The Savage Girl

Rating:
Summary: Great 1st novel
Review: Alex Shakar's first novel is an incredible (somewhat Pynchon-esqe) trip into a slightly alternate world - to a city just strange enough to separate it from any real city on earth, with high-rises on a volcano called the Black Tower, with a museum of Post-moden Art, and neighborhoods like Hipsterville. But it's a city with malls, parks, video arcades, Calvin Klein ads and very real people such as Shakar's protagnist, Ursula Van Urden, who has come to Mid City to take care of her sister, Ivy, a model who has just gone public with her suicide attempt. Ursula gets a job as a Trendspotter for Tommorrow, Ltd., working for Ivy's ex-boyfriend, Chas. Her job? To Find the Future. And bring it back to be used for marketing purposes.
Very much in line with DeLillo's White Noise, The Savage Girl exaggerates our current media and trend-obsessed world just the slightest amount necessary to make it both larger-than-true-life and eerily accurate. Chas explains to Ursula how to look for the "paradessence" of any item - the essential paradox of its promise to consumers. Coffee promises to be stimulating and relaxing. Ice cream promises to be a sinful treat and a trip to the innocence of our childhood. It's a dead-on picture of marketing and advertising that Shakar presents and the world, presented in sketches of the population and places of Mid City, as lively and diverse as New York or San Francisco.
The strength of the novel also lies in Shakar's remarkable characters who continue to surprise and grow throughout the book. I became genuinely attached to Javier, the wide-eyed prophet of The Light Age who rollerblades Ursula through the ropes of Trendpotting.
An intensely readable, remarkable book.

Rating:
Summary: Just not all that
Review: I tend to like this 'kind' of fiction, but actually outside of the author's commentary on world today, the story is quite a bore. I'm quite surprised at the extremely positive reviews thus far.

It seems largely a social commentary, without much character development. Perhaps the lack of character development is intended to parody our lives today in the materialistic world, but it makes a dry read.

Rating:
Summary: awesome!
Review: In his first book, The Savage Girl, Alex Shakar tells the tale of four ambitious young adults attempting to conquer commercialism, and then redefine it. The main character Ursula Van Urden, breaks into the fashion industry by becoming a 'trendspotter'. Her first assignment leads her to 'the savage girl', a primitive, disgusting, and seemingly antithetical figure of commercial beauty. Ursula's discovery prompts the marketing campaign for a new product called "diet water," which soon becomes the epitome of commercial absurdity. In a humourous and thought provoking novel, Shakar explores such questions as:

Is advertising the motor behind society?

Has marketing and hype created a world where all our beliefs are based on fallacy?

Is there any real meaning in popular culture today, or is popular culture just a corporate strategm for encouraging people to spend money?

Alex Shakar creates four irresistibly intriguing characters who's attempt to conquer society's fashion engine, leads to some bizarre, yet plausible conclusions about society. The Savage Girl is a delightful and observant rebuttal of everything we think we know about the advertising industry. A ridiculously enticing book!

Rating:
Summary: Shakar is funny and observant, much like his characters
Review: In his first book, The Savage Girl, Alex Shakar tells the tale of four ambitious young adults attempting to conquer commercialism, and then redefine it. The main character Ursula Van Urden, breaks into the fashion industry by becoming a 'trendspotter'. Her first assignment leads her to 'the savage girl', a primitive, disgusting, and seemingly antithetical figure of commercial beauty. Ursula's discovery prompts the marketing campaign for a new product called "diet water," which soon becomes the epitome of commercial absurdity. In a humourous and thought provoking novel, Shakar explores such questions as:

Is advertising the motor behind society?

Has marketing and hype created a world where all our beliefs are based on fallacy?

Is there any real meaning in popular culture today, or is popular culture just a corporate strategm for encouraging people to spend money?

Alex Shakar creates four irresistibly intriguing characters who's attempt to conquer society's fashion engine, leads to some bizarre, yet plausible conclusions about society. The Savage Girl is a delightful and observant rebuttal of everything we think we know about the advertising industry. A ridiculously enticing book!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Read
Review: Similarly beautiful ideas to Infinite Jest in one-fourth the pages. Similar in that they both explore sanity and affected society. Better in that this is a more fluid read.

Rating:
Summary: The Savage Girl Will Change Your World
Review: This book questions the very nature of image - something that (whether we like it or not) is a very real part of all of our lives. As socially hierarchical creatures, image provides the primary basis that we observe the people around us and judge ourselves accordingly. Read this book! It will change your world...

Rating:
Summary: Light Bulb idea, Short burn life
Review: Using the fictional company Tomorrow Ltd, flat characters, and a few true marketing theories (including Ernest Dichter's ideas regarding propaganda,) Shakker exploits "american-style marketing" as a dark, sinister plot against culture. This is a glass-half-empty look at consumer motivation versus company's goals. After finishing the novel, one realizes the reason we continue to read it is the thought provoking and clever ideas Shakker offers throughout the novel. The book itself is not pulled together as a compelling read. Plot and character development are weak; however, those intrigued by social motivation will find themselves highlighting and dogearing a few pages.

Rating:
Summary: For every cynic looking for some hope...
Review: We do what we are told. We buy what we are sold.

Orwell introduced us to Big Brother. Well, Shakur creates a world of which I call "Big Family", whereby Ursula and Ivy discover the "paradessence" of life, which as described by Shakur, is that want and need are the same thing.

The Strange Girl tells us that our raison detre is to assimilate and emulate.