Luminarium Lib/E

Shakar, Alex

ISBN 10: 0792780566 ISBN 13: 9780792780564

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Fred Brounian and his twin brother, George, were once co-CEOs of a New York City software company devoted to the creation of utopian virtual worlds. Now, in 2006, as two wars rage and the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, George is in a coma, control of the company has been wrenched away by a military contracting conglomerate, and Fred is broke. Near despair, he's led by an attractive woman, Mira, to a neurological study promising peak experiences and a newfound spiritual outlook on life. As the study progresses, lines between subject and experimenter blur, and reality becomes increasingly porous. Meanwhile, Fred finds himself caught up in what seems at first a cruel prank: a series of bizarre emails and texts that purport to be from his comatose brother. Moving between the research hospitals of Manhattan, the streets of a meticulously planned Florida city, the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, and the uncanny world of urban disaster simulation; threading through military listserv geek-speak, Hindu cosmology, the maxims of outmoded self-help books, and the latest neuro-scientific breakthroughs, Luminarium is a brilliant exploration of the way we live now, a novel that's as much about the role technology and spirituality play in shaping our reality as it is about the undying bond between brothers, and the redemptive possibilities of love.

About this title

About the Author:

Alex Shakar's novel The Savage Girl was selected as a New York Times Notable Book and a Book Sense 76 Pick. His story collection City in Love was selected as an Independent Presses Editors Pick of the Year. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he currently lives in Chicago with his wife, the composer Olivia Block.

Review:

As Shakar suggests in the book, maybe the whole universe is one big computer game and we are all but players plotting a course through the multiple parallel realities this adventure-seeking void generates. It's a fascinating idea on which to hinge this worthy novel.

-- "Seattle Times"

A strikingly metaphysical novel that never dematerializes into misty cliches, a book to challenge the mystic and the doubter alike.

-- "Washington Post"

A brilliant book dogged in its pursuit of disassembling human experience in hopes of finding the essence, or at least an astoundingly prismatic view.

-- "Los Angeles Times"

Heady and engrossing...Shakar is such an engaging writer, bringing rich complications to the narrative...At times, Luminarium reads like a Christopher Nolan or Wachowski brothers movie as scripted by Don DeLillo.

-- "New York Times Book Review"

Luminarium is dizzyingly smart and provocative, exploring as it does the state of the present, of technology, of what is real and what is ephemeral. But the thing that separates Luminarium from other books that discuss avatars, virtual reality, and the like is that Alex Shakar is committed throughout with trying, relentlessly, to flat-out explain the meaning of life. This book is funny, and soulful, and very sad, but so intellectually invigorating that you'll want to read it twice.

-- "Dave Eggers"

Encompassing, caring, provocative, and funny, Shakar's novel astutely dramatizes moral and spiritual dilemmas catalyzed by the frenetic post-9/11 cyber age, while love, as it always has, blossoms among the ruins.

-- "Chicago Tribune"

Luminarium is...one of the most exciting and bracing books I've read this year, because it has the guts to ask questions-and even venture some answers-regarding issues most contemporary American fiction won't touch.

-- "Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel"

In his long-awaited second novel after the razor-sharp The Savage Girl, Shakar takes measure of our post-9/11 existential confusion in a technology-avid but sciencephobic, 'ever-complexifying world.' A radiantly imaginative social critic, Shakar is also a knowledgeable and intrepid explorer of metaphysical and neurological mysteries. With beguiling characters trapped in ludicrous and revelatory predicaments, this is a cosmic, incisively funny kaleidoscopic tale of loss, chaos, and yearning.

-- "Booklist (starred review)"

[A] penetrating look at the uneasy intersection of technology and spirituality...Shakar's blend of the business of cyberspace and the science of enlightenment distinguishes the novel as original and intrepid...Shakar's prose is sharp and hilarious, engendering the reader's faith in the novel's philosophical ambitions. Part Philip K. Dick, part Jonathan Franzen, this radiant work leads you from the unreal to the real so convincingly that you begin to let go of the distinction.

-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

Virtual and 'real' reality intertwine in unpredictable ways in this ingenious novel; to his credit, Shakar's approach is more philosophical than sci-fi...Shakar succeeds in a delicate balancing act here, securing the novel simultaneously (and paradoxically) in real, virtual, and supernatural worlds.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0792780566
• ISBN 13: 9780792780564
• Binding: Audio CD