I appreciate that the author didn't make this a typical story where you're meant to laugh at the person coming to another country and learning about it. There was sympathy and it was lovely and still funny and moving. But. The last line of the book seems to have turned everything backward, and I don't know what to make of it as it doesn't seem fit with the rest of the mood. It could either be brutally realistic and not giving me a happy ending, or... something else, I guess, but in my mind that's a very unhappy ending that undoes all the discovery the character had and reduces it to nothing more than a dream-like experience, soon to be forgotten. ( )

Before you read Kapitoil, you should be aware of an earlier book that Teddy Wayne must surely have used as a point of inspiration: Montesquieu's The Persian Letters (1721). Montesquieu's novel consists of a series of letters written by two Persian noblemen, Usbek and Rica, who leave their home country in order to visit Paris. In satirical detail, the letters describe the paradoxes and irrational customs of French society.

Kapitoil tells the story of Karim Issar, a computer programmer from Qatar who is hired by a company in New York City to help deal with the Y2K bug. He arrives there in October 1999, a time that pointedly pre-dates both the new millennium and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Karim Issar works with a team consisting of Jefferson (who is obsessed with Japanese culture), Dan, and Rebecca Goldman. We also learn that Karim has ambitions for his younger sister, Zahira, since their mother died while giving birth to her.

In his spare time, Karim develops a computer program that trades on futures so successfully that he is able to generate potentially large profits with it. Eventually this program, Kapitoil, comes to the attention of Derek Schrub, the owner of the company for which Karim works. After further testing, Schrub tries to ingratiate himself with Karim to get him to sign over the program's code, but Karim resists. In the meantime, Karim becomes close to Rebecca, and they eventually start a relationship.

Teddy Wayne is a master of writing in a deceptively simple style, one that builds its complexity by weaving a pattern of resonances and echoes to what has been said before. In both this novel and his later work, Loner (2016), he places a male character who seems emotionally flat, almost robotic. Whereas David Federman in Loner belongs in the American Psycho mould, Karim is a character to which the reader gradually warms. He is rational and pedantic, but he also lives by a clear ethical code that shows up the alienating selfishness of American pragmatism and transactional relationships.

I came very close to giving Kapitoil five stars, but it falls just short in one way. Whereas Loner uses the prism of a single character, David, to make its diagnosis of a toxic masculinity, the (admittedly minor) fault with Kapitoil is that the goodness of the main character, Karim, does not extend from the individual into the particular. Yes, he is an unexpectedly good character, and he does show up the problems of the American system, but Karim can hardly be a blueprint for future behavior. That said, Kapitoil was a truly engaging and enjoyable read, and I like forward to catching up next on Wayne's The Love Song of Jonny Valentine. ( )

Wow. I loved this book because the character and voice of Karim are pitch-perfect. And Wayne nailed the ending. I'm very, very impressed, and I will definitely be looking for anything Wayne writes in the future. ( )

Wow. I loved this book because the character and voice of Karim are pitch-perfect. And Wayne nailed the ending. I'm very, very impressed, and I will definitely be looking for anything Wayne writes in the future. ( )

La crítica estadounidense ha considerado que esta historia sobre un joven qatarí que aterriza en EEUU en 1999 es la definitiva para explicar los atentados de las Torres Gemelas y la crisis posterior. Su autor es Teddy Wayne, un neoyorkino crítico con la política capitalista e imperialista de su país, que ha formado parte del movimiento Occupy Wall Street