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Little Eyes

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Member Reviews

I chose this as a book club read for my library's book club. I love Samanta Schweblin and will read everything she writes for life! The book club members thought it was pretty weird but mostly enjoyed it. Weird is why I love it!

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In Samanta Schweblin’s latest book, Little Eyes, characters occasionally ask point-blank, “What is this book about?” The answer is easy enough to grasp at; the novel is about a world obsessed with a gadget called the “kentuki,” the robot you might get if you mixed Amazon Alexa with a Furby, sprinkling in some inspiration from anonymous chat websites like Omegle.

Schweblin’s kentukis are different from your average household technology in one major way, however: with these robots, you don’t have to be paranoid about a potential lapse in privacy. You know for a fact that there’s someone on the other side of your robot, watching and listening to everything you’re doing in real time. Actually, somehow, that’s the whole appeal of it!

The book follows a handful of human characters and their relationships to these robots. Some are “dwellers,” using their computers to control the kentuki they were randomly assigned, watching and attending to their keeper who could live anywhere on the globe. The “keepers” have gone out and bought these toys, shelling out almost $300 for a stuffed crow, bunny, dragon or mole that is marketed as a cute companion, but essentially exists to be a surveillance device.

The novel lays out a convincing case for why one would want to inhabit a kentuki. Marvin, one of the novel’s most endearing characters, is a young man living in Antigua, Guatemala. At the beginning of the book, he buys a kentuki connection that allows him to virtually embody a dragon that lives in Norway. He sees it as an escape from his life in Guatemala, where his mother has died, his father is always on him about something, and he’s behind in school. At first, Marvin is just excited to see snow through the eyes of his dragon – he’s never seen it before. As time passes, Marvin grows increasingly – alarmingly – attached to his form as a kentuki.

Another dweller, Grigor in Croatia, sees money in selling ideal kentuki connections to people who’d rather not be surprised by where they end up. He sees embodying a robot as a way to be a virtual tourist, to live somewhere else from the comfort of your own home.

“There were people willing to shell out a fortune so they could spend a few hours a day living in poverty, and there were people who paid to be tourists without leaving their houses: to travel through India without a single day of diarrhea, or to witness the arctic winter barefoot and in pajamas,” goes Grigor’s marketing pitch.

That’s all reasonable, though I wonder if people could quench their travel bugs just the same by zooming around on Google Earth. Perhaps there is some added weight to being tethered to a physical object that someone else bought and is relying on.

That brings us to the kentuki keepers, though, whose existence is a lot harder to understand. At one point toward the middle of the novel, one of the “keeper” characters, Alina, is trying to explain the phenomenon to her mother.

“It’s a cell phone with legs, mom,” Alina says of her kentuki, a crow she named Colonel Sanders.

“And what are you supposed to do with it, then?” her mother asks. Alina can’t answer, because she doesn’t know.

Another one of the keepers, Enzo, initially bought his kentuki mole, “Mister,” for his son, upon the recommendations of his ex-wife and their psychiatrist. But his son, Luca, ends up hating the robot, and Enzo takes a strong liking to it, refusing to give it up even after his wife tells him that she doesn’t want the mole around their child anymore. It’s dangerous, she decides.

It’s not clear why the keepers like their kentukis. They don’t really help them with anything, like playing music or setting alarms. They can’t talk, so if the keeper and the dweller end up finding a way to communicate with each other as human beings, as the relationships often go, they have to move to a different platform to do it. Unless you are an exhibitionist who is more than completely laissez-faire about giving a complete stranger visual and aural access to your home, Schweblin doesn’t give any reason for you wanting to own a kentuki at all.

Of course, we all know that we’re being watched, with Facebook ads and algorithms that read our minds, telling us what we want before we’ve fully acknowledged that we want it. But unlike in real life, in Little Eyes, no larger system benefits from the kentukis’ inherent breach of privacy, and the individual in possession of the robot doesn’t receive even the illusion of authentic benefit from it.

