In Courtney Maum’s novel Touch, the protagonist, Sloane Jacobsen, is a highly regarded and world reknowned trend forecaster. She uses her intuition to predict trends that will become huge and she’s very well-compensated for knowing which trends will become popular and affect our lives . For instance, she forecasted the concept of “swiping.” Sloane left Paris soon after her father died when she was very young, and she’s pretty somewhat estranged from her mother and her sister, Leila.
But as Touch begins, Sloane is back in the states, and she’s brought her French boyfriend, Roman, along. Sloane has been hired by New York City based tech giant, Mammoth by its CEO Daxter. Daxter, or Dax as he is often called, has hired Sloane to consult Mammoth on an upcoming conference where they will promote the idea of immersing oneself fully into technology and abandoning the idea of human touch.
However, Sloane finds herself swerving away from Mammoth’s mission. Sloane is envisioning a future where people will want genuine human interaction, touch, and empathy towards others. Dax is appalled, and he comes up with the idea of hiring Sloane’s boyfriend, Roman, as a consultant. Roman’s views align with Mammoth’s ideas of non-touching and fully immersing into high tech. Roman is also a proponent of non-penetrative sex (he and Sloane haven’t had sex in nearly two years) and the idea of anti-natalism, not having children. Plus, he wrote a an op-ed for the New York Times promoting non-penetrative sex and it went viral. And as we know, any idea that goes viral is considered good if that idea is completely bonkers.
Sloane is appalled. And she’s beginning to question many choices she’s made in her life. She wonders why she’s spent such a long time with Roman, especially considering he seems more interesting wearing a Zentai suit (google Zentai suit if you must know) than being intimate with her. And Sloane also regrets leaving her mother and her sister after the tragic death of her father. She hopes to make amends with both of them and regain a connection, especially considering her sister is pregnant with her third child.
The concept of Touch was quite interesting. It gave me some insight on the concept of trend forecasting and the work that goes into it. And I had to laugh over the addiction many of us have to our tech devices. I must admit my smart phone is never far away.
But I also liked Sloane believing actual human connection is imperative and is what people will want in the near future. Though technology has in some aspects made our lives better, we are social creatures (yes, even us introverts), and we desire to make connections to our fellow human beings. Though in Touch, one of Sloane’s best relationships was with Anastasia, an Alexa like component of the driverless car that gets Sloane from point A to point B.
And then there is Mammoth and it’s CEO Dax, which hits on every stereotype of tech culture and tech companies. I think Maum was trying to be satirical in writing about Mammoth, but something about it just left me kind of depressed. I felt many of the employees, and especially Dax, were just shallow and solipsistic, not open to any new ideas. But Maum is spot on when it comes to portraying as the high tech douche bro. She gets it.
For the most part, I like Touch. It is well-written and kept my interest. But it ended quite predictably when Sloane is about to take a test, and I don’t mean an eye test. Perhaps, Sloane is somewhere living off the grid, homeschooling her children, and now denouncing the childfree and the idea of women having careers. Heck. I’ve seen it happen.
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