But as you have shown there are times when it is important to be observed, e.g. in infancy by a parent. I found it interesting that you were able to quote that from this book.
I found the passage from The Voices Within that you shared with Jeremy quite fascinating, so had to read that review. Thanks for linking. I didn't recognise the book as being one I had read about on your blog, but it's easy for me to miss one or two. That is definitely a book I would put on my TBL list. I wonder is it available on audio. There is another I read about last night that would precede it on my list, but it would be next. Thanks for these great reviews. I agree with Paula, as a result of your reviews I have read some great books.

Reply
Annecdotist
7/8/2016 05:59:32 pm

Ha, Norah, I hope you don’t end up questioning yourself as much as Jeremy – although I dread the prospect of dementia when I think of how confused I can get about mundane things and where I’ve put them!
I decided not to put my review of The Voices Within on the blog as it was accepted for Shiny but I will be referring in more detail (unless I forget) to his chapters on reading and on writing – I’m amazed that so many writers claim to hear the voices of their characters and can’t believe it’s anything like the experience of people who hear voices as part of psychotic experience, although it might be that I’m envious that my fiction isn’t written by some hypothetical character dictating it to me!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
13/8/2016 08:51:11 am

Sadly The Voices Within is not available on audio. I look forward to reading further about it in future posts.

Reply
Annecdotist
13/8/2016 04:49:01 pm

Sorry about that Norah – especially disappointing given your most recent blog post. I wonder how publishers decide whether or not to bring a book out in audio

Reply

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