Red Pill

A novel

By: Hari Kunzru

Narrated by: Hari Kunzru

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2020
ONE OF NPR's BEST BOOKS OF 2020
ONE OF THE A.V. CLUB'S 15 FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2020

From the widely acclaimed author of White Tears, a bold new novel about searching for order in a world that frames madness as truth.

After receiving a prestigious writing fellowship in Germany, the narrator of Red Pill arrives in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee and struggles to accomplish anything at all. Instead of working on the book he has proposed to write, he takes long walks and binge-watches Blue Lives--a violent cop show that becomes weirdly compelling in its bleak, Darwinian view of life--and soon begins to wonder if his writing has any value at all.

Wannsee is a place full of ghosts: Across the lake, the narrator can see the villa where the Nazis planned the Final Solution, and in his walks he passes the grave of the Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist, who killed himself after deciding that "no happiness was possible here on earth." When some friends drag him to a party where he meets Anton, the creator of Blue Lives, the narrator begins to believe that the two of them are involved in a cosmic battle, and that Anton is "red-pilling" his viewers--turning them toward an ugly, alt-rightish worldview--ultimately forcing the narrator to wonder if he is losing his mind.

Great insightful read

This book captures the very essence of how our society is breaking along familiar fault lines.

Pill hard to swallow

A writer dives into the deep recesses of his soul, though involuntarily, as he tries to makes sense of the world and the people inhabiting it. He may or may not succeed. Some days are better than the others. Don't you feel the same way?

Paranoia justified

Completely by coincidence (?) I finished this book today, November 5th, right before Biden wins the election. What an odd book from one of my favorite authors. The story is all over the place and at times exasperating, but I suppose it's more about the feeling of existential dread that this whole country (at least 51% percent of it anyway) has been living through the past 4 years, and in that way, I found the whole book cathartic, parts of it an engrossing read, and parts of it confusing and overly intellectual. As usual for this author's works, I could never guess the plot or see what was coming next, which I find gratifying, and the author's reading was superb.

To Sum Our Post Post Modern Malaise

An expertly drawn repair manual for post modern malaise.
A surprisingly heartwarming human search for solid footing in our new world order.
Narcissist autocrats thrive whilst the facade of comfortable existence goes to Hell in a hand-basket.

Kunzru outlines a hauntingly hollow paint-by-number menagerie, and then colors that fascist kitten in the corner with a bright red crayon.

Whether one chooses the red pill or not — should predict one’s suffering, anxiety, even strategy.

Red Pill is succinct, elegant, and forceful — Less concerned with why, or how, but with historic precedence, and the pieces & connections which may remain.

“Red Pill” elegantly tugs the threads of Anthony Burgess’s dystopian masterpiece “A Clockwork Orange”. Poignant perhaps, if you too find yourself screaming into the void, where those who still care quietly languish.

A strange book that I wanted to put down, but couldn’t.

A strange, oddly depressing book. I could never quite see where it was headed, but once into it I just couldn’t put it down.