PopCo

One of the cleverest, engaging, and most interesting books I've ever read. Definitely a desert island book--I could probably learn something new every time I read it.

I quite enjoyed this. Clever use of coding and the protagonist is fleshed out quite believably. There is some anti-establishment stuff that seems to come on a little suddenly toward the end, but otherwise it's a very good read.

This book starts off strongly and builds, that is until the last couple of chapters where the narrative becomes a social statement and completely losses its way. A real shame as I enjoyed Mr. Y and was hoping for more of the same, I liked the cryptography aspect but as mentioned in another review

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it is as if Scarlett Thomas lost interest at the end or just didn't know how to finish.

Thomas should also consider whether she wishes a reference work on Homoeopathic remedies to be her next project, if not please leave it out of future novels, it made sense in Mr. Y but not here.

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If you enjoy reading, then you will know the joy that I am feeling now that I have completed this 500 page book by Scarlett Thomas. A fan of fiction is not something that would be ascribed to me, though slowly I have been finding works that I actually enjoy reading, despite being made-up. Even

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though I have attempted to turn my attention to intriguing non-fiction works, this book took over my mind and I read through it in roughly a week.

I wish I could give you a quick summarization of the book, but in my eyes, that is just not possible, let alone no worth trying to do. Yes, I am about to recommend that everyone read it. Hey, you're not doing much else but sitting hear and reading my journal, so it wouldn't be much different. Scratch that, it would be different - you would probably be a lot more excited about reading the next sentence or page in the book than the goop I put on here.

As with my last fiction book, this book makes me think - a lot. In a business sense, it reminds me of just how technical writing a fiction book can be. Scarlett's site talks a bit about what inspired her to write the book and I can only imagine how much time she put into research - probably more time than it took to write the book itself. Would I ever be able to write a fiction book? Maybe, but that would be one of the biggest challenges I have ever given myself in life. I think I will stick with doing a non-fiction book first. What about? I still have no idea.

Thanks to the topic of PopCo, you can't help but sit and think about your own childhood: experiences in school, friends or lack of them, trying to fit it or trying to do just the opposite. Along those lines, you are lead to dissect all of the media info that is thrown at us daily, as well as our own personal habits which, in the end, are largely fueled by others, no matter how hard we try to resist it (damn mob mentality). Humane treatments of both man and animals alike rises up in this book ,and I couldn't be happier for that fact. That is actually how I heard of the book in the first place; thanks to a number of eco- and animal-friendly magazines writing reviews about it.

I have 2.5 anxiety attacks yesterday, as well as suffered from heat exhaustion for the fifth or sixth time in my life. This lead me to miss my some of my Yoga Tree training for the second time, which makes me look pretty shitty. I am still worried about losing my job before I even get started. Will this happen? I really hope not and a kind of doubt it. Still, I'm sure I will be watched like a hawk. Two out of three strikes; one more and you are outta here, so to speak. This isn't there "officially" policy, but I know that once I start my shifts alone next week, I can't miss days like this. I only work three days a week, it shouldn't be hard to make that happen.

Why bring this up? It threw a monkey wrench into my life. I have been in SF for two months now and have had very little anxiety issues at all, until yesterday that is. I knew that it was not magically gone from my life, but I had been doing so well, I didn't expect it to come up so unexpectedly, and inconveniently for that matter. Yes, I am feeling better, thank you for your concern. Does this have anything to do with the book I just read? Yes and no. The book didn't cause my anxiety attacks, if that is what you are wondering. It does make me think though - about what I want to do with my life, where it is going, how much of a difference I am really making, and what changes I need to make within myself.

Do I envy Alice's (the main character) life? I wouldn't go THAT far, but she has had a more exciting life than mine, at least in my eyes. I'm sure that a number of you would be happy to dispute that. Everyone's journey is different, but that doesn't mean that we all can't change the world for the better in some way or another. No, I'm not going to be able to stop war, violence, lying, consumerism, or anything like that. Still, I can do my part and be strong during my weak shopping or food-eating moments, knowing that each of my actions can make a difference, whether big or small.

In the book, Alice's father deserts her; that's right, he leaves one day and never comes back. Not to spoil part of the story, but you never find out what happened to him. I kind of wish that we got to, as readers, but not every loose string in a blanket can be weaved in perfectly - life doesn't work out that way for most. Though I have no had this happen before, I can empathize with it a bit. My father died unexpectedly about three months ago. Just earlier this week, my family and I finally found out why he is no longer with us. To spare you all a long, medical story, he was something heart related that is nearly impossible to detect. It was not a stroke or a heart attack, but it is something genetic and I might have it. I might be a ticking time bomb and just, all the sudden, no wake up one day, just like my dad.

