A review by x0pherl
Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents by Ellen Ullman

1.0

This book is pretty well reviewed, but I just didn't connect with it at all. I'm sort of curious how it ended up on my reading list: maybe NPR, maybe a recommendation?
The book sort of jumps about between details of her programming career, her privileged upbringing, and her attempts at a love life. Occasionally it mingles them uncomfortably: "We give ourselves over to the sheer fun of the technical, to the nearly sexual pleasure of the clicking thought-stream." Um, no.
At her best, she nails the tech types perfectly:

She arrived with an entourage of eight, a group she had described on the telephone as “Internet heavy-hitters from Palo Alto.” They were all in their early thirties. The men had excellent briefcases, wore beautiful suits, and each breast pocket bulged ever so slightly with what was later revealed to be a tiny, exquisite cellular phone. One young man was so blonde, so pale-eyed, so perfectly white, he seemed to have stepped out of a propaganda film for National Socialism. Next to him was a woman with blond frosted hair, chunky real-gold bracelets, red nails, and a short skirt, whom I took for a marketing type; she turned out to be in charge of “physical network configuration.” This group strutted in with all the fresh-faced drive of technocapitalism, took their seats beneath the AIDS prevention posters (“Warriors wear shields with men and women!” “I take this condom everywhere I bring my penis!”), and began their sales presentation.

But for me, the book fell flat, and I can't begin to imagine what the subtitle has to do with the book.