Impostor Syndrome: A Novel
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)
A sharp and prescient novel about women in the workplace, the power of Big Tech, and the looming threat of foreign espionage from Kathy Wang, "a skilled satirist of the northern California dream" (Harper's Bazaar)
In 2006 Julia Lerner is living in Moscow, a recent university graduate in computer science, when she's recruited by Russia's largest intelligence agency. By 2018 she's in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America's most famous technology companies. In between her executive management (make offers to promising startups, crush them and copy their features if they refuse); self promotion (check out her latest op-ed in the WSJ, on Work/Life Balance 2.0); and work in gender equality (transfer the most annoying females from her team), she funnels intelligence back to the motherland. But now Russia's asking for more, and Julia's getting nervous.
Alice Lu is a first generation Chinese American whose parents are delighted she's working at Tangerine (such a successful company!). Too bad she's slogging away in the lower echelons, recently dumped, and now sharing her expensive two-bedroom apartment with her cousin Cheri, a perennial "founder's girlfriend". One afternoon, while performing a server check, Alice discovers some unusual activity, and now she's burdened with two powerful but distressing suspicions: Tangerine's privacy settings aren't as rigorous as the company claims they are, and the person abusing this loophole might be Julia Lerner herself.
The closer Alice gets to Julia, the more Julia questions her own loyalties. Russia may have placed her in the Valley, but she's the one who built her career; isn't she entitled to protect the lifestyle she's earned? Part page-turning cat-and-mouse chase, part sharp and hilarious satire, Impostor Syndrome is a shrewdly-observed examination of women in tech, Silicon Valley hubris, and the rarely fulfilled but ever-attractive promise of the American Dream.
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Kathy Wang. (2021). Impostor Syndrome: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Kathy Wang. 2021. Impostor Syndrome: A Novel. HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Kathy Wang, Impostor Syndrome: A Novel. HarperAudio, 2021.
MLA Citation (style guide)Kathy Wang. Impostor Syndrome: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio, 2021.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 10 | 9 |
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A sharp and prescient novel about women in the workplace, the power of Big Tech, and the looming threat of foreign espionage from Kathy Wang, "a skilled satirist of the northern California dream" (Harper's Bazaar)
In 2006 Julia Lerner is living in Moscow, a recent university graduate in computer science, when she's recruited by Russia's largest intelligence agency. By 2018 she's in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America's most famous technology companies. In between her executive management (make offers to promising startups, crush them and copy their features if they refuse); self promotion (check out her latest op-ed in the WSJ, on Work/Life Balance 2.0); and work in gender equality (transfer the most annoying females from her team), she funnels intelligence back to the motherland. But now Russia's asking for more, and Julia's getting nervous.
Alice Lu is a first generation Chinese American whose parents are delighted she's working at Tangerine (such a successful company!). Too bad she's slogging away in the lower echelons, recently dumped, and now sharing her expensive two-bedroom apartment with her cousin Cheri, a perennial "founder's girlfriend". One afternoon, while performing a server check, Alice discovers some unusual activity, and now she's burdened with two powerful but distressing suspicions: Tangerine's privacy settings aren't as rigorous as the company claims they are, and the person abusing this loophole might be Julia Lerner herself.
The closer Alice gets to Julia, the more Julia questions her own loyalties. Russia may have placed her in the Valley, but she's the one who built her career; isn't she entitled to protect the lifestyle she's earned? Part page-turning cat-and-mouse chase, part sharp and hilarious satire, Impostor Syndrome is a shrewdly-observed examination of women in tech, Silicon Valley hubris, and the rarely fulfilled but ever-attractive promise of the American Dream.
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April 5, 2021
Wang (Family Trust) leavens this glossy tale of corporate espionage with savvy takes on cultural assimilation in contemporary America. Julia Lerner, plucked from a Russian orphanage by intelligence agent Leo Guskov, has been groomed to infiltrate Silicon Valley social media giant Tangerine. Julia’s rise to COO—a position that gives her access to sensitive data on Tangerine’s billions of users—sounds an alarm for Alice Lu, a Chinese American member of Tangerine’s staff, who is mortified to discover that a data breach she flags in the company’s system is linked to Julia’s private account. Julia and Alice’s pas de deux drives the plot and gives Wang ample space to reflect on modern corporate attitudes toward gender, ethnicity, and the American dream’s appeal to socially disadvantaged members of minority groups and to foreign nationals who, in this case, work to undermine the very country whose values and opportunities they are eager to embrace (in their own ways, Julia and Leo develop a preference for the possibilities that America has to offer). The story builds to a number of dramatic moments that happen offstage, somewhat diminishing the dramatic impact, but Wang’s depictions of office politics and geopolitical dynamics are spot-on. This offers plenty of grist for reader rumination. Agent: Michelle Brower, Aevitas Creative Management
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June 4, 2021
This latest from Wang (Family Trust) takes the spy novel into Silicon Valley, with mixed results. Having been placed in an orphanage by her widowed mother, Julia Lerner is hand-picked by Leo Guskov of Russia's State Protection Bureau for the express purpose of infiltrating an American tech giant. Leo's plan succeeds, as Julia rises to COO of Tangerine (an all-knowing behemoth with Google-esque capabilities to addict users and track their behavior) with a hapless husband and tiring baby in tow for appearances' sake. Julia comes to embrace her prominent role, her family, and her American-ness, frustrating Leo. Julia's clandestine data breaches spark the interest of Alice Lu, a Tangerine worker bee who isn't sure why the head of her company is being flagged during a routine server checkup and is less sure how hard she should try to find out. Wang's novel is at its penetrating best during these chapters, with trenchant observations on cultural assimilation and the role of women in the tech economy. The tradecraft is less compelling, playing out in a predictable way. VERDICT A smart character study for fans of Dave Eggers's The Circle looking for a different perspective.--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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A sharp and prescient novel about women in the workplace, the power of Big Tech, and the looming threat of foreign espionage from Kathy Wang, "a skilled satirist of the northern California dream" (Harper's Bazaar)
In 2006 Julia Lerner is living in Moscow, a recent university graduate in computer science, when she's recruited by Russia's largest intelligence agency. By 2018 she's in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America's most famous technology companies. In between her executive management (make offers to promising startups, crush them and copy their features if they refuse); self promotion (check out her latest op-ed in the WSJ, on Work/Life Balance 2.0); and work in gender equality (transfer the most annoying females from her team), she funnels intelligence back to the motherland. But now Russia's asking for more, and Julia's getting nervous.
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