Does this scare me? I wouldn't use the word SCARE, but it does raise interest in my mind. Ever since the age of six, along with never wanting to have kids, I had a stinging voice in the back of my head telling me that I would not live past 25, so I better enjoy life as much as possible. My dad lived to 50, which in my eyes, is still young, but it is twice as long as 25. This weird mental mantra helped me to become a lot more comfortable with death. I've yet to decide if I have become comfortable with all death or just the death of others. My own death is still a bit of a mystery, as it is with all others, but I do fear it a bit more than losing others.

Such strange things that a simple book raises in one's mind. Oh yes, there were many more things that came up along the way, but keeping track of them all over the past week has been difficult. In the traditional book sense, the author did not take too long to get to the excitement and through at least 3/4ths of the book, I couldn't wait to read what was next. In my eyes, that is exactly what most authors are going for, and I'm happy to say that Scarlett Thomas did a damn good job of it. I'll see if I can find some of her other books at the library as well. I need these good, mind shaking thoughts more often.

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I loved The End of Mr Y, so as many other people I jumped at the opportunity to read more by Scarlett Thomas. The book had plenty of interesting bits and characters, but unfortunately the plot got lost and towards the later parts of the novel we got a ham-fisted attack against mainstream medicine

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and a propaganda section for homoeopathy. I did not mind the anti-scientific slant in "Mr Y", and the homeopathy was an integral part of the plot. Here we get a caricature of a pill-prescribing doctor to contrast the wholesome herbalist vegan and the brave homoeopathy new-age post-modern girl. Truly disappointing.

If you liked Mr. Y, avoid this, go and buy some homoeopathic remedies and overdose on them (hint: they will do nothing to you).

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Alice Butler works at PopCo, the world's third-largest toy company, where she designs code-breaking and detective kits. She has a lifetime of experience in code-breaking, having been raised by her grandfather, a cryptoanalysist, and grandmother, a mathematician and former Bletchley Park

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cryptographer.

The novel takes place at a corporate retreat centre, where Alice is a assigned to a new project which leads her to question the ethics of her job. At the retreat she starts to receive anonymous coded messages, which she thinks may be connected to a treasure map her grandfather decoded years earlier. The novel moves between Alice's present life at a corporate retreat centre and her childhood with her grandparents.

I absolutely loved this book most of the way through. The characters, especially Alice, were engaging, and the book deals with some interesting subjects including math, marketing and pirates. Unfortunately, I found the ending really unsatisfying. While I agree with the book's anti-corporate message, I found the resolution to that part of the story didactic and oversimplified. The resolution to the part of the story about Alice's grandfather and the map was more satisfying, but was rather strangely structured. Overall, I still liked the book alot and think it was worth reading, but was disappointed that it didn't come together better at the end.

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This book started off so well and ended in utter disappointment. It is as if the author ran out of steam around page 200. I definitely do not recommend this one.

I think Scarlett Thomas’s novel PopCo is deeply flawed, but I enjoyed it greatly nonetheless. I think it’s perfectly possible for that to be the case; while I occasionally shook my head at the book’s awkwardness, I stayed interested and engaged the whole time and found the ideas it takes up

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fascinating. Hobgoblin has told me many times how much he liked Thomas’s most recent novel Our Tragic Universe, and I’m looking forward to reading that one too.

Some of the awkwardness of PopCo is the kind of awkwardness that appeals to me: it spends too much time explaining too many things, it’s obsessed with ideas and technical details at the expense of narrative momentum, and it takes its sweet time getting the plot going. It lurches back and forth between background information and mini-lectures on the one hand and present action on the other.

But, fortunately for me, I found the background information and the mini-lectures interesting. They are about a lot of things, but chiefly about math, codes, and code-breaking. The main character is a youngish woman, Alice, who works for the company PopCo, which makes games and toys for children and teenagers. Alice’s job is to make kits for children on spying, detective work, and code-breaking. She has learned all about codes from her cryptanalyst grandfather, and she has a good grasp of math, gained from her mathematician grandmother. Codes aren’t purely cerebral puzzles for Alice, though; her grandfather gave her a necklace when she was young that contains a code her grandparents expect that will she one day crack.

Read the rest of the review at Of Books and Bicycles

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PopCo by Scarlett Thomas is an ambitious novel, weaving layers of stories in and around itself, aiming to come together in the end into a revolutionary call to arms for the modern age. It didn’t quite, for me anyway, live up fully to its potential, but it was an enjoyable, absorbing,

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thought-provoking read, which only really falls a little flat in its conclusion.

