The Word Exchange
_first_edition_2014.png) First edition, 2014 | |
| Author | Alena Graedon |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | science fiction, thriller |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | April 8, 2014 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback, paperback) |
| Pages | 370 pp. (hardback, first edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0-38-553765-0 |
| OCLC | 858672441 |
The Word Exchange (novel) is a science fiction novel by Alena Graedon, published in 2014. It is a dystopian thriller set in the not very distant future when the printed word has nearly vanished, technology dominates, and language has become a commodity. The novel has been translated into eight different languages.[1]
Plot
Anana Johnson’s father, world renowned linguist and Chief Editor of the North American Dictionary of the English Language, has gone missing. Doug (Douglas Samuel Johnson) was in his Manhattan office at the Dictionary seeing to the last details before the 3rd edition went to press, and then he was not. Even his name was missing from the Dictionary database, one clue among several he has left behind for his daughter.
In the post-print world of the not very distant future, Anana had been enjoying her job at the NADEL, a scholarly foundation-funded project, even though she was not much of a reader, herself. Like most people, she got all the news and narrative she wanted on her “Meme,” an artificially intelligent as well as smart phone/digital assistant. She shrugged off her father’s aversion to the device, because she liked it. It had learned her preferences and mapped her life so intimately that it automatically took care of things for her, from ordering menu items or driverless car rides to downloading a definition from the Word Exchange for a word she had momentarily forgotten.
As the Diachronic Society tried to warn everyone (or all readers of the Times, at least) words were being forgotten at an alarming rate and Memes, not to mention the newer implantable device the "Nautilus," made by the mega-corporation Synchronics were responsible. In fact, Memes were not merely dispensing information, they were spreading a virus, “word flu” at an epidemic rate. Aphasia was the first symptom of the new disease, and for those who survived the fever, also the most long-lasting.
Anana bravely, if foolishly, faces down book-burning minions, oversized Russian security guards and accusatory Diachronic Society members before she leaves her Meme behind and evades her pursuers, escaping through underground tunnels. She has been betrayed by her mother’s boyfriend and her own ex. Bart, Ana’s devoted admirer and Doug’s erstwhile assistant editor, uncovers Synchronics’ plot to inflate prices on the Word Exchange by polluting the Dictionary with nefarious neologisms, and he barely escapes with his life. To contain the word flu contagion, nations are closing their borders to Americans, but Ana arrives in London just in time. From there, she is followed all the way to Oxford, captured, and imprisoned in silent quarantine for three days before finding her father under the protection of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Development history
Graedon’s initial inspiration for the novel was an experience while in college, a fire that started in a neighbor’s house burned her apartment, including all her books, leading her to contemplate loss of the printed word. During the six years she was writing the novel, Graedon said, she had to revise constantly in order to keep up with the rapid development of technology -- “amending details to accommodate each new digital breakthrough—from self-driving automobiles, to videogame technology that allows users to move avatars with their minds, to Google Glass (which was remarkably similar to Graedon’s initial iteration of the Nautilus, before she felt compelled to change it).” [2]
Reception
As the debut novel of a young author, The Word Exchange was generally praised by reviewers for its ambitious and inventive exploration of issues in language and technology.[3][4][5][6][7] Among Booklist’s “Best Crime Fiction Debuts” Bill Ott described it as “a bibliothriller of epidemic proportions … [that] offers a chilling prediction of where our unthinking reliance on technology is leading us.”[8] Liesl Schillinger in the New York Times Book Review called it, “...a nervy, nerdy dystopic thriller set in New York City in the very near future…. Clever, breathless and sportively Hegelian in theme...”[3] On the other hand, as Rebecca Onion’s review in Slate explains, about this “dazzling but unsatisfying debut novel … There’s an inherent weakness in using the structure of a thriller to explore complex questions about technology and culture.”[9] At the end of the world, after all, one must join with the bookish word-loving good guys to defeat the greedy tech corporation bad guys, and thus the plot undercuts the complexity of the issues. Colin Steele, in the Sydney Morning Herald, concluded that “Graedon's narrative is littered with linguistic, literary, philosophical and musical references, but the whole ultimately never really coheres.”[10]
References
- ^ "Alena Graedon". Contemporary Authors Online. Gale. 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Christensen, Lauren (April 9, 2014). "Alena Graedon, Author of The Word Exchange". Kirkus. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ a b Schillinger, Leisel (May 4, 2014). "Word Wide Web, 'The Word Exchange,' by Alena Graedon". New York Times Book Review.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ "The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon". Kirkus Reviews. 82 (5): 293. March 1, 2014.
- ^ Britt, Ryan (May 5, 2014). "Science Fiction Saves the Dictionary: The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon". Tor.com. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Good, Alex (April 11, 2017). "The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon: review". Toronto Star. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Graff, Kier (March 1, 2014). "The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon". Booklist: 23.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Ott, Bill (May 1, 2015). "The Year's Best Crime Novels". Booklist.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Onion, Rebecca (April 9, 2014). "When Smartphones Attack:". Slate. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Steele, Colin (August 29, 2014). "Book Review: The Word Exchange, by Alena Graedon". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
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