Wrong Way

By: Joanne McNeil

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya

For years, Teresa has meandered from one job to the next, settling into long stretches of time, unable to move ahead in any field or career, the dreaded move from one gig to another starting to feel unbearable. When a recruiter connects her with a contract position at AllOver, it appears to check all her prerequisites for a “good” job. It’s a fintech corporation with progressive hiring policies and a social-justice–minded mission statement. Their new service for premium members? A functional fleet of driverless cars. The future of transportation. As her new-hire orientation reveals, the distance between AllOver’s claims and its actions is wide, but the lure of financial stability and a flexible schedule is enough to keep Teresa driving forward.

Joanne McNeil, who often reports on how the human experience intersects with tech, brings all of her compassion and criticism about labor and technology to Wrong Way. In this thought-provoking, fresh, and humane novel, she captures the existential perils imposed by a nonstop, full-service gig economy, and exposes the toll of corporate calculations on the human spirit.

©2023 Joanne McNeil (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Nonstop narration going nowhere

It’s so funny. This was an LA times book of the week or something and I downloaded it not knowing that I had listened to this author’s other book “lurking”. Her writing is good and the modern idea to write about the present, the driverless cars, alluding to Elon Musk is cool but there is no cohesion as several stories happen at once with the main character as the center and there’s no resolution with an abrupt, interpret on your own ending. The narrator’s voice when she talks like the male characters -which there are a few- is kind of cringy and gets tiring. It starts out slow, it picks up, and then gets lost.

Slow Motion Dystopia --

NO SPOILERS.

NARRATOR

I listened to this at 90% just to savor it. Ms. Araya is perfect. The sound editing is flawless. No breaths and I think I can recall only one obvious edit in the entire read. Her male voice is not bad, either. I'd definitely choose her over most narrators of the dozens or more I've come across.

REVIEW

It's hard not to compare this to Dave Eggers, "The Circle". But whereas that has a Hollywood feel, this feels sparse and raw. I also thought of White Noise, as far as tone. I was surprised to like that it was in third-person although it felt like first-present. Much of the book is spent in the mind of Theresa, the protagonist, who is an everywoman. The recounting of her life's jobs might be frighteningly accurate for those growing numbers who haven't secured the American Dream of a career, family, and financial security. It's the "quiet desperation" of someone who is not overly ambitious in her work but is caring and diligent, and perhaps a little worse off for being a bit of a people pleaser.

McNeil perfectly walks a line, I'm not sure where or what that line is, something to do with criticism, commentary, maybe even satire, but most certainly something that is modern reality. I love some of the names, like Holistic Apex. And there's Falcon Gidry, a lying, ridiculously pretentious tech billionaire, that seems to live above the laws of man and nature. Fake tech and despicable people. The setting of this novel is only absurd if you aren't familiar with the dealings of Elon Musk and Bill Gates and many others and what has gone on in the last decade or so in this world, particularly the US, particularly in the deindustrialization of the midwest, a la Chris Hedges, "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt."
This is literature, but it reads (listens) more like a page-turner.
I'm going to re-listen and check out McNeil's other offerings.
Thanks for the great read,
Joseph Naus