Alice is a slightly eccentric woman in her early thirties, working for PopCo, the world’s third biggest toy company as a ‘creative’ … one of those who come up with all the ideas that the company then transforms into revenue streams. Working for PopCo is a random, intense and fun experience for its employees, in a company that prides itself on its creative outlook. Nonetheless, Alice is surprised when she is asked to join in a retreat to an ex-boarding school on Dartmoor with a select group of PopCo employees from across the country, theoretically to brainstorm ideas to crack the elusive teenage girl market. As the retreat goes on, Alice begins to suspect there may be more to what is going on.

Alice’s story is told in two time-frames; the present, on Dartmoor, and the past, beginning when she is abandoned at the age of ten by her father, her mother having already died, to be raised by her equally eccentric grandparents…one a mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park in the war; the other an anti-authoritarian cryptographer who constructs crossword puzzles, and has dedicated his life to solving historical puzzles…one of which has the promise of a significant amount of pirate treasure at its solution.

Alice herself is beguiling…a reluctant heroine who for a good chunk of the novel simply takes herself off to bed with the flu until she can be arsed to re-engage with the plot, but a heroine nonetheless.

The plots are somewhat cursory, and much of the novel’s initial strength lies in Thomas’ characters, her individual scenes, and her playful playing with mathematical puzzles and concepts. The two main plots – the mystery behind what’s happening on Dartmoor, and Alice’s grandfather’s wrestling with the code that leads to pirate treasure – parallel each other rather than tie together, and they don’t quite resonate as well as you might have hoped. As Thomas finally moves the plot upwards to its grander theme and conclusion at the end, there is an air of political polemic that feels tacked on…a case of the author telling rather than showing. That’s compounded by a metatextual element that creeps in towards the end; there’s a point to the end of the book where I found myself thinking ‘Well, that’s all well and good, but…’, only for Alice herself to echo the same complaints about the narrative a few pages later. I always feel vaguely uneasy when characters in a story point out the problem with the story.

There is a reason for that though, and Thomas’ novel is clearly intended to be something more; it’s difficult to say more without spoiling her own revelation, but the ultimate aim of the novel is to preach a particular idea of contemporary politics and morality. There’s nothing wrong with Thomass’ ideas, but their exposition reads more like Thomas herself preaching them than arising naturally from the characters, which took me out of the novel a bit.

Still, a lot of fun, with some very playful manipulation of ideas, a highly sympathetic central character, and some excellently done set pieces. There’s not many books that draw together politics, cryptogtaphy, veganism, pirates, complex higher mathematics, corporate economics, school memoir and a subversive call to arms against Big Business.

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The cover told me that this book might change my life. It didn’t quite manage that, although it did tempt me to commit petty acts of vandalism in my local supermarket. Alice works for an international toy company, and is happy in her work until a curious work trip takes her and her colleagues to

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Devon, where she is asked to work on a special project. Alice’s fascination with numbers and cryptography is piqued by a series of mysterious notes, which lead her eventually to question all that she had previously supposed about her employer, about big business, and the world around her.

I found Alice to be a fantastically likable character, and I see elements of her in myself, or vice versa. She never quite follows the crowd, but seems to exist on the edge. A little bit kooky, and not quite in touch with her inner self, she suddenly finds her world tipped upside down over the course of a few days. Scarlett Thomas has produced an intriguing story, although perhaps not quite as gripping as The End of Mr Y.

To end, a small disclaimer, and a word of reassurance; I won’t lie to you. There’s quite a lot of maths-talk in this, about which I was a bit worried before I started reading. I’m an incredibly unmathematical person, but I found Thomas’ way of explaining things quite interesting, and definitely on my level. My fears that I was going to need to do a maths degree to understand what was happening were unfounded, and in the end, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. (Please don’t tell my high school maths teacher that I liked a book with maths in it.)

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wow what a terrible terrible little book. ugh. the book is anathema to sci fi fans. its anti science. its filled with oversimplified examples from Propability 1 (this passes for crypto), rants against genetics, nanotechnology, sophomoric, outdated commentary on computer programming and AI. All this

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rambling PLUS a cast of boring, unlikeable characters, plus flashbacks of some heartstring-pulling, iwasanorphan whining childhood recollections.
UGH!
Do NOT get this book, especially if you are looking for a crypto or sci fi books.
Its rare that I throw a book out, without finishing. garbage.

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A quirky heroine, cryptography, pirates, toy companies, commercialism. I couldn't stop reading it.

This book is excessive detail about boring things.

