Past/Present/Future –
Between greed, love, and obsession,
there is the truth we would rather not see.
Author: N.J. Alexander
Roundfire Books
2013
ISBN #978-184-69497-0-8
“The path to truth is riddled with lies e can’t get through.”
prologue
You will probably see this in many reviews of this book – “This is not the type of book I am normally attracted to.” So what attracted me? That it is focused on social networking. It is that simple. Social networking is a deep web, and not an easy one to traverse.
I did find it a bit slow getting into the book – the prologue is the narrative of an interview of Nicole, the main character, by JD, . The focus is on a book that Nicole wrote, and the conversation is … well, surreal. Nicole talks about burning the book, and that if she did, the book would still exist within her.
Once we get into the book … it moves! For heavens sake, Nicole is attending a meeting that defines exactly how the company that she has just lost is going to be closed out. Three months later, she is being talked into signing up for Facebook! And then … there is the requisite man from the past … the one that we all want to get to know. And then there is … another crush.
Interesting things are happening … windows closing themselves, keys moving out into the open. Were these incidents connected? Overlaid with the AIG financial crisis, and the very real financial crisis that Nicole and her two friends were facing. Stalkers, too. Then there were the drawings, and the things that kept coming up on her computer. Nicole was seeing connections everywhere … but what did they mean? Numerology, Jung, and other esoteric concepts edge their way into the picture.
All the while, Nicole is trying to maintain a good atmosphere for her two children, her parents, and her partner Richard, Her parents and Richard, as well as her closest friend, are concerned for her. She is losing weight, simply because she cannot eat. Her life is changing, and she has little control over it.
Nicole decides to write a book, based on the man from her past that she has been following on Facebook. She thinks he was playing a game with her, before he deleted his account. Towards the end of the book we read a police report of an interview done with the man on Facebook from Nicole’s past … in his eyes, she was stalking him!
We read an interview between Nicole and a psychiatrist. You see, Nicole has been charged with several crimes against the man she thought was playing games with her on Facebook. In the interview, the psychiatrist discusses the mental processes that go along with Nicole’s symptoms. But there is more … the next scene shows Nicole back at home, which then segues into Nicole waiting for a prescription at the pharmacy. In one of the best written parts of the book, we see Nicole walking out of the pharmacy as Nicole, her partner and children are walking into the pharmacy. Nicole number one turns around and follows Nicole number two and her family back into the pharmacy. She knows that she has to join her to become whole again.
This is a book about reality versus illusion … and it is very difficult to tell which is which. Well researched, and well written. The book addresses many of the issues that we face with social media sites like Face book that give access to … well, perhaps too much information. But then, it is all what we do with that information, isn’t it!
© 2000 – 2013 Bonnie Echoed
Reproduction prohibited in any venue without written permission from the author.
Bonnie Cehovet 