New Waves
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A wry and poignant debut novel about a man’s search for true connection that is “both knowing and cutting, a satire of internet culture that is also a moving portrait of a lost human being” (Los Angeles Times).
“A knowing and thought-provoking exploration of love, modern isolation, and what it means to exist—especially as a person of color—in our increasingly digital age.”—Celeste Ng, bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—NPR, The New York Public Library, Parade, Kirkus Reviews
Lucas and Margo are fed up. Margo is a brilliant programmer tired of being talked over as the company’s sole black employee, and while Lucas is one of many Asians at the firm, he’s nearly invisible as a low-paid customer service rep. Together, they decide to steal their tech startup’s user database in an attempt at revenge. The heist takes a sudden turn when Margo dies in a car accident, and Lucas is left reeling, wondering what to do with their secret—and wondering whether her death really was an accident. When Lucas hacks into Margo’s computer looking for answers, he is drawn into her private online life and realizes just how little he knew about his best friend.
With a fresh voice, biting humor, and piercing observations about human nature, Kevin Nguyen brings an insider’s knowledge of the tech industry to this imaginative novel. A pitch-perfect exploration of race and startup culture, secrecy and surveillance, social media and friendship, New Waves asks: How well do we really know one another? And how do we form true intimacy and connection in a tech-obsessed world?
Praise for New Waves
“Nguyen’s stellar debut is a piercing assessment of young adulthood, the tech industry, and racism. . . . Nguyen impressively holds together his overlapping plot threads while providing incisive criticism of privilege and a dose of sharp humor. The story is fast-paced and fascinating, but also deeply felt; the effect is a page-turner with some serious bite.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A blistering sendup of startup culture and a sprawling, ambitious, tender debut.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nguyen's stellar debut is a piercing assessment of young adulthood, the tech industry, and racism. Margo, a 20-something black engineer, and Lucas, a 23-year-old Asian customer service rep, bond over the ingrained racism at their tech startup employer, a messaging app called Nimbus, in New York in 2009. When Margo's strong opinions lead to her dismissal, she drunkenly convinces Lucas to help her steal the usernames and passwords of Nimbus's users. Margo soon regrets this, but nevertheless apparently leverages the data to land her and Lucas jobs at Phantom, a rival startup with an app that immediately deletes read text messages. Margo dies in a car accident, and Lucas is distraught and afraid, wondering if the accident was really an accident or something more sinister. He steals Margo's laptop and decides to contact Jill, a struggling writer whose work Margo spent hours providing feedback on. He and Jill stumble into a relationship while Phantom's popularity among teenagers pushes Lucas into a new role implementing a monitoring process contrary to the lofty ambition of the founders. Lucas's scramble to meet the growing intensity of his professional and personal lives, as well as his jealous conviction he knew Margo best, leads to a series of missteps with rippling consequences. Nguyen impressively holds together his overlapping plot threads while providing incisive criticism of privilege and a dose of sharp humor. The story is fast-paced and fascinating, but also deeply felt; the effect is a page-turner with some serious bite.
Customer Reviews
Wavy
Author
American. Second generation Vietnamese. Former GQ editor, who now works at The Verge. This is his first novel.
Plot
Margo (mid-twenties) is a brilliant programmer who works at a NY social media startup. She's also the only black staff member. Lucas Nguyen (mid-twenties) is the customer relations dude. Everyone thinks he must be an engineer too because he's like, Asian, but he only ever made it to community college in Oregon, where his refugee parents run a B&B in a college town. Margo and Lucas pal up, mainly because everyone else is white, then find they share an online past. They form a bond that involves mucho drinking but no funny business. After ripping off the database of their startup, they get jobs at another startup that sounds suspiciously like Snap but isn't. Then Margo stumbles out of a bar into the traffic and gets dead. Margo's Mom asks Lucas to shut down her Facebook, assuming he'd be able to do that because he's, like, Asian and works at tech startup. Lucas takes Margo's laptop and explores her life he didn't know about, which leads him to a relationship, then out of it again. Then he loses his job, but his stock vests so he had enough cash to go to Japan, because Margo always talked about going there.
Characters
Margo remains a mystery with a touch of the Jekyll and Hyde about her. (Not the killing people part.) Lucas is best developed, and kind of annoying, although not enough that you want to punch him or anything. Is he an accurate portrait of second generation Vietnamese Americans? I have no idea. Jill, Margo's e mail pen pal turned Lucas's lover for a while, eventually gets her act together better than the other two, or maybe not.
Narrative
Third person, various POV's, mainly Lucas, plus excerpts of unpublishable sci-fi stories Margo wrote, and various weird proclamations by the bigwigs in the startup and...It's not the full mixed media extravaganza but feels like it at times.
Prose
Clear, journalistic style. Not too many bells and whistles except as noted above.
Bottom line
Celeste Ng, who wrote 'Little Fires Everywhere', which I loved, recommended this book. Can't say it did much for me, although I didn't actively dislike it. Novels where not much happens are okay if not much happens in an interesting way.