Bellwether: A Novel

I believe her short stories are her best and though this book moves past the short story line, it falls within that collection of interesting gems. Read it for yourself and if you disagree, please let her know as that is the only way good authors get better-from feedback.

...heavy on bureaucracy and light on satire.

Take all the plot typically found in a three-panel Dilbert cartoon -- stretch it out to a thin 247 pages -- and you have Bellwether.

So despite the fact that I'm fascinated with fads, emergent systems, chaos theory, etc., the book failed to hold my interest.

Given the high praise that Connie Willis has received for her other books, I'll assume that this was a rare misfire.

I love Connie Willis's Victorian comedy of manners "To Say Nothing of the Dog" - except for the first 50 pages pages. That is largely a tedious rant about uncooperative and rude support staff. In "Bellwether," Willis takes that theme and the theme of management culture, adds trivia about fads and scientific breakthroughs, and gives it the thinnest of plots. Reading what I did (about 2/3 of the book) was as much fun as hearing the drill in a dental office. But if you are a big Willis fan and want to give "Bellwether" a try, I'd recommend reading the online sample first. Trust me, the rest of the book is a repetition of the same.

Haha! This book was a sheer delight to listen to. Willis builds subtle humor in the characters, the plot, and the setting. I often found myself nodding my head, thinking, ‘Yeah! That could totally happen!’ or “Yep, been there. Done that.” The characters were immediately relatable. Sandra Foster is clever but also has some compassion (which not all of her coworkers do). Her study on fads and what causes them now has me interested in the subject as well!

One of the best things about this book is all the little snippets of history worked into the story. Not only are there factoids about the hula hoop, hair bobs, and the Rubik’s cube, but also about sheep, ostriches, cuisine, and how famous scientists stumbled into an ‘Aha! moment’. While the indoor smoking dated the piece, it was interesting that Sandra considered the banishing of public smoking in buildings and restaurants a fad.

Then there’s Flip. I think the universe uses Flip to try out the latest fads like her flop of hair, duct tape clothing items, and her eye tattoo. Flip is notoriously bad at her job and yet feels that too much is asked of her. She’s always complaining and yet likes Sandra because she’s one of the few people that isn’t openly mean to her. While Flip seems to be simply there to provide comedic relief or convenient plot devices, her role is eventually revealed to be much more important.

I loved the sheep. We used to have goats, so I immediately sympathized with Bennett and Sandra on how difficult it was to get the sheep to do anything they wanted. Eventually, it’s revealed what a bellwether is in a sheep herd, and hence the meaning of the title. Or so I thought! Willis gives us another little twist on the bellwether towards the end of the book and it made me look at my co-workers, friends, and family in a different light. Aha! There’s the bellwether in my life! Thoroughly entertaining and educational. 5/5 stars.

The Narration: Kate Reading gives a great performance. She makes a perfect Sandra Foster, being an insightful woman with a touch of humor. Her masculine voices are also well done. I especially liked her voices for Management and their fake enthusiasm at the Team Building Exercises. Her voice for Flip was spot on, sounding bored and put out and occasionally needy. There were no recording issues. 5/5 stars.

Delightfully ridiculous. Willis had a pretty great mashing of ideas in her head for this book. First, the annoying prevalence of "management" and over-involvement of corporations in the pursuit of science. Add in the rapid movements of fads and general sheep-like behavior. And finally, the actually sheep behavior of a bellwether, the leader of a flock, an idea rather in contrast to the notion of "sheep-like" behavior.

It's fairly obvious where the bellwether plot of the book is going, once you understand the main character, Sandra Foster, and her study focus. It's pretty brilliant, actually; not too heavy-handed, but with enough hints to lead the reader to the appropriate conclusion.

Witty and a little silly. This is a great pick for anyone needing some absurdity and perhaps some rebellion against all the sheeple out there.

Connie Willis's novels have been recommended to me many times over the years by a variety of sources--though never this particular novel. As an introduction, it was a limited success. I only found Bellwether to be so-so, but it certainly wouldn't discourage me from reading more of her work in the future.

Bellwether is a short satirical novel, set in the world of science for profit. It's the story of how a social scientist researching fads and trends meets a colleague studying chaos theory and information diffusion, and how they team up to survive their corporate management and the "help" of a surly office assistant. Along the way, Willis takes pot shots at parenting, cuisine, fashion, lifestyle, and other trends, and those who adhere to them.