Schweblin’s series of vignettes, originally published in Spanish in 2018 as simply Kentukis, is fascinating as a character study, and the novel’s subplots can be deliciously weird and thought-provoking. But Schweblin openly ponders the meaning of her own book too often for readers to ignore the holes, and as the book fizzles to an ending, its related subplots still unconnected, we’re left unsatisfied.

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Downloaded this title for my work as a marketer for Penguin Random House, will not be posting my review publicly.

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I didn’t love this one, unfortunately. Great premise, but the execution just wasn’t for me. Great cover, which looked wonderful on my Instagram feed, and people seem very interested in reading it.

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This book reads like a collection of short stories despite not technically being a collection of short stories. It's many stories intertwined, from people all over the world who are using devices that either let you monitor someone else's life or let your own life be monitored. As you can imagine, relative chaos ensues, and the reader is left with yet another thoughtful commentary on what it means for technology to take over our lives.

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"Dwelling in a kentuki, thought Alina, was a much more intense experience. If being anonymous online was the maximum freedom for any user-and, what's more, almost impossible-how would it feel, then to be an anonymous actor in someone else's life?” Kentuki's, animal-like toy robots operated by humans, referred to as "dwellers", are at the center of the world in Samantha Schweblin's newest book LITTLE EYES. Told through varying characters, some that are "dwellers" and others that are "keepers" of these new gadgets, storylines unfold in slow disturbing ways which provoke the reader to think about all the ways in which technology can mold or expose us.

Unlike FEVER DREAM, one of Samantha Schweblin's previous books, the suspension, and tension I expected in her writing shifted for me to an eerie thought-provoking interrogation of the Reader. I kept asking myself three big questions: how do I define loneliness? how do I define connection? And most importantly how does technology play into those definitions? Typical of any Schweblin book I have read, I had so many questions after reading it. So many questions about things I didn't question before. For this reason, I would always define Schweblin's work as haunting and unnerving, making ghost stories a thing of the past to fear, and in its place instead, the true daily horrors of the world around us.

This book is out today and I hope anyone who gets to read it, will DM with their thoughts on it because I am absolutely sure every Reader will leave this story with a different take on it.

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Well-written and a fascinating concept- what if there were real people living behind our smart devices and watching us. I was expecting more in terms of story archs... The book reads like a collection of short stories. We visit a few characters in multiple chapters but there is not much in terms of conclusion and narrative.

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The first story really set this collection off but the rest of the stories that we follow throughout the book didn't give as much punch as I was expecting. The writing itself is always engaging and I enjoyed the wide cast of characters Schweblin created throughout.

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I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

I think this is such an interesting premise, and appreciate the structure of the novel. I laughed out loud after reading the very first sentence.

If you want to survive in South Bend, she'd heard the girls say once, you have to make friends with the strong.-1

There was also so much tenderness and desperation that transpired between the kentuki and their human companion/host/counterpart…

He moved forward; she bobbed in the wake he left behind trying not to let him get away.-49

A fun escapist read.

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Little Eyes is a thought-provoking look at how today's technology can allow a digital intimacy we might not be comfortable with in the analog world. The story centers around toys that contain cameras. People can either chose to own the toy and be watched, or they can control the creature and watch from the toy's point of view. The stories of the "keepers" and the "dwellers" are disturbing, darkly humorous and quite unique. Participants can live anywhere and be any age, ethnicity, gender, etc. which adds a lot of depth to the stories. The various points of view and the story development make it difficult to put this book down. As a matter of fact, many times I felt as though I was a voyeur, just like the characters in the novel. And this realization made me uncomfortable. It also made me question how I approach internet content and the level of access strangers have to our personal lives. An excellent book for those interested in the psychology of technology.

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I didn't finish this.
I just couldn't get into it. Which makes me sad! Because the prose was great! The story idea is fantastic!

But I'm also a Scifi fan. I know the tropes.

HOWEVER

I would recommend to my patrons, and to my co-workers. Because it's super approachable to the non-science fiction readers.

