Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A dense, disturbing techno thriller, full of incisive social commentary, satyrical humor, and humanity. There is no ending in the traditional wrapping up of loose ends and concluding the narrative kind of way. If this is the kind of thing that bothers you, you should probably give this book a pass. Personally, I think the way it doesn’t actually end is a large part of the point, and it worked rather well for me. There are three main characters with interwoven plot threads, and Shafer goes back and forth among them throughout the book. They are richly drawn and entirely believable. The plot had a couple of holes, I thought, but the dynamics were so well wrought that I hardly noticed. It was only in thinking about what had happened well after I’d read it, something I did a lot, that slight gaps became evident. So it’s not perfect, but it’s damn close. The best thing for me was the lush prose, rich as a red velvet cake, so satisfying that I couldn’t keep reading late into the night even though I wanted to. I needed time to digest before I could continue. On balance, I loved this book. It’s the best thing I’ve read this year and I highly recommend it.
Writing Is Not an Easy Occupation for the Self-indulgent
I’m better at some things than others. For instance, while I almost never have more than one martini of an evening, I also never go without a martini so long as there are gin, vermouth, and olives in the house. While I don’t consider myself to be a big fan of cake or pie, if there is cake or pie in the house, I am going to eat it until it’s gone. The same is true of candy, nuts, and especially candy with nuts. You may already see the pattern emerging here.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
There is a story deep within 
