Love Machines by James Muldoon

The use of AI is a hot topic in my profession (therapy) – obviously we’re wondering if we’ll be ‘replaced’! Personally, I don’t think so – AI will never be able to provide meaningful silences, which is a big thing in the therapy room. Additionally, there are some dangerous limitations with AI in terms of privacy and design (it will reinforce some messages) – interesting comparative work between real-life therapists and AI has been done, for example here.

I jumped on Muldoon’s book because I wanted the latest insights on the therapy stuff. It provided solid information but nothing particularly new for me. Far more interesting was Muldoon’s deep dive into the world of AI bots (as friends or romantic partners, and to preserve someone after death) and his thorough exploration of the costs of human connection –

When loneliness becomes the target market, then connection itself is commodified.

A great book if you’re curious about AI and some of the ethical and moral challenges it presents.

3.5/5

Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy

Hmmm… what tips the balance into ‘This is gratuitous’? Well, icky sex scenes aside, I struggled to engage with the main character, Waldo, a 17-year-old school girl who begins a relationship with her 30-something-year-old teacher. I shouldn’t even use the word relationship – I don’t know what the legal situation is in the US, but in Australia, that’s rape (because he’s in a position of authority).

Anyway, Waldo has incredible insight into some aspects of her life and not at all in other ways – the overall result is unconvincing. Minor plot lines – Waldo’s online shopping addiction, her faltering friendship with bestie, Frankie (who happens to be Mormon), and her negligent mother – provide interest but not enough to elevate this story beyond what has been done in the Lolita-category before.

2/5

Departure by Julian Barnes

Is this really and truly Barnes’s last book? I felt a little emotional as he read the final pages which were, unambiguously, a goodbye.

It’s a work of autofiction (leaning heavily into straight memoir, I reckon) and tells three intertwined stories – the first part is his own diagnosis with blood cancer, a condition that is ‘managed’ rather than terminal. As Barnes eloquently notes, there’s a ‘…difference between a death sentence and a life sentence.’ The second part of the book tells the story of Barnes’s university friends, Stephen and Jean, who fell in love when they are young and again when they are old. The final part, which speaks most directly to the title, is focused on an elderly Jack Russell terrier, called Jimmy, who is oblivious to his own mortality.

The way that Barnes ties these stories together is marvelous and, as always, his dry wit applied to topics such as death, makes for such good reading.

As a cheerful pessimist I tend to look for the upside of things but missing an ABBA-themed wedding didn’t seem much to put in the balance against a cancer diagnosis.

I really hope he does a John Farnham* and there are more books to come.

4/5

*Farnham has done a number of ‘farewell’ tours.