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Fun speculative fiction that basically just confirms my worst fears of Alexa and Google Home, etc. It wasn't as exciting to me as Schweblin's previous books, but was still a fun read.

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LITTLE EYES
Samanta Schweblin; translated by Megan McDowell
Riverhead Books
ISBN 9780525541363
Hardcover
Dystopian Fiction

I just read a most remarkable book --- what I would call an instant classic --- titled LITTLE LIES by Samanta Schweblin (made possible by a very wonderful translation by Megan McDowell). It is not Schweblin’s first novel. I have not read her others, though I will correct that error/omission as quickly as possible. LITTLE LIES is a book which cuts across genres and leaves them in shambles while utilizing a unique storytelling structure to keep the pages turning, and quickly.

A little background is necessary. LITTLE EYES is set in our immediate future. Schweblin drops the reader into a time where a new product (toy? device?) has been introduced into the marketplace for a long enough period that its name --- kentuki --- has entered the common lexicon on a worldwide basis. The kentuki as described by Schweblin is arguably most similar in function to a Tamagotchi, an egg-shaped digital “pet” that first became popular in the late twentieth century. A Tamagotchi is about the size of a key fob and requires the owner to “care” for it by digitally performing functions such as feeding it. The kentuki, as we quickly learn, is a bit more complex than that. The kentuki comes in various animal shapes, each of which is fitted with rollers for movement, and interacts with its keeper. What is that, exactly? Folks who buy into this can choose to be either a “keeper” or a “dweller.” A keeper buys the unit and charges it up, at which point the kentuki connects wirelessly with a central server which links with someone (unknown) who is somewhere else (location unknown) and has chosen to become a kentuki dweller. The dweller can see the keeper through the kentuki’s eyes. If the kentuki loses the connection... that’s all, folks. One has to buy a new one. They are not inexpensive, all things considered, but they become immensely popular. A kentuki for a keeper becomes something that is almost a pet, a child, a companion, or something else. For a dweller, it can be a vehicle, as we see in LITTLE EYES, for an ongoing voyeuristic experience, infidelity, a vacation, or all sorts of other things.

The individual stories in LITTLE EYES describe the various possibilities that can arise from such a relationship between the keeper and their kentuki as well as between keeper and dweller. The keeper and dweller are anonymous to each other, and thus almost naturally become curious about with whom they are paired. Some of the stories connect intermittently throughout the book, such as a tale wherein an artist and his paramour use the kentuki as a weapon of sorts against each other, or another where an unlikely virtual threesome develops. Other stories, such as the shocking cautionary tale which opens LITTLE EYES, stand alone. My favorite of the latter type of story concerns a mother who gives in to a near meltdown tantrum and buys her young daughters a kentuki to share. All is well until they get home and charge the thing up. If Netflix doesn’t use that story for its Black Mirror anthology it is missing a sure bet.

What Schweblin describes is happening now. Folks become so attached to their smartphones that they can’t let go of them. Different companies have household devices that their owners interact with on a number of levels, from programming tasks to home security. These objects store information, from recordings of conversation to comings and goings. In some cases, the device “knows” more about their owner than a close family member does. The most remarkable thing about LITTLE EYES for me, however --- beyond Schweblin’s prescient extrapolation of where we are headed as a gadget-controlled society --- is the manner in which Schweblin, nightmarish stories notwithstanding, infuses the kentuki with enough personality that it is difficult for the reader not to want one, notwithstanding the implicit warning label which is imprinted in each of the vignettes from which LITTLE EYES is constructed. For that reason, as well as the others which I have noted, LITTLE EYES may well be the book that everyone is reading and talking about as we enter an uncertain summer. Very strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2020, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Little Eyes is even more disturbing (in a good way) than Fever Dream. Schweblin's story points out current global anxieties that will really get under your skin. The first chapter was so perfect in the absolute horror of it and it set the tone for the whole story. The rest just flew by and I couldn't put it down. I will definitely be recommending this to friends who enjoy creepy reads and literary fiction.

