UNICORN PORN FOR ALL

Fun and clever. Houdini's in it, so how can that go wrong? I'm sure there are lots of ways, but this book goes right. I don't think it changed my life, but it's well written and well plotted, exciting and funny and creative, and I had a good time with it.

I feel like there's a weird...distance I'm noticing with some mid-century writers. Ursula LeGuin, Saul Bellow and now Doctorow remove themselves slightly from the action. like the events of the book already happened. As opposed to being immersed in a story that feels like it's happening as I read it. An extreme example is [b:One Hundred Years of Solitude,|320|One Hundred Years of Solitude|Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327881361s/320.jpg|3295655] in which everything takes place behind a mist of myth that makes it sound less like a story than a Bible. For the rest, though, and for Doctorow here, it tends to be more at the beginning, less at the end, which gives you a swooshy momentum feeling eventually, but I'd kinda just as soon get swooshed up right away. It's not exactly ineffective, but it's not my favorite style.