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There's an aside vignette in Hari Kunzru's Transmission, in which the international communication infrastructure is being shut down by a rabid computer virus, and during an American conservative call-in radio show a caller suggests that a solution to this world wide phenomenon may be that "we're going to have to start torturing people." When asked by the host, when the enemy was still unknown, who should be tortured exactly, the caller responds that he didn't know, but someone.

What's weird about this is that these words were written, printed, bound, and delivered to me before any allegations of U.S. interrogation misconduct in Iraq became public. It was a little throw-away paragraph of exaggerated satire directed at emotional U.S. political discourse, but as it turned out, possessed more truth than it intended, and would unknowingly be a fairly accurate portrayal of the collective right-wing spin that followed the revelations. Is Hari Kunzru some kind of freaky book psychic? Perhaps. But, one thing we can be assured is that this second outing from the much-lauded young British author is an engaging, if uneven piece of satirical fiction.

The first half of Transmission centers on the story of Arjun Mehta, a geeky, day-dreaming Indian software engineer who believes in the corny promises of the oh-so-corny Bollywood film industry, and who also leads a quiet double life as renowned computer virus chef revered throughout the international hacker underground. Much to the excitement of his parents, Arjun lands a job with an American staffing agency that brings foreign computer workers to the States as cheap freelance labor for the technology industry (which happens to be in the midst of an economic downturn).

Soon after being lifted on a wing of optimism to the promised land, Arjun crashes down into the realization that America can be a lonely, isolating place, and furthermore, the firm that secured his visa and delivered him to Uncle Sam may not quite reach the golden standard for ethical behavior. Arjun masks his despair from his family back in India where he spins bigger and bigger tales of a fanciful and meteoric rise to success.

After a year of running through a string of positions in a tech-bubble-popped American economy, Arjun lands a somewhat stable existence at a Washington State e-security firm. But soon this shaky stability becomes threatened with complete collapse as the company, faced with a slide in demand for computer security, informs Arjun that they will have to let him go -- a blow which would mean a return to his homeland and disgrace in front of his parents.

In order to stay in America, and more importantly not shame his family, he decides to create business for his employer by concocting a computer virus so sinister only he will be able to find the cure and, in turn, make him an indispensable employee. Soon, systems around the globe suddenly become infected and inoperable, and while their mechanized innards dissolve into digital tapioca, a mysterious rendering of top Bollywood starlet, Leela Zahir dances across the screen. But Arjun's simple dream of keeping his job is never secured. His plot gets uncovered by the FBI and simple, day-dreamy Arjun makes the transformation from techno-geek into the world's most-wanted terrorist.

The second half of Transmission introduces two new plot streams (which are only somewhat clumsily hinted at in the first half) to alternate with Arjun's story. We follow the demise of Guy Swift, an English entrepreneur and Tarantino buff whose PR firm is a top world-supplier of useless marketing rhetoric. Guy blows a deal with a billionaire Arab Golf Course magnate who demands to hear Guy's pitch during a round of golf, which Guy has never played before, and furthermore where all of Guy's intricate powerpoint presentations, graphs, and visual aids can not hide the fact that he has nothing to sell. With international backers demanding to see returns, Guy's firm is sliding further down the drain -- a demise which is only accelerated by the spread of Arjun's super contagious "Leela virus."

And finally, we observe the plight of bratty Leela Zahir, the Bollywood starlet who has, against her will, become the symbol for the collapse of international economic and communication systems. She falls into a self-indulgent stupor and puts on hold the Scottish-site production of her latest Bollywood blockbuster.