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farfetched for futuristic fiction; that he has worked them into a real novel, not a tricked-up movie treatment; and that a little humor goes a long way in this often bleak genre". But about the ending, "some events seem abrupt and artificial", and Brooks "doesn't have the pitilessness it requires."
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sensibility from film to book. Two things are immediately apparent about his debut novel: that it's as purposeful as it is funny, and that Mr. Brooks has immersed himself deeply in its creation." Asking why Brooks' take should be taken seriously, Maslin answers, "his prognostications are not so
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summarized, "Actor Albert Brooks has fun imagining a world in the future—though not too far in the future to be wholly implausible" and "the tone is satiric, something Brooks usually does with a light touch, though occasionally he loses the playfulness and shows too heavy a hand."
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called the novel a "smart and surprisingly serious debut", noted its "sweeping narrative", and classified it as "a novel as entertaining as it is thought provoking, like something from the imagination of a
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The story follows a diverse cast of characters in the year 2030, by which (hypothetical) time
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a "half-Jewish" president of the United States will have been elected (hamstrung by massive
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generational tension between the young and the old will have escalated, and
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According to Brooks, he "did an earlier version of the book as a
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remarked that Brooks "made the nervy move of transposing his
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The book received mostly positive reviews. Janet Maslin of
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is the first novel written by
American actor and comedian
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Brooks had already written "substantial portions of
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