Joseph Finder, Paranoia (St. Martin's, 2004)Joseph Finder (High Crimes, recently made into a movie)'s fifth novel is something different. Something new. From the looks of things, Finder wanted to take aspects of literature-and I'm not talking your basic modern 20th century "literary" novel here, I'm talking lit-rat-chaw-and apply it to the technothriller. Certainly as risky as anything his protagonist, Adam Cassidy, comes up with during the novel. And how does he succeed? Very well, thank you, for the most part.Finder does for the technothriller what Hammett did for the mystery novel, though he's still something of a neophyte in places. Paranoia is a shining example of the idea that literate subtlety will always beat straight genre writing, no matter what the genre.Adam Cassidy is your basic punk. He spends his free time drinking and doing drugs, and his work hours trying to find ways to do as little as possible. He feels more comfortable hanging out with the loading dock crew than he does in his cubicle at Wyatt Industries, being a low-level marketing goon. Because of that, when the loading dock foreman gets ready to retire, Cassidy decides to screw his company and give the guy the best possible send-off, so he pulls a couple of the appropriate numbers and gets the affair catered. Problem is, he's not quite aware of the scope of the catering, and when the bill hits the desk, Cassidy's head is about to roll. Nick Wyatt, the almost cartoonishly evil chairman of the company, gives Cassidy a choice-either go to jail for embezzlement or go to work for their main competitor, Trion Systems, and get the dirt on a top-secret Trion project. Needless to say, Cassidy chooses the latter, or we wouldn't have a novel.Paranoia grabs you from the beginning and refuses to let go. As with any competent thriller, techno or otherwise, the plot and the pacing are strong, but that's not where the true strength of Finder's book lies. He uses subtle tricks to give insight into the characters, couches his moral lessons in dialogue (they do scrape close to the surface at times, but nothing hits you in the face with a dead haddock), and generally turns the whole thing into the kind of technothriller that Frederick Exley or Barry Hannah might have written, had they the inclination.I was struck at first with the idea that the book's use of profanity was gratuitous, but once I figured out what Finder was doing, I took a second look and realized he was working with the precision of a jeweler. Every time you think the prose seems a little off kilter, profane or not, take another look. There's more under the surface than there seems to be. What this results in is characters drawn more strongly here than in almost any modern fiction; if Stephen King is the undisputed master of drawing characters in a few lines, Finder has quickly become the main understudy.So why am I not hailing this the most brilliant novel to come down the pike since Kathe Koja last released something? Because I'm still not sure about the ending. I got to the bottom of page 423, turned it over, fully expecting there to be a few more sentences, and... blank space. I practically growled at the book. (I simultaneously can't wait to see and dread what Hollywood is going to do to the end of this when it gets filmed. And for the record, no one but Brian Dennehy can possibly play Nick Wyatt.) Given everything I've said above, I get the feeling I missed something along the way in that last chapter, but there's a part of me that thinks Finder tried the classic ambiguous ending, another literary risk, and it just didn't go as smoothly as the other highbrow tricks that make this novel so incredible. As it stands, the novel doesn't have loose ends, it's got an Oriental rug that comes unraveled all at once. Expect to spend a good deal of time mulling over the ending. You probably won't get anywhere, but you'll do it anyway.As with all good thrillers, Finder packs a whole lot of twists, turns, red herrings, blue herrings, mysterious gurus, father figures, and a whole plethora of wonderful minor characters (Antwoine deserves his own book, to be sure) into these pages. Don't let the ending stop you. Read this. ****
# Cross-posted from http://palakmathur.wordpress.com/2011......After Whiteout, I had my hands on Paranoia by Joseph Finder. It is a new degree of novel, which has touched the subject of espionage in the corporate world. Joseph has given me an opportunity to read the second gripping and fantastically written novel. An intriguing novel and a product of great imagination that keeps you engaged until the very end.The frustrated, unsatisfied and a disgruntled employee of Wyatt Telecom, Adam Cassady has two options to choose between – prison for a goof up he did to celebrate an unknown employee’s farewell and to work as a spy in an another company. Adam makes his choice.He goes through a training session that transforms into an excellent marketing executive and with the help of high-profile recommendations, he easily clears a well-rehearsed interview at the rival of Wyatt Telecom, Trion Systems, and starts off under “a ruthless, tyrannical” boss Nora Summers. Wyatt’s CEO, Nicholas Wyatt has gifted the collection of gadgets and things that help him spy around and send back critical information to him through an encrypted and safe channel.He goofs up the first meeting with Nora, and the trend continues in a number of such meets. However, with clever ideas and constant intelligence boost from Wyatt make it possible for him to be able to reach the level of CEO’s assistant. The story continues to tell how Adam’s works out his plans and gathers intel and send it across to Wyatt.Finder gives a fantastic array of knowledge about the technical measures taken by the companies in protecting their secret plans and projects. He describes everything superbly and with a vivid description, everything appears to be happening in front of your eyes. Fantastically narrated, Paranoia keeps the level of interest and suspense until the very last.My rating 3/5.
Do You like book Paranoia (2006)?
I gave this book 4 stars because I enjoyed it, it was relatively fast-paced, and it was free on my Kindle.I don't say this is any great work of literature. In fact, it reads like a not-quite edited version that managed to sneak out. The pacing was completely weird - there were parts of the book that seemed to drag on and on, but then some parts ended quite suddenly. I was pretty disappointed in the ending; I didn't really like what happened and the last plot twist seemed pretty obvious.This was an incredibly enjoyable read though - something I'd recommend highly if you're into the spy genre and want an easy and quick to read book while you're traveling, on the beach, etc. It's nothing that will stick with me long after I've read it though, but not all the books I read need to give me that feeling.I may read another book by this author at some point, but I worry that many of his works will be pretty similar.
—Amy
Reader reviews of this work tend to emphasize the twist ending and the suspense. I wish there were a rating lower than one star. This is the tale of a pathetic, amoral, loser who finds himself blackmailed by his company's CEO after embezzling from the company to pay for a friend's retirement party. It is poorly written, filled with unbelievable happenstance, wooden characters, and the ending is predictable ten pages after the protagonist goes to work for his employer's main competitor where he is to carry out industrial espionage. What a waste of time.
—Matt Howard
Well, that was a surprise! I expected a hard-to-follow and overly action-packed economy-heavy novel, and I got a well balanced book that was gripping from the first page to the last. The story was not filled with that many special terms (be it economy or electronics) and was easy to understand. The characters were fleshed out and interesting. Very thrilling, and indeed action packed - but not to the brim. There was room for coubt, for emotions, for panic, for remorse. Also: genius plot twists that were unpredictable, but not unrealistic. And the open end just made it more interesting. Definitely recommendable, I guess especially if you know the movie.
—Jule
