Every short description I come up with for this book sounds horrible, so that will have to be: The book follows Marty Hench, a 67-year-old forensic accountant. Add to that that it barely qualifies as SF, taking place ever so slightly in the future from when it was written, and not dealing with any technologies that don’t actually exist. All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s kind of a technological thriller. The characters in it, even the minor ones, all seem very three dimensional, and even though some of them are very bad, overall it’s full of compassion and integrity. One thing that feels worthy of mention: Doctorow takes the time at the end to sew up all the loose ends and give all the significant characters a visit, unlike so many books I’ve read recently that end somewhat abruptly with unanswered questions. Big thumbs up.
Doctorow recently said on Bluesky that the reason he’s such a prolific writer is that he’s constantly in pain and sitting down to write is an activity that helps him ignore it or get through it. So he said that’s why he wrote 7 books during the pandemic.
Interesting, I had no idea he had chronic pain. I did some searching and didn’t see what the cause is just that he’s had it since he was much younger. That’s terrible.
Here’s a link to his blog version of the same thread I referenced. Seems like a hop issue among other stuff.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/14/compartment/
That was interesting to read (as are most things Doctorow writes). I’m still not sure what the core chronic pain issue is; it sounds neuropathic, maybe CRPS, but with some musculoskeletal issues thrown in.
Poor guy.