The Stochastic Man

Lew Nichols is a talented statistician, so talented in fact that he can use otherwise stochastic data combined with an uncanny knack for foresight to accurately predict future trends. He parlays this success into a job working for an upstart politician, eventually helping to elect him mayor of New York City. It is here that Lew meets Martin Carvajal, an old man with an ability that surpass Lew's. Caravjal can accurately predict specific future events down to the date and time. This ability scares Lew, but it also tempts him down a path that jeopardizes his entire life. The Stochastic Man is short, sweet, and questions our free will to change the events of our own lives as well as the course of history.

The story is set in the backdrop of New York City at the turn of the new millennium of 2000. Silverberg's pessimistic vision of a city wracked by extreme class/racial tension, assassinations, political vacuums, and barely sublimated violence is deftly drawn and prophetic. Silverberg spends just enough time on world building to give you the sense of things without bogging down the plot. A particularly memorable example is the casual mention of the "stump" of the Statue of Liberty after some bombing, and a refusal of the social elite to acknowledge it at a party. He also gives enough space for proper character development, so that by the end of the novel I felt that I actually knew the people involved. There were some moments of cringy descriptions of women which is something that I've come to expect from Silverberg, though I will say that here they are few and far between.

Another example of Silverberg's writing skill is the ease with which he writes. The reading experience is buttery smooth. I could've finished the entire book in one sitting. I was hooked immediately in the first few chapters. Silverberg strings the mystery of the story along with just the right amount of suspense and payoff to keep me turning the pages. The prose is so damn competent it hurts. There are some distinct passages of more adorned description, but most of the time he stays within a more practical and consumable style.

Both the plot and themes of The Stochastic Man would not be out of place in the oeuvre of Phillip K Dick. I can see in my mind's eye how that story plays out, and it's so different than this one. This could be a mind-bending, LSD infused trip, but Silverberg chooses to bound the scope of the work to it's own benefit. It's a work critical of the alienation and difference of experience that exists between the levels of social and economic class. There's a particularly powerful scene when Lew recognizes that distance and the privilege he has as he stares out of his penthouse window with his wife. The entire book is spent with people who belong to the highest tiers of class, and yet the desperation of the masses is felt everywhere. It's also a work that looks at the space in between determinism and complete free will., as Lew is torn in two by his mentor and the religion of his wife. It's the inner torment of Lew as he grapples with these themes that is the focus of the book.

The Stochastic Man didn't blow my socks off. There's no specific moment that I can point to that stands above and beyond. The ideas that it plays with have been explored before, and will be explored again. Yet in spite of that it's a rock solid piece of craftsmanship that I ripped through like kindling. Silverberg shows his years of experience writing, making for a well rounded and engaging novel that doesn't have any major issues. I'm still waiting to read a masterpiece from Silverberg, but I know that it must exist.