The Unbinding

Walter Kirn has a unique view of a world bedeviled by advancing technology and rampant paranoia in a country obsessed by the all-seeing eye of Big brother. A twenty-four hour subscription service, SatAid provides its customers with on the spot help with any number of situations, from personal danger to answering life questions, "Active Angels" like Kent Selkirk providing "seamless life-assistance interfaces" when called upon by subscribers. Basically inept at social conventions, Kent finds this job satisfying on many levels, maintaining a modicum of intimacy that requires little commitment other than his soothing voice on the line. Content to exist in this netherworld, Kent enjoys his general anonymity, pleased to be of assistance, aware that he can execute direct surveillance should events require it for the good of the customer. When Kent's interest is piqued by a neighbor at his complex, Sabrina Grant, he requests all the available data on her activities and social background, in service of making a personal connection. Although his request is patently against company rules, Kent feels that he is an exception in this matter. Then he meets "Rob" at a health club, a man who is interested in instant friendship; Kent is naturally wary, being of a suspicious bent himself. Then there is the ageing, mentally-addled Colonel Geoff, who takes Kent under his wing, revealing government secrets from a past of networking deeply within the system. As assorted other characters surface via Kent's email, the picture shifts subtly, suggesting that the watcher might well be the watched. A cat-and-mouse game of one-upmanship reveals a more complex battle for top dog in the information industry, Kent and Rob at loggerheads, each outwitting the other in a series of clever ploys. Kirn turns the age of information on its head, revealing a complex maze of investigative agencies whose only purpose is to gather bits of information on citizens. Combined with the government's insatiable need to know, the agencies are pitted against the superior imagination of a character that is hardly what he seems, the elusive Kent a man of many faces, giving spectacular chase, sliding through layers of ambiguity in his latest incarnation. Cleverly written, the author's tongue-in-cheek humor and good-natured protagonists' repartee drives a caustic plot that is all too believable. A challenging exercise in a technology-driven universe, there is much to explore in this satiric expose of human electronic interface. Luan Gaines/ 2007.