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From 2017 Man Booker International Prize finalist and Shirley Jackson Prize winner Samanta Schweblin comes her second novel, a disquieting work of speculative fiction that is more insidious than the blunt-force nihilism in "Black Mirror." In it, Schweblin examines how the devices we invite into our homes — no matter how seemingly innocuous — can poison how humans behave.

Set in our world, "Little Eyes" introduces the cute kentukis, stuffed animal-like electronic creatures akin to Furbys, but with camera-lens eyes and a soul on the other end. One can be an owner, aka "keeper" of a kentuki — for companionship, as a pet, to help with limited chores – or one can be an anonymous "dweller" and connect on the other end to make the kentuki move and respond. Why a person would want a stranger to be able to enter their home, albeit in a limited felt-encased three-wheeled robot, is baffling. Nevertheless, the critters have gone global, infiltrating lives from Hong Kong, Italy, Brazil, the United States, Mexico, and beyond.

Through the interwoven tale of multiple keepers and dwellers, Schweblin demonstrates an uncanny ability to extrapolate on a global scale how different members of society would react to the innovation. Yes, there are the expected breaches of privacy, some blackmail, and even the inevitable star-crossed lovers. The novel briefly nods to these more obvious storylines before twisting them, blowing past them, and then digging deeper into the stygian recesses of human nature.

Schweblin is a master of pacing as she slowly trains the reader on what a kentuki can do, much like how a new keeper and dweller must learn how to communicate and cohabitate. But as each new storyline is introduced and developed, the reader is pulled into the drama of the Peruvian woman who is poised to save her keeper from a no-good lover, or the neglected girlfriend who begins to torture her kentuki, or the young Antiguan boy who will finally achieve his dream of experiencing snow. Schweblin builds tension and suspense, and ultimately a bleak acceptance of inescapable dread.

Underlying these adventures is an uncanny insight into how people rely on and build a relationship with technology that dovetails with identity in a toxic way. In the real world, we're already taught to distrust our devices — our phones that are always listening, our laptop cameras that are always observing, our home assistants that are always learning — but convenience and ubiquity mitigate our suspicions.

Schweblin's clear and brisk language, aided by a seemingly effortless translation from Spanish by Megan McDowell, drives home the accessibility of this outlandish story. "Little Eyes" is strange and addictive, an experience made even more frightening by how familiar this feels.

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Samanta Schweblin's Little Eyes a quite, character driven novel that creeps up on you. It sits in your brain and makes you consider things you might not have before. Many of those things are very small and personal. It's a slow but fascinating look at the overlap of technology and the human desire for connection

Little Eyes has a speculative-lite premise, focusing on several narratives as the world gets caught up in the latest tech craze: Kentukis. Kentukis are small robotic stuffed animals that can be bought and kept in the home like a pet. The catch is that the robots are independently and anonymously operated by strangers who buy codes/connections to "dwell" in the Kentukis (via tablet, phone, or computer) and thus, in other people's homes. You are either a "dweller", someone who buys a connection to be paired with a Kentuki and remotely control a robot somewhere else in the world, or a "keeper", someone who buys the little robot and keeps it as a pet. The narratives focus on both "dwellers" and "keepers," and, not to give too big of a spoiler, it doesn't go too well for either set.

Schweblin is making some very interesting observations, one of which is surely about human loneliness and humanity as it collides with modern technology. Little Eyes reveals the commonness of being alone and the sadness of seeking connection. Something I really appreciated from Schweblin was this mundanity. And while people do find their lives changing in small and sometimes impactful ways, but changes are incredible personal.

Little Eyes is not what I was expecting from Schweblin, but her beautiful writing and thoughtful character work are worth the read alone.

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This book was a rollercoaster for me. A short rollercoaster, but one nevertheless. It started with a bang. A quick shocking tale. And then it wove around a little. Occasionally becoming repetitive. I fixed that by changing the way that I was reading it, but more on that in a second.

