Lexicon

A Novel

By: Max Barry

Narrated by: Heather Corrigan, Zach Appelman

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren't taught history, geography, or mathematics - at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science. Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as "poets": adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization's recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school's strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Brontë, Eliot, and Lowell - who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school's most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he's done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless.

©2013 Max Barry (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A dark, dystopic grabber in which words are treated as weapons, and the villainous types have literary figures’ names. Plath, Yeats, Eliot and Woolf all figure in this ambitious, linguistics-minded work of futurism." (Janet Maslin, New York Times)

"Imagine, if you will, a secret group of people called Poets who have the power to control others simply by speaking to them. Barry has, and the result is an extraordinarily fast, funny, cerebral thriller." (Time Magazine)

"An extremely slick and readable thriller." (Washington Post)

A Riveting Story!

This is my first Max Barry book, and I was very impressed. A very engaging story, good writing that held together, good narration. It was one of those audio books where I could not wait to get into my truck to listen to it. Well done!

fast paced & thought provoking

I kept being reminded of the Don't think of an Elephant short book about how language is manipulated to get people to think certain ways and I've run across some of the tidbits regarding linguistics and language development etc elsewhere and there could have been even more of that for me and it would have been fine. what there is is not heavy handed and is well enough layed out.

Here we have a well thought out story and even though it at times follows standard plot lines it is researched enough without being pedantic to keep drawing you further along. It is fast moving, entertaining and goes a step beyond "subliminal seduction" entering into some horrific moments. A chase novel that moves back and forth from present to past and slowly brings past up to rejoin. This is done well though it isn't spelled out immediately and could cause a moment's confusion but it works fine except maybe for a bit at the end where the time frames are too close. there are a couple of things I'd like to have seen explained or at least not ignored since to me you have to at least acknowledge where this "base word" came from whether you go into much detail or not. But at least theres some thought behind this and it's not a Stephen King evil spirits to explain it all type cop out.

But all in all fun and as i said with some food for thought. & on a side note, If i'm not mistaken this is the same publisher as the Pynchon Bleeding Edge debacle and these narrators (rotating male and female, which is excellently done) even do a good job with Australian accents and so the ? again surfaces, How can they get this audio so right, and the Pynchon so abysmally wrong?

Interesting. Kind of trippy.

Good book overall. Makes you think. The guy reader does a better job than the girl. His Australian accent was definitely better. Hers sounded more Irish than anything.

This is one of those books that requires full focus. It's confusing even if you are following. And I'm not certain I agree with the ending. But it was still really good.

Kinda rediculous

Any additional comments?

Without spoling the book, the premise is that we are all bio-computers who have words as our base code. Words have a magical ability to cause us to be manipulated. Too bad that the words used by the author fell flat and the sinister plot lines really hard to believe.

OMG!

Trust me, do yourself a favor and buy this book! It is absolutely amazing

A Great Listen

An interesting story with great narration. It's one I could listen again. There are some adult themes so be careful around the kids.

Delicious!

This was an AMAZING experience...delicious!! Thutt. Deduim. Ganet!!. Read/ listen to get the point. Delicious!!!

Intriguing. Too many loose ends

The chronological order of the story is probably the most intriguing part of the book. Neat character development but fell a bit flat in the end. Maybe if it had been a series there would have been more time to improve the issue. Too many loose ends and unexplained points for me to give it 5 stars. For a book about words, the authors extreme overuse of the f word is annoying. The generally boring dialogue goes a bit like this:
"Shoot the f- guy."
"I don't want to f- shoot him"
"Do what I f- say or I'll f-shoot you, you dumb f-!""
Male narrator is good, but the female narrator does a lousy Australian accent which is confusing when you're trying to mentally place the scene.

A unique read

Interesting concept. Made me think about the power of words and language in a fresh new way. Narrative was well done and never boring.

The art and science of persuasion

can be enticing, delicious, fulfilling, destructive or deadly. The power of words, yes -- all that we hear and see, whatever we touch, the effect of color and scent on our minds, every sense is mentioned in this book. Our neurotransmitters are triggered continuously by information and advertising, by social media, by store displays, by conversations: this is persuasion. Which is why we now have inventions like "Influencers". And millions follow them like obedient pets, buying products and merch they don't need. As mentioned in this book: if you listen to (or watch) ONE news source exclusively, avoiding those you disagree with, you'll lack a balanced perspective.
I found this book more interesting than many I've heard. A lot of death, yes, but realistically when you consider the death that results from persuasion and "bearwords" irl, the #s are small in comparison. The narration is very good. And I agree, Australians are far more direct than Americans. This is both admirable and likeable.