Wandering through the library shelves aimlessly often results in me finding little gems that I normally wouldn't have found on my own. I stumbled upon Scarlett Thomas' Popco in just this manner on a recent excursion to the public library. It jumped out at me and I remembered seeing it on another blogger's page as a somewhat interesting and satisfying read. After Vanity Fair, I was ready for something light and fluffy. Can Popco be described as light and fluffy? If you look at it for what it appears to be on the surface--a tale about a toy company--then yes, it might be called that. But I think Thomas means the book as a critique of today's consumer-centered society. There is also a lovely mystery weaved in that involves code-breaking. I feel like by reading this book, I can now use a Vigenere Cipher and crack codes by looking for patterns in jumbled sequences of letters and numbers.
This book has a lot of interesting information about psychology, prime numbers, code breaking, and marketing theories. I definitely don't feel dumber having read Popco. The only thing that bothered me was the ending, which fizzled out. The secret was revealed in an inept two part narrative that made it seem anti-climactic to me. Other than that, I really enjoyed reading this on the way from Ohio to South Carolina.
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