I’m sitting here, in the sleep deprived night, far enough from Boston, Rt. 128, and the whole Atlantic seaboard, that it’s gone all pale, and translucent like a story you once heard. I sit here, with my Powerbook on my lap, reading Eastern Standard Time (ac). In the lonely early morning hours of the hard core insomniacs, Doctrow’s words with their hallucinatory clarity, are as good company as one can hope to find. …time passes….

EST with its talk of timezone swapping, late nights, and multiple scenes set in IRC might speak to me more then some, after all it’s one of my standard lines to note that I’m dating someone in EST, living in PDT, and seem to get to work Hawaii (GMT-10h) time.

The book has a very similar feel to Down and Out; its short, with a pleasant, punchy naturalism about it, a certain kinetic energy, and likeable, if unreliable, every man narrator, who is a bit overwhelmed, and bewildered, betrayed (Cory, do we need to talk about these triangles which keep reappearing), a bit angsty and searching for identity (but in a self-awarely ironic manner), but eventually triumphant. Of course what really distinguishes Doctrow’s books is his understanding of the feeding habits of todays high power infovores, and that uniquely aware fetishization of the cutting edge ultimately gives the books the feel of a paean to (crypto)geek culture, that, at least as a geek, I find irresistible.

I think EST builds on Down and Out’s strengths, and is actually a tighter written book, I’m hoping next we’ll see something longer, and more complex, maybe a narrator that is slightly less bemused (maybe, I’m inclined to think that bemusement is also a very authentic voice for our tribe). And ay off the long expository passages.