I was gripped, read it all through fast, loved the little codes given to us, the explanations of mathematical theories, her past, her crazy dad and lovely grandparents, the money-making toy design company trying to make advertising to children fun and cool. However, I kept expecting a fantastic

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finish, and unfortunately I never got one.

I did not like the homeopathy. She is anti-corporate toymakers using underhand methods to trick our children into buying their stuff, and yet thinks a made-up treatment for different 'feelings' with no scientific proof whatsoever (which costs a lot of money) is alright.

I have just done a little search and Scarlett Thomas is quoted by Homeopathy websites as a 'homeopathy hero'. 'Nuff said.

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PopCO is definitely one of the most interesting books i've read so far. if i had to choose an adjective it would be "life-changing". makes you see everything in a different perspective. you've got to be very insensitive, unintelligent or just very closed minded not to like it.

PopCo is a little like Apple - An enigmatic and messianic CEO, Senior Executives with eccentricities bordering on whimsy all veiling a maniacal obsession with market domination. Alice Butler finds herself in the creative department of a PopCo division via a job setting crosswords for a provincial

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weekly. When you’ve been raised by your grandparents, one a pure mathematician, the other a cryptanalyst it’s probably inevitable that your breakthrough product is a spy kit. With that kind of pedigree and a day-job in junior code-breaking she’s a walking illustration of geek-chic.

The invite to the annual PopCo conference may come from left-of-field but we find there was some fuzzy-logic to this decision. With references to planned obsolescence, viral marketing, negative-brands and ideation this is a novel with ambition, but not over-burdened by it. The childhood reminiscences, a vehicle for the introduction of the Maths and cryptanalysis, are a perfectly pitched relief. PopCo’s “Thought Camp” has its eye on the holy grail of marketing – the killer product for teenage girls. Alice eventually unearths a more literal treasure - Her grandfather placed the key to the location of a 17th century pirate’s booty in her locket and when she finds it it makes PopCo's "market-cap" look tiny.

A book dealing with corporate cyncism could be as soul-less as it's subject matter. Fortunately PopCo's flashbacks to childhood add emotional depth. Alice’s grandparents may have effectively bequeathed a multi-billion pound fortune but there’s more than a suggestion that the real treasure is the memory of the time spent with them.

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I read Thomas' "The End of Mr Y" a year or so ago and rather enjoyed it; "PopCo" is similar in style and covers some of the same themes: secrets hidden in historical documents, sinister conspiracies, a somewhat dysfunctional and obsessive first-person narrator. It reminded me a little of a cross

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between "No Logo" and "Cryptonomicon".

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oh what a vexing, frustrating, almost brilliant book. i came to this after "the end of mr y" and had high, high hopes which for 300 odd pages were paying off... and then it all sort of fritters away that promise. such a frustrating book. i don't begrudge having spent so much time with it - thomas

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is always a beguiling writer, and brilliant at getting quite incredibly meaty concepts over in a reasonably simple manner - but i do wish it had amounted to more. i did feel a little bit like i'd climbed a narrative mountain only to be preached at a bit about consumerism. i kind of agree on a lot of her viewpoints, but because i feel thomas has been a tiny bit dishonest with what she promised the book initially to be and how it eventually pans out... i sort of ended up feeling quite profoundly annoyed with a lot of those viewpoints which i don't really think was the idea. i'll stick to "the end of mr y" i think...

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This was yet another glorious book from Scarlett Thomas, who seems to have an inexhaustible supply of the most engaging and empathetic female protagonists. Megan Carpenter and Ariel Manto, the first person narrators of Our Tragic Universe (one of my all-time favourite novels) and The End of Mister

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Y respectively are two of the most memorable fictional characters I have encountered, and Alice Butler, protagonist of Popco,is of similar mettle.

The storyline of Popco moves between the present and the narrator's youth, and gives Thomas free rein to consider a number of mathematical paradoxes while also giving a pellucid insight into cryptography and cryptanalysis. I realise, of course, how frightening that might sound to people who don’t share my nerdish fascination with such matters. However, despite these potentially alarming-sounding digressions, she never allows the pace of the plot to flag, and the mathematical apostrophes are always entertaining and relevant. She also explores issues of rampant globalisation and the growth of immense worldwide corporation masquerading as benevolent institutions, again without ever proselytising or compromising the integrity of the plot, or losing the reader’s attention.

Scarlett Thomas seems to have carved out a genre all of her own in which she seems effortlessly to merge humour, science philosophy and mystery. And, as with all of the Canongate Press editions of her works, this book was beautifully packaged, too.

