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    Transmission
    Transmission
    Transmission
    Audiobook9 hours

    Transmission

    Written by Hari Kunzru

    Narrated by Hari Kunzru

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In a networked world, anything can change n an instant, and sometimes everything does....

    Transmission, Hari Kunzru's new novel of love and lunacy, immigration and immunity, introduces a daydreaming Indian computer geek whose luxurious fantasies about life in America are shaken when he accepts a California job offer.
    Lonely and naïve, Arjun Mehta spends his days as a lowly assistant virus tester and pining away for his free-spirited colleague Christine. Arjun gets laid-off like so many of his Silicon Valley peers. In an act of desperation to keep his job, he releases a mischievous but destructive virus around the globe that has major unintended consequences. As world order unravels, so does Arjun's sanity, in a rollicking cataclysm that reaches Bollywood and, not so coincidentally, the glamorous star of Arjun's favorite Indian movie.
    Award-winning novelist Hari Kunzru was hailed as a "modern-day Kipling," for his bestselling debut, The Impressionist. With this exuberant follow-up, Kunzru takes an ultracontemporary turn in a stylish, playful, and wicked exploration of life at the click of a mouse.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 1, 2004
    ISBN9780743539883
    Transmission
    Author

    Hari Kunzru

    Hari Kunzru is the author of six novels: White Tears, Gods Without Men, My Revolutions, Transmission, The Impressionist, and his latest, Red Pill. His work has been translated into twenty-one languages, and his short stories and articles have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Public Library, and the American Academy in Berlin. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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    Reviews for Transmission

    3.5/5

    186 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5
      India programmer makes it to America only to get laid off. A half thought out revenge goes very, very bad. I would liked a more satisfactory ending but on the whole I enjoyed it.
    • 5/5
      Very funny, insanely clever and, believe it or not, trenchantly relevant. A gem.
    • 5/5
      This book deserves a great deal more attention. It is the perfect satire
      on: the Silicon Valley mindset, Conspiracy nuts, and Bollywood all rolled into a very funny novel.
    • 5/5
      Quite a mind-blowing read, the sort of story that could be heading anywhere, you never know what to expect. Perhaps what I like most about Hari Kunzru's writing is the sheer ambition. Like Louis de Bernieres and David Mitchell, he is the sort of author who either doesn't give a toss about the maxim "write what you know" or he literally does know everything.So many highlights, too many to list, but I loved the crowd in India "participating" in the aftermath of an accident, and the lengthy description (perhaps not even meant to be funny?) of the first-person shooter game. And Guy's meltdown was priceless.A literary road trip through the most fascinating and well constructed scenery, and highly recommended.
    • 1/5
      Got it fromn Milford, but was not in the right mood to start it.
    • 3/5
      Starting to see some themes emerging in Kunzru's opus after reading his debut novel, The Impressionist and now Transmission. Identity, belonging, and the fragility of our self constructs. This one feels a little forced, as if he's exploring worlds he doesn't really know (both branding and the geek/hacker cultures). Still, bits of it reminded me of early William Boyd - particularly American Stars and Bars.
    • 3/5
      An entertaining read, though it felt a bit underdeveloped; many of the secondary characters' plots felt more like vignettes than proper stories. Still, Mehta's disillusionment was suitably touching, as Swift's Nathan Barley-like business venture.
    • 4/5
      Wild postmodern tale of an Indian computer programmer stuck in Silicone Valley, who loses his job and unleashes a computer virus. Funny and fast moving.
    • 4/5
      Good story, good read. Asian kid gets job a programmer/slave with American body shop, then gets job with top AV company in world. They fire him and in retaliation, he releases most virulent virus ever. Apparently ends up happy in the end.
    • 5/5
      The unabridged audio version is read by the author, who does an excellent job bringing a story that doesn't have a natural fit for an audiobook to life. The book is almost too complicated to be listened to rather than read, so it is a credit to the excellent recording that the book is enjoyable in this format.Overall, the book is a fun satire of the corporate world, globalization, and the life of an H1B visa worker in the technology sector just at the cusp of the crash of the dot com boom. The intertwined stories of the H1B visa holder and author of a major computer virus with the story of a branding/marketing manager worked well together.
    • 4/5
      good read. Depressing.
    • 4/5
      Does for IT what Coupland's Microserfs failed to do. Injects humour into the digital world while dissecting the values of contemporary America, Britain and India!
    • 4/5
      Arjun Mehta, computer geek and lover of Bollywood films is offered a lucrative IT job in "Amrika", but finds himself an exploited cybercoolie instead. When a job with a global software security organization turns up, it seems like his chance for a fulfilled life has arrived at last. But when he finds himself facing redundancy, he releases a malicious computer virus, so that he can impress his boss with his ability to create a cure for it. The whole wired world switches on their computers to see Arjun's favourite Bollywood actress, Leela Zahir, dancing on their computer while the virus embeds itself into their software, where it wrecks havoc for organisations across the globe. Arjun finds himself on the run from the FBI and declared a terrorist and hides out in the dark underbelly of America.As the virus spreads, Arjun's actions have far-reaching implications for Marketing Exective Guy Swift with all his vacuous branding pyschobabble, and for the desperately unhappy Bollywood star shooting her next musical in a castle in Scotland.Yes, it's a very funny, enjoyable read, but so richly detailed that you need to read carefully so as not to miss anything. Kunzru frequently delights with a clever turn of phrase (Arjun "meerkating" above his cubicle to see what's going on, a DJ "who bestrode the Uplifting Ambient Scene like a tight t-shirted colossus", are but a couple of things that made me laugh out loud). But the book also asks very important questions about globalisation, our dependency on computers, and the powerlessness of immigrants.Oh and the ending! It's just so Bollywood!