Honestly, on paper, this looks it should be a home run for me. I'm a big fan of satirical novels, but I've seen similar takes on office culture done better. (Max Barry's Company is highly recommended!) Another issue is the fact that I listened to Bellwether as an unabridged audiobook. Reader Kate Reading (yeah, that's her name) did a fine job with most of the narration, but for the annoying office assistant, Flip, she did a really annoying Valley Girlish voice. It got old fast. Not only that, she used the same voice for all of the many other annoying characters the protagonist encounters. It was a legitimate choice, implying a sameness to the hostile, ignorant, lazy characters in the book, but again, it was tedious. I find stories about really annoying people tend to get on my nerves. Maybe it's me?

I did think the information on the science and history of fads was quite interesting, but there was simply too much of it. And there were some laughs along the way to the novel's clever ending, but they didn't fully compensate for the negative aspects of the book--for me. I will read Willis again, because she is clearly a talented writer. But next time I'll stick to a recommended title. I think I could become a fan; this just wasn't the right starting place.

IN BRIEF: Witty, interesting romp filled with wise observations (and hilarious misinterpretations courtesy of Flip and Management) and tidbits about fads and how scientific discoveries were made. As I explain later, all of this would be fascinating even without the underlying story and the cool romance (without humping scenes! I always feel like a peeper when things get explicit, so I appreciate the subtlety here.) It goes without saying that the book is well written, bursting with voice, like all of Connie Willis's novels. If you enjoyed TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG, you'll like this one. If you enjoyed Dave Barry's SCIENCE FAIR (co-authored with Ridley Pearson), you'll like this one. If you like funny but intellectual humor such as in the film REAL GENIUS (oh, how I love that one), you'll like it.

Sandra Foster works at Hi-Tek, a research institution/corporation, and as the story opens she is studying fads and their causes/catalysts. If she can figure out what starts a trend, it could be very profitable for the corporation and for marketing in general (as they would use the knowledge to kick off trends of buying what they sell, and the like.) Bennett O'Reilly is a chaos theorist there, but the interesting thing about him is that he seems impervious to fads. He's not one of those nonconformists who just does the opposite of what is popular, but is an actual real non-conforming being. Incompetent dogsbody Flip misdelivers a package to Sandra and thereby kicks off a chain of events (or you might say she kicks over the first domino) that leads to a scientific award with lots of money for both of them and their future projects (including their budding romance.) This may sound like a simplistic story, but it can be read on various levels. (Fans of subtext will have a field day as good as any ham radio club's.)

You'll howl at the "Office Space" Dilbertesque management methods (the weekly motivational meetings are spot-on), the study of sheep and their herd behavior (mindless panic and fear ensues instantly if the others are not RIGHT THERE and JUST LIKE THEM), and the study of people and their herd behavior.

This is in a subgenre of screwball romantic comedy, like one of the great witty old Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy farces. At heart it's a parody suggesting that too much rigid bureaucratic regimentation/standardization/ is bad (really?) and free thinking ("chaos," but not really) leads to brilliant discovery/revelation/epiphany ("At the center of chaos reigns a perfect order"--John Kennedy Toole). I must point out the inherent contradiction that I see: "Systems become more and more chaotic until they reach some sort of chaotic critical mass. When that happens, they spontaneously reorganize themselves at a higher equilibrium level. It's called self-organized criticality." Does this not violate Thermodynamics #2, "entropy increases"? My house refuses to clean itself, for one thing, no matter how bad it gets. But there's that deal with the butterfly wings in Brazil causing a hurricane in the Gulf, so whatever--science does what it pleases, and we are but its observers. Chaos theory seems to work at least part of the time. (LOL)

And one of those times is in the storyline/spine of this novel. Looking at it from overhead as if you were on Google Earth maps with the "satellite" option turned on, you'll see that the story follows that quotation fairly well--the system becoming endlessly more mixed up until it suddenly snaps back into a higher-level and better order.

I hate plotty action-y books that are all about what's happening on the surface, which this is not. Some reviewers who say there's no plot here (they don't know how to look at it--not with a microscope but with a telescope, say) also believe that the book has too many digressions and thoughts. One person said this was all "filler bits" that he skips over to get to the action. Well, I read for these "filler bits" and just put up with the blowing up of stuff, humping, and stabbing of bad guys in order to get past them and get to the thinky parts. For me, that's what books are. People (readers) are different. So if you are like me (and the others who love this one), get a copy and curl up in the window seat. Put that smartphone on vibrate. (Get your mind out of the gutter; I mean put it on the windowsill!)

The ONLY thing that might bother you about the book is the smoking deal. You see, Willis uses a character who smokes to illustrate the "faddish" nature of things that society does and doesn't tolerate or condemn (but I believe it was a very poor choice, though an obvious one if you don't believe in the dangers smoking poses to bystanders.)