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Interesting book. Main character's infatuation with homeopathy was annoying, and added nothing to the storyline. Felt like an advert for the author's beliefs. I could be wrong.It also felt like a female author's take on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

Wow. Just wow. I love, love, loved this book. It’s probably the best I’ve read so far this year. From the synopsis I had been unsure, and in fact almost bought it a few times before finding something I thought sounded better to read . In the end I mainly bought it because I had really enjoyed

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the End of Mr Y which is by the same author.

This is really a book which made me think, about corporations, and things we ignore but encounter every day. It talked of how corporations trick people, and how tose in marketing seem to be worth more than those who actually make products- and that’s just one issue it talks about. It doesn’t feel preachy though, it really does just make you think about things in a different way. It made me interested in alternative medicine, and veganism- and they weren’t even key themes!

It wasn’t perfect though. Some of the stuff about codes and maths really went over my head. Although I don’t think it was completely necessary to understand that it would have added something to my enjoyment. There was also a couple of adult scenes which I didn’t think were needed (I didn’t mind them being there though) which might put some people off, but there weren’t as many, or as graphic as in The End of Mr. Y.

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Another glorious book from Scarlett Thomas. She seems to have an inexhaustible supply of the most engaging and empathetic principal characters. The plot of this novel moves between the present and the narrator's youth, and gives Thomas free rein to consider a number of mathematical paradoxes while

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also giving a pellucid insight into cryptography and cryptanalysis.
However, despite these potentially alarming-sounding digressions she never allows the pace of the plot to flag, and the mathematical apostrophes are always entertaining and relevant. Scarlett Thomas seems to have carved out a genre all of her own in which she seems effortlessly to merge humour, science philosophy and mystery.
And, as with all of the recent Canongate Press editions of her works, this book was beautifully packaged, too.

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I really disliked this book. Firstly I found the main character extremely annoying, self righteous and smug. I found that I could not really care what happened to her, I didn't like the way she preached about her eventual anti-corporate values while somehow thinking it was ok to act like a twelve

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year old when it came to sex and relationships. If the protagonist's adult self was bad, the flashbacks to her teenage self were unbearable. We were somehow meant to believe a ten to eleven year old child is extremely gifted and has great self awareness but is unable to combat peer pressure in any other way than swearing at everyone. Furthermore, there is a continual pushing of homeopathy as a cure all that is both very niave and I think probably would not be realistic to such a science driven and sceptical character. Overall, it just feels like the author is trying to push their own views and vent their own frustrations in a rant and trying to disguise it by doing it through a fictional character. Even some of the views on veganism and vegetarianism, now mainstream ideas, are at best simplistic and ignorant. I wouldn't bother with this book to be honest.

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I bought this one because it was recommended by the Atlantic, which included it on a list of "Books that Feel Like Puzzles". They're not wrong about that, and while I enjoyed reading "Popco", I'm not sure it met all of my expectations. The book certainly has its strengths. It took me just a few

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pages to realize that Alice, the novel's narrator and main character, was a unique and believable individual, an odd fit in a creative industry that's full of careerists posing as eccentrics. I enjoyed the book's feel, too: the author describes a setting that is comfortable and beautiful but suffused with menace and mystery. "Popco" is full of interesting stuff, from tidbits about cryptography and math to stories about buried treasure and personal tragedy. To her credit, the author explains most of these subjects in a way that non-STEM majors will find easy to grasp. Well, I did get a bit lost when Alice discussed Kurt Gödel's theories, but that might have been inevitable. Lastly, for a book that discusses math and puzzles and length and has more than a few genre-fiction tendencies, this one has a lot to say about growing up as an outsider, about loss, and about the struggle to find your true place in the world. Improbable as it seems, for a book that has a lot to say about cryptography, "Popco" has a surprising amount to say about the affairs of the heart. I'm glad that the author even attempted to combine these elements, and I was pleasantly surprised that she pulled it off as well as she did.

I didn't necessarily have a problem with this novel's politics, which, to be honest, are somewhat close to my own. And Thomas makes good points about the consumerism, competition, and media manipulation that seem endemic to today's modern world throughout. The book's big reveal, however, and the political logic behind it, was rather too much for me to take. I'm only willing to suspend my disbelief for so long, and, after finishing this one, I got the impression that the the author included the solution -- if we can call it that -- described in book's final chapters for lack of any better, more practical options. Also, as much as I enjoyed reading this one -- Popco Towers is a fun, comfortable place to hang out, from a reader's perspective -- I felt that the plot was a bit slack for a book that revolves around puzzles. Mind you, I enjoyed spending time with Alice and the other Popco employees, and I'd recommend this one to any anglophile out there, but there were times I wished it was a more streamlined affair. For all that, this is still a good read, and I have a feeling that readers with interests different than mine might enjoy it more than I did.

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