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Eastern standard tribe
240 pages
A manic, tech-fueled satire of digital tribalism and corporate espionage told from inside a psychiatric ward.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being plugged directly into the frenetic, caffeine-addled brain of an early-2000s tech consultant. It is a propulsive, jargon-laced fever dream that perfectly captures the paranoia and absurdity of hyper-connectivity. The narrative bounces between sharp, scathing satire of corporate bureaucracy and a deeply unreliable, claustrophobic descent into madness, keeping you constantly off-balance. The prose is sharp and witty, dripping with the cynical vernacular of internet culture and digital tribalism. It is a story that wraps you in a surreal, hyper-connected atmosphere where the lines between community, conspiracy, and delusion blur completely. This is a perfect read for tech-savvy cynics who delight in fast-paced, slightly unhinged explorations of how technology reshapes human loyalty and identity.
- Mood
- frenetic
- paranoid
- hyper-connected
- surreal
- Tone
- satirical
- manic
- cynical
- witty
- scathing
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- digital tribalism · technological alienation · absurdity of bureaucracy · illusion of community · madness and reality
- The writing
- Sharp, jargon-heavy, and relentlessly fast-paced, infused with the cynical vernacular of early-2000s tech culture.
- The arc
- Moves from a state of manic, paranoid certainty into a chaotic unraveling of trust, identity, and reality.
- Who it's for
- Tech-savvy cynics and fans of cyberpunk satire who love exploring the absurdities of corporate culture and digital communities.
Content notes
- mental institutionalization
- paranoia
- gaslighting
- betrayal
About the book
Art is a member of the Eastern Standard Tribe, a secret society bound together by a sleep schedule. Around the world, those who wake and sleep on East Coast time find common cause with one another, cooperating, conspiring, to help each other out, coordinated by a global network of Wi-Fi, instant messaging, ubiquitous computing, and a shared love of Manhattan-style bagels. Or perhaps not. Art is, after all, in the nuthouse. He was put there by a conspiracy of his friends and loved ones, fellow travelers from EST hidden in the bowels of Greenwich Mean Time, spies masquerading as management consultants who strive to mire Europe in oatmeal-thick bureaucracy. Eastern Standard Tribe is a story of madness and betrayal, of society after the End of Geography, of the intangible factors that define us as a species, as a tribe, as individuals. Scathing, bitter, and funny, EST examines the immutable truths of time, of sunrise and sunset of societies smashed and rebuilt in the storm of instant, ubiquitous communication.
Description from Open Library.
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