Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
{4.5/5} “I knew what he was doing, distracting me with one of our old fights, but I couldn’t resist the bait, and as I marshaled my arguments, it actually helped calm me down some. Dan was that kind of friend, a person who knew you better than you knew yourself. ‘So you’re saying that if you were obliterated and then recreated, atom-for-atom, that you wouldn’t be you anymore?'”
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow, published in 2003
Julius and his girlfriend Lil work at Disney World. He plans to live forever. But his old friend Dan always said that he would end things when he was done with life. Now Dan shows up after 10 years saying he wasn’t able to do it and he’s not sure what to do. Lil says he needs a new project.
This is Doctorow’s 1st novel. He has a Douglas Coupland-like flair for language.
Even if the future is great, things can still go wrong. I like the concepts of Whuffie, deadheading, ad-hocs, and restoring from backup.
It’s about people who have different ideas about things but can remain friends. It’s about what happens when saving your life means forgetting time with your best friend.
This is the 1st book I’ve read by Doctorow.