Touch

Starred review from April 3, 2017
Maum’s trenchant satirical novel is about the intersection of modern technology and human interaction. Sloane Jacobsen, a highly influential trend forecaster who predicted the “swipe,” moves from Paris to Manhattan for a six-month collaboration with tech company Mammoth. Accompanying her is long-term life partner Roman Bellard, a Frenchman and Zentai-wearing intellectual obsessed with “sensuality in the digital age.” Sloane’s outspoken views on childbearing as ecoterrorism dovetail with her Mammoth assignment to guide product creation for the intentionally childless. Soon, though, she concludes that the next trend will be a return to intimacy and interpersonal, in-person interaction, so when Roman publishes a New York Times op-ed advocating virtual sex over real sex, she kicks him out. Meanwhile, her attempts at reconnecting with her estranged family are not going well, and a company designer attracted to Sloane challenges her to redefine herself. Maum (I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You), who also names products for MAC Cosmetics, has such a incisive grasp of where tech and culture meet that she could add sociologist to her resume. The book also captures the mid-life crisis of a woman at the top of her game, resulting in a perceptive, thought-provoking read.

March 15, 2017
A trend forecaster foresees a solution to the loneliness of this hyperconnected world.Sloane Jacobsen, -soothsayer of the swipe,- is a hugely successful trend forecaster, having been the one to predict the now-ubiquitous thumb-to-phone motion. She is the -uber anti-mom,- believing that having children is shortsighted in a world where people have been becoming ever more self-centered. For this reason, she has been hired as a consultant by Mammoth, a tech company focusing on consumer electronics and -human-machine integration technology,- to help them prepare for a three-day summit bringing together tastemakers from around the world to consider the theme of -ReProduction-: -What will we make when we stop making kids?- Flying from Paris, where she has been living since the death of her father many years before, to New York brings her closer to her estranged family, and something is nagging at her soothsaying abilities. Very much against the wishes of Mammoth, she cannot help put predict a return to human touch, a -turning against tech.- This is also in direct opposition to the beliefs of her life partner, Roman, a neo-sensualist who has his own prediction: that nonpenetrative, nontactile sex--i.e. a sex life lived online--is the future of sexuality. He has begun, more and more, to wear a Zentai suit, which covers his entire body in a thin layer of Lycra and fetishizes detachment by making true skin-to-skin touch impossible. This discord allows Sloane the space to fall for another Mammoth employee who agrees with her about the return of physical contact and demonstrates his support corporeally. It also allows her to reconnect with her family. While the novel is highly engaging in its representation of the confusing and addictive tech-oriented world we live in, the outcome is predictable and obvious and made more quixotic by a last-ditch dive into the mystical. The exploration Maum (I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, 2014, etc.) is conducting in this book, of human vs. machine, is best served not in the overreaching discussion of global trends but in the more nuanced moments in which Sloane aches to sort out her own feelings. An uncomplicated novel about the complicated relationship between humans and the tech-heavy world.

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May 1, 2017

Renowned trend forecaster Sloane realizes that she cannot foretell her own future. A powerful woman with the uncanny ability to predict future trends, most notably the touch-screen swipe, Sloane has been hired by tech giant Mammoth to oversee its annual summit. This year's theme: ReProduction: "What will we make when we stop making kids?" Sloane, in a ten-year childless relationship, seems to be the perfect figurehead. Yet she foresees a backlash against technology and a desire for human interaction. Mammoth employees eagerly adopt her "new" ideas of leaving cell phones outside meetings and using a suggestion box. Instead of looking toward a future of empathy robots, people seek simple human interactions. Sloane herself craves the comfort of the family she pushed away as she deals with her Zentai-clad "neosensualist" partner Roman and his New York Times article on the end of penetrative sex. VERDICT Maum (I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You) perfectly captures the zeitgeist of our era as technology battles with humanity. Her thought-provoking, humorous book will inspire readers to forgo the electronics and get back to basics as simple as human touch.--Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2017
In Maum's second novel (following I Am Having So Much Fun Here without You, 2014)a work of zealous social critique laced with sexy romantic comedy and a just-in-the-nick-of-time family reconciliationtrend forecaster Sloane has channeled her mysterious prognostic gifts into a flashy career in Paris, supplemented by her PR-perfect relationship with Roman, a French intellectual turned social-media star. But their love life has gone moribund as Roman strides around in skintight, head-to-toe body suits like an escaped avatar, declaring that cybersex is far superior to the fleshy sort. Desperate for a change and closer proximity to her mother and sister, Sloane signs on at Mammoth, a showy New York tech corporation, where Dax, the viciously ambitious CEO, expects her to initiate luxury electronics for wealthy hipsters without children. When Sloane senses, instead, that what people really want is less screen time and more human-to-human contact, Dax retaliates by setting up a high-stakes show-off between pro-touch Sloane and pro-tech Roman. With a weirdly nurturing driverless car, a family emergency, a sexy art director, and wrenching and hilarious confrontations and meltdowns, Maum's incisive, charming, and funny novel ebulliently champions the healing powers of touch, the living world, and love in all its crazy risks, surprises, and sustaining radiance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)