Tuesday, June 03, 2014

2014 book 122

Amy Rowland's The Transcriptionist
So this is about the last transcriptionist working at a New York newspaper in the mid-2000s, who becomes haunted by the death of a woman (killed by lions at the zoo). Rowland, herself a former transcriptionist, really nails the details of the job and of working with a dying technology. There's not much to the story, though, and things move a little slowly for such a slim book. It's also frustrating that Lena meets a mysterious archivist whose identity is clear to the reader, but she's too dumb to figure it out. In general, this is not a plausible sort of story, especially as things get going. If you're willing to read it as a dream-like fantasy sort of thing, it works a little better, but . . . I don't know. I think I didn't get it. B/B-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

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