As an earlier reviewer mentioned, portraying the anti-smoking movement as nothing more than "another aversion fad" promulgated by people who have not thought it through for themselves is totally wrongheaded. (I'm talking about Shirl, the "fairy godmother" who turns out to have a power that the entire corporation has lusted after.) I wish Connie Willis had used a gum-chewer: "They don't allow GUM-CHEWERS in here." And talk about how if gum is not disposed of by wrapping it in paper and putting it into a trash can, it spreads germs and disease and sticks to things to ruin them and is nasty and so forth. That might've worked. Or you could use something like taking a nebulizer treatment, which is noisy and many people don't want to be around when you're doing it. She could have let the character be searching for somewhere indoors to take the nebulizer treatment that bothers some, rather than looking for an indoor hideout in which to puff away, because smoking is a serious health hazard and the particulates can ruin electronics (especially in a lab like the ones described). There is NO physical reason for someone to NEED to smoke, and thus the implicit defense of the habit in the book may irritate you. The author is using it symbolically and satirically, of course, to imply that people will pick up on a fad to shun those who are tattooed, or who eat bananas, or who are different in some way that society currently says is bad. But smoking actually killed several people I know, and has given my mother serious COPD/asthma (and now she understands why it was a bad idea to blow that smoke into my face when I was an asthmatic child and then claim I was "faking a cough" because I was trying to control her smoking solely because I was a brat).

The POINT, of course, is bigotry/tolerance. A pull quote: "Bigotry is one of the oldest and ugliest of trends, so persistent it only counts as a fad because the target keeps changing: Huguenots, Koreans, homosexuals, Muslims, Tutsis, Jews, Quakers, wolves, Serbs, Salem housewives. Nearly every group, so long as it's small and different, has had a turn, and the pattern never changes--disapproval, isolation, demonization, persecution."

But in the case of smokers . . . let's keep throwing them outside in hopes that our air will be cleaner and they'll give up the dirty habit for good. (Hah.)

I hate to go into so much detail about something in the book that is supposed to illustrate the tolerance and kindness of the main characters and something that leads in part to their ultimate reward, but there it is. Smoking does not "deserve to be tolerated" because nobody requires smoke to live, unlike eating and breathing and that sort of thing. It's a habit you don't have to start, one that damages other people's health! What's to like? Nothing, IMHO. So there you are, the book's one major irritant that I wish could be different. But if you can put aside this very real concern and pretend it's just a harmless quirk/habit, you can appreciate what Willis is trying to say about the way society picks on something and suddenly everyone's attacking it for no reason without thinking it through for themselves.

ANYWAY. I hope you can overlook one little detail, the way I overlook all the places where other writers put, "She thought to herself" (how else would I think? On a billboard on the freeway?!) and "She had to remind herself she was only twenty" (no, she didn't, not unless she's had a head injury; just tell the reader that she's twenty!) and enjoy this book.

Highly recommended to those with a sense of humor like mine!

I was not familiar with the term "bellwether", prior to reading Connie Willis' often hilarious, tongue-in-cheek, always humorous 1996 novel. Instead of wondering what a bellwether (the sheep) can have to do with a HiTek research centre, I relaxed into the story. Willis, in fact,takes the reader with great skill for a fun ride and only towards the end of the book do all the pieces come together. Written fifteen years ago, the novel may have had an even stronger impact on its readers then than it has today. For example, the discussions on the specific fads and fashion trends at the time may appear somewhat dated now, still, other trends she explores, such as the Barbie doll, are still (or again) with us, maybe with a different or better understanding of what they can represent. There are enough wisdom and interesting information tidbits in the book to keep the reader involved. And, of course, for the soul, there is an old-fashioned romantic love story as well.

Sandra Foster, the researcher of the origins and sources of fads, has an close to impossible task. Her current preoccupation is how, where and when, "hair bobbing" started as a fad. Each chapter starts with a brief encyclopedic entry on any number of fads - many well known to us - but not many directly related to her time or preoccupation. She collects her source material only from public sources, e.g. the media and, not surprisingly, doesn't get anywhere. It doesn't help that the interdepartmental distribution coordinator happily misplaces documents or otherwise messes things up. Still, Sandra is not the only one struggling with her research. At the other end of the building Dr. O'Reilly is researching chaos theory. He is desperately looking for triggers that lead to chaos behaviour in groups, also with limited to no success. Fortunately for both, fashion trends and chaos come together in the office in unexpected ways, on the one hand through the obnoxious mail distribution coordinator, with the name Flip, and on the other through "The Management" itself. Fad behaviour can be studied right there on colleagues, who join into one chaotic scenario after another and to varying degrees. And, eventually, there are surprise outcomes.

