Golden State

This book was hard to get into at first, but once I did it consumed my attention. My only complaint about this book is the ending, including the events that lead up to the ending. I feel it had more potential for a satisfying ending, but it left something to be desired of. My heart aches because there were parts of the book I was unsure were true. There were other times I thought I knew everything, but I was proved wrong. I enjoyed that part very much. The idea of living in a world where people can sense a lie and even get symptoms when a lie is told is interesting. I found myself not liking Lazlo at first but as the story went on I grew to appreciate him and was sympathetic towards him in some situations. Unfortunately I feel there were a lot of characters I did not get to really know, I know Lazlo was the star of the show, but I would have liked to feel closer to the others. Maybe get a different side of them so I could verify my own speculations. Overall I am impressed with this novel and am glad to have been introduced to a new author.

Favorite quote: “Love isn't how you feel when you're together, it's how you feel, how often you feel it, when you're apart”

I am glad I listened to the audiobook as the reader felt PERFECT for the first person narration. He had a Nick Offerman vibe - exactly whom I'd have play the main character in a film version of the novel. Golden State is what remains of (at least) S. California at some point in a distant future. It has a utopian surface - achieved through erradicating all lying. How this is done is clever as it involves both high and low tech. The narrator is part of a special police force who use a physical gift (the origin of which is never explained) to detect when someone is deploying a mistruth. The mystery of the story while borderline elaborate, doesn't make full sense in the story-world. And the end has deus ex machina elements which leaves it unsatisfying. The most thoughtful aspect of the story, in light of the "post-truth" world we live in today, is the exploration of whether a society-wide commitment to total truth makes citizens happier and more free. Our nation feels unmoored and unsustainable b/c "true" for one cult-like group is quite different than what is actually, factually, real. Yet, would a world in which everything was recorded and documented and thus true, be better - or would it just be full of different problems?

It's just such a delicious writerly challenge. You envision some future world - a seemingly benign surveillance state where everything is on video, where everyone records the facts of their days and lives entirely by truth. Where lies are punishable by law and enforced by Speculators that can sense lies in the very air. Where even fiction is banned and TV shows are just curated recordings of actual surveilled events. Now, how does one get away with murder in this world?

And there is this joyful sense of satire as you begin in this fictional place built on truth inspired by Winter's new understanding of our current real world after watching the swirling alternate facts reality of Trump's inauguration. Fun! And Winters is a smooth writer, taking us through this police procedural in a skewed dystopia without getting too mired in the world-building. But he wants his cake and to eat it too.

Talking about it with people smarter than me who noticed the presence of white lies in this world and the grey area of hyperbolic advertising claims. Magicians are allowed but how does science even progress if theorizing is a form of lying? Even our own speculator is guilty of lying. Nitpicking sure and I'm more than willing to suspend my disbelief for the sake of a good story but Winters just can't stick the landing. It feels rushed and hand-wavy instead of earned. Winters tees up some interesting aspects but finds himself scrambling in the rough at the end.