Thought Provoking, redundant, disorganized, engaging... meaningless adjectives that all describe Albert Brook's leap into authorship with his May 2011 release "2030: The Real Story that Happens to America."
Brooks, more well known for his IMDB history including Nemo's dad in "Finding Nemo," had decided maybe his vision was too big for the big screen or maybe he just couldn't get the right investors to shell out the cash.
2030, while engaging didn't leave much for the imagination. It was written as a weekly drama always making you wonder how each character is connected like in the first season of NBC's Heroes. The problem was that you never knew which characters were important to follow or who was a menial B lister. Redundantly and with each introduction a full description of each new character droned on, only to then be forgotten or barely play a role down the road.
The details of each characters back story felt forced as a way to differentiate them from each other to make up for the lack of character development though subtlety and interactions. Each characters dialog whether it be an 80-year-old man, a 20-year-old girl, the president of the United State's, his mistress, or a Chinese health professional, each character all at the same speech patterns. mannerisms, and knack for sarcasm that one would find watching any interview with Albert Brooks. The character interactions and little development that there was truly was disappointing, it seemed that there was no effort, if at least no accomplishment in the effort.
However; the development of the current world seemed logical. While I feel that the advancements in technology are a little rushed as I don't believe all walls will be screens in 19 years or planes will be flying themselves (at least not for commercial use) something about it felt right. Sure Los Angeles could get destroyed [But let's hope not since I am in the midst of relocating their myself], but the compelling part was the reaction of the American government. What will we do when we are broke and other countries don't help. I think Brooks has this on the mark, we will sell out souls to the powers that be albeit must less support from the American people.
Much of the technology listed in 2030 is the equivalent of people expecting flying cars by the 2000s, but it is fun to speculate. Flying cars were expected, I think any industry analyst in the 1950s would shit there pants if I told them I downloaded Albert Brook's book on my Kindle in less than 30 seconds from the decision I made to purchase it.
With as many digressions as the book had [or my review for that matter], I felt that it really came together in the last 1/10th or so. When the cliche of having all of the characters together, dead, or at least involved came to fruition a real story was finally being told. A story that in it of itself didn't need all of the lead up, or at least a copy edits here and there would have sufficed.
The climax of the book wasn't even so much of a climax, it was expected; not in a bad way. The foreshadowing was abrupt and came flying off the page like a 3-D movie, which allowed the real focus to go to your reaction to what was going on. My reactions: wow these characters are stupid. They were unlikable and kept making ridiculously bad decisions, but then I thought thats exactly what got us to this backwards and unsure of a fake future to begin with. That's when I realized this book was so stupid that it became more an allegory on the intelligence level of America than a prediction of the future or really an effort for anything other than a quick buck.
And for that I thought it was brilliant. I like this book ironically.
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