The Futurist: A Novel

by James P. Othmer

Book Overview

Yates is a Futurist. Which is to say, he makes a very good living flying around the world dispensing premonitory wisdom, a.k.a. prepackaged bullshit, to world governments, corporations, and global... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038551722X
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Sorry, dilettantes. This is great writing.

It must be because I actually identify with Yates, which maybe makes me deplorable, that I love this book. Uncomfortable, but true. First, there is the fascinating plot. I keep meaning to stop reading and take a break at the next lull in the action, but there isn't one. The story just keeps charging ahead. I end up closing the book at arbitrary places, wanting to get back to it as soon as I can. I want to know whether the gay Brit has something sinister in mind, despite his good-natured breeziness; or whether Marjorie is actually going to show up; and if she does, why? Who are Johnson and Johnson, really? And who is Nostradamus? But it's more than the absurd but weirdly believable storyline that keeps me in thrall. The characters are as real (and therefore as fake) as the people I actually know. (Maybe I should reevaluate my current station in life, but that's not of interest to readers of this review. The point is, these are very real people, even if they seem exaggerated.) Anyone who has traveled the world, not quite knowing where to go next or why, but going anyway, can feel kinship with Yates. The thoughts he thinks while making his decisions feel so familiar. The moments Yates is alone with his thoughts are so intimate, so real, that I can only have respect for Othmer for hanging it out there. As a writer, he knows how to pay attention to his own internal dialogue and get it all down. Sure, Yates is cynical. I wish I came up with as many hilarious one-liners to the inane remarks made by whoever is close at hand. It's maybe a little too scripted, but then, do we read a book in order to hear the main character utter the predictable? I suppose the book has a small audience because it is so anti-formulaic. It is undeniably desultory at times. That's how it feels when you're wandering. The hook, if there is one, is the chasm between the truth of what Yates is feeling and the bulls**t he deals. If you have even spun the people you know and felt that unpleasant tickle when you flash on the double deception that they are just playing you back, that together your mutual house of cards is stable, but *honest* is suddenly out of place, then you know what this book is about. And also what you need to do about it. So, folks, if you don't care for this novel, well, BFD. I admire James Othmer for what he has put down on paper. It just may be that this book is still in print years after most of what came out last year has been forgotten. Who knows? This might actually be "The Catcher in the Rye" for the 2000s. Then, like the people who initially loathed Yates's speech in Johannesburg but changed their minds when they learned how popular it turned out to be, the other reviewers on this page will say they always loved "The Futurist", too. Feel free to tear up this review. Yates wouldn't care, and neither do I. I am a proud member of the Coalition of the Clueless. -rj

Today's Catch-22?

Just as Joseph Heller (a first-time novelist at the time with an ad agency background) dissected war with Catch-22, Othmer (with his illustrious ad agency pedigree) breaks down the failure of the US of A in the world today. The Futurist is America, the land that spun away from its past in 1776, but somewhere along the way, lost its noble vision. Othmer is calling us, in very funny ways, to return to our roots and rediscover what matters. Like Yates, the novel's hero, let's honor our forefathers and return to a faith in quality and integrity--or maybe none of us will have a future. Some reviews have noted the end drags. I disagree. It makes perfect sense in the context of the whole novel. It's the right way for this novel--and this new and exciting voice--to end. Well done!

come on, this is a really good book

As usual, some people just don't get it. This book is not to be read on a literal level. No, this is not a "realistic" novel, but there is plenty of realism in it just the same. Having just finished Imperial Life in the Emerald City (nonfiction), it wasn't hard to recognize all the details of Iraq and the Green Zone in "Ba'sar", both now and in the near future. Why do you think there is the whole scene in Greenland with the ice breaking away? Global warming maybe? There are plenty of lines that made me laugh, but it was a two-edged laugh, because they were so true. The corporate and government spin couldn't be better done. The book even starts with a nice piece of irony on the first page: the futurist's girlfriend has left him for a history teacher. The futurist is supposed to be finding out why everyone hates Americans and Westerners, and this is turned upside down in Fiji, where someone says, "What I wonder is why they hate us?" This book has many levels, and makes a lot of sense. It's certainly a good analysis of the present and a reminder that the near future is likely to be pretty scary.

Its sheer exuberance, its epigrammatic style, and its wit and irreverence are a hoot!

While reading The Futurist, I used words such as clever, hilarious, and insightful to describe the experience of reading such a fun and intelligent novel. The truth is these words do this book little justice. Its set pieces alone are worth the price of admission. It is laugh out loud funny. And its many characters contain great depth, and even their own tales. (Perhaps in Othmer's second novel...) "Oh, shit. I've given back tens of millions. Some of these guys, these billionaires, make me sick. They think that now they're rich, they can satisfy their egos, alleviate their guilt, by thinking their accidental windfall somehow means they are geniuses, cosmically ordained and therefore eminently qualified to solve the world's problems -- AIDS, loose nukes, illiteracy. They're delusional enough to think that they matter more than others in a larger sense. They think, Now that I've made billions on a search engine that can locate highly specialized subgenres of kiddy porn at thrice the speed of light, I'm going to teach the world to read. When in truth they're rewriting history to say that their original business models, the ones that made them obscenely rich, were driven not by greed and hubris but by some larger calling to transform the world." William Faulkner once instructed that good fiction is "about the human heart in conflict with itself." Author James P Othmer seemingly knows especially well this writerly commandment. Othmer conflates the personal and professional conflicts that rage in the heart of his protagonist, Yates (the eponymous Futurist) with his, and our, attempt at understanding "why they hate us (Americans)." It has been a long, long while since I devoured a novel as voraciously as I did The Futurist. Its sheer exuberance, its epigrammatic style, and its wit and irreverence are a hoot! More to the point, however: I believe you would enjoy this novel every bit as much as I did. And still do. Yes, it is that memorable. Check it out! David M Gordon

Sobering, hillarious.

While much of what I read about The Futurist seems to be aimed at jaded corporate players and expats, this book struck me as just as relevant to the dormroom Stewart/Colbert fans who, without knowing the specific machinations behind the world that Yates existes in, that has been shoved down their throats since infancy, clearly feel that something is amiss. The heart of this book, encapsulated by Yates' admission of being a "founding member of the Coalition of the Clueless" should resonate with anyone who not only seeks the truth in a world programmed to cloud it, but has enough humilty and respect for it to throw their hands up every once in a while and say "I don't know". Therein lies Yates' likeablilty. His selfish pragmatism, obnoxiousness, and warped moral compass fittingly push that likeability to the edge, in a way only the best written anti-heroes can, but ultimately couldn't squelch it. That conflictedness of Yates' character, along with Othmer's spot-on satire and just plain witty prose made this book for me, and I'd highly recommend it to just about anyone else who comes across this review. In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "the future aint what it used to be," and there is no better or more entertaining example of that today than Yates and The Futurist.