Little Eyes was like a long episode of Black Mirror. Technology gone awry, sometimes. Kentukis are all the rage. This is a small remote controlled egg shaped "animal that people are buying for their homes. The remote part is REALLY remote. One person buys the robot and becomes the "keeper". Another person buys a code and becomes a "dweller". The two are randomly synched from anywhere in the world. Often the two do not even speak the same language.

A keeper has no control over a kentuki. They turn it on and the the "dweller" controls it, including when it is awake and asleep. The person controlling the robot cannot speak. They can make random noises, but that is it. They can see and hear whatever is going on in the keeper's home. What could possibly go wrong?

The book is more of a collection of tales about different people either being keepers or dwellers. How does one make that decision? What kind of person would be either? Why would people do this? It's all explored in the short stories. Some are one and done and some we return to in later chapters. Some are brought together so we see the POV of both sides, while others are just from one. This is where I started to feel the repetition. About 1/4 through I decided to read the chapter titles (all just the cities in which the action was taking place) and follow one story from beginning to end. I personally found it more engaging that way. Then I went back and read the one off chapters.

Then I slept on it. I wasn't sure what I thought about it. Today, I still want to discuss it with people. That's moved it up one star for me. This book stayed with me. Love it or hate it, I think it will stay with any reader.

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LITTLE EYES was such a wonderful, unexpected modern sci-fi treat. I had never read anything from Schweblin before, but this was the perfect introduction. It's so hard to try to explain this novel, and it's almost best to just dive in and ride the wave. But in short, the new rage in technology are little Furby-like toys called 'kentukis' which connect the person who buys one (for more than $200) to another random person around the globe, who will watch you through the eyes of the toy. They can hear you, but you can't hear them, and as we weave through the chapters and different situations between "keepers" and "dwellers," we learn about how wildly different relationships form between this unusual, Black Mirror-esque technological innovation.

This was such a fun idea and premise, I truly could not put the book down. I even had fun explaining it to my husband as I was reading it. Thinking about voyeurism in this context was interesting, and questioning why some people would want to watch, and others want to be watched. Schweblin did a fantastic job exploring all the different ways this could play out, and took us on a fun trip around the world. It's a quick read, and while I wish we stayed with some characters over others for longer amounts of time, I highly recommend this book.

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Whoa! This is a totally icky mind-trip of a novel, that I found impossible to put down. Perfect for fans of Black Mirror!

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When my son was in second grade, Tamagotchis were all the rage. I bought him one, as he longed to fit in with the other kids, and he spent hours “feeding” it, amongst the other things required to “keep it alive”.

“But,” my parents said, “it’s not real!” They could not understand the significance of a virtual pet, and I must say that I agreed with them. How do you keep a machine alive? How can a machine be a pet?

Twenty years later we come to Samanta Schweblin’s magnificent novel, Little Eyes. I was riveted from the first page, and I stayed that way throughout my reading. For it is about technology, and socializing, and the way that people can put feelings on a plastic animal covered with felt or feathers.

They are called kentukis, these creatures costing $279.00 which come in a box and must be activated with a special code. People who buy them become ‘keepers’, while those who are connected to them via technology are called ‘dwellers’. The two people never meet, yet their lives are intimately woven together as the kentuki has ‘eyes’ which serve as cameras, and wheels allowing them mobility; the apartments which they occupy, and the privacy therein, is shown in all its reality to strangers with whom they are connected.

However, the strangers gradually cease to feel that they are anonymous. Suddenly, they find themselves caring deeply about the lives of the people who own the kentuki; worse,they care deeply about the kentuki itself, as if it was real. Or, capable of human emotion.

…it seemed like the idea of kentuki liberation had just been invented. It occurred to someone that mistreating a kentuki was as cruel as keeping a dog tied up all day in the sun, even crueler if you considered that it was a human being on the other end. Some users had tried to found their own clubs and free kentukis that they considered were being abused.

I have never read a book like this. The imagination of Samanta Schweblin is extraordinary, and the world she brings to life is frightening. For I do not believe we are far from the power that machines can exert on our lives.

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