(cache)Signal to Noise

The end of the decade is nearly upon us. What better time to evaluate '90s technoculture? Evidently, the moment is also ripe for taking the piss out of those who nurtured the way new zeitgeist. Author Carla Sinclair is no stranger to the scene; her latest book, Signal to Noise, caricatures the San Francisco slackers and scenesters, zealots and zinesters who smoked DMT with Mondo 2000 freaks and climbed the Wired ladder.

Though the cybercultural parody will most amuse those who've experienced it first-hand, the unwired masses can still enjoy this fast-paced read. Sinclair pairs Jim Knight, a stressed-out editor, with twentysomething Kat Astura. The two meet while searching for Darren Cooper among drug-using subculturites.

If you're looking for the next Ulysses, better go elsewhere. Signal to Noise trades in the immediacy of online prose. But along with its sillier trappings, Sinclair's novel offers a distinctive perspective on the foibles of the wired life.

Signal to Noise, by Carla Sinclair: US$22.50. HarperSanFrancisco: on the Web at www.harpercollins.com/.

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