I found the depiction of The Management's actions most entertaining and totally to the point. Their constantly changing prescriptions, whether for improving the working atmosphere in the offices or increasing output and results, attracting new money, etc., each is accompanied by a new acronym. Flip is a wonderful caricature of a mail delivery system, especially in big corporations... and the bellwether? Yes, sheep are introduced for the chaos project, but that may not be leading to the right outcome either. Still, there may be more results than expected at the end. While some of the fad discussions feel somewhat drawn out and also repetitive, overall, it is a fun read, even today. [Friederike Knabe]

Hilariously funny parody of "scientific research" as funded under today's system. Connie Willis is a genius and this book is her best. What else can I say? If you like to laugh, buy this book! From a nose-ring bejeweled assistant who won't actually do anything but complain, to a bunch of sheep whose "behavior" serves as the subject of a doctoral thesis, all sandwiched between little tidbits about odd historical fads like incidence of bobbed hair after World War I or the obsessive use of the new color mauve in the 1890's (the "mauve decade"), the plot is so absurd you can't help but love it. Just keep your eye on the Xerox lady!

Bellwether by Connie Willis is the story of a sociologist who specialises in fads and a biologist whose focus is chaos theory and monkey behavior. They work in two completely different realms but a misdelivered package and some terrible luck, mostly due to the strange and terrible office assistant Flip, they end up coming together on a joint project with a flock of sheep. Despite Flip's continued `assistance' and with the help of the assistant's assistant, they both eventually find the answers to their particular questions and the story ends with great success.

I enjoyed the story as a whole and the development of the relationships especially between Sandra and Bennett. Of course I loved Flip, whose complete uselessness and oddities became hugely central to the plot, even if you don't really notice this until the end. I really liked how all the little lose ends because ties together and pretty much nothing was in the story without a reason. Finally, each chapter starts with a fact or piece of random information about fads or science, which I found interesting.

Bellwether is a novel about some of the folks who work at HiTek corporation, a humorously portrayed workplace whose bureaucracy and dysfunctional operations seem to be ripped right from the pages of Dilbert. The primary characters are researchers who scramble to keep up with the changes in the paperwork they are required to file to obtain funding for their projects. They are joined by a hilariously written gofer who does just about everything except the tasks she is given.
Connie Willis hits the nail on the head with her portrayal of our society as a herd mentality bent on following the latest trend without thinking about what they are doing or why. At many points in the story her satire would have had me laughing out loud had it not been so soberingly dead-on. In the midst of this insanity, a researcher attempts to discover where fads originate and becomes intrigued by a coworker who seems to be "immune" to them. Their resulting collaboration injects notions from chaos theory into her fad research and, in the end, yields a clever answer.
There is nothing profound about the conclusion that Willis comes to - in fact, it is as much tongue-in-cheek as anything in this story. She makes some minor points regarding chaos theory and the behavior of nonlinear systems, but nothing earth-shattering - this is far from being hard science fiction. Rather, I found it a clever and very enjoyable tale of the chaos that goes on in our everyday lives, both in the workplace and our personal lives, and how some semblance of order emerges from that chaos.
I you're looking for something light and humorous, yet clever and thoughtful, give Bellwether a read. I truly enjoyed it!

Meet Sandra Foster. She works at the HiTek corporation, where she studies fads: to discover their roots and what, exactly, they mean. This isn't a completely good thing, however; she becomes so used to the idea of fads that she notices them everywhere. No one, not even the most minor of characters, is excluded from her notice.
The story really picks up when a package meant for someone who worked halfway across the building fell into Sandra's lap, thanks to Flip, the apathetic and trendy mail-girl.
Meet Bennett O'Reilly. He is a chaos theorist, working for HiTek, ever since the funding for his project at the Loue river in France fell through. All he really wants are a few monkeys to teach the hula hoop to... but when Flip loses his funding packet, Bennett and Sandra lose - and gain - a lot more.
Some sheep, for example. And a breakthrough in science (similar to Messier, Galvani, Roentgen, and even Einstein's theories). And true love.
Bellwether is a novel that is essentially a satire of the world as we know it; the idiocy of people who just don't seem to get it, the trends and fads that are seemingly far more common than you'd think, even how one person can change the outcome of their surroundings just by existing.
This is, in my opinion, Connie Willis' best book. Not only is it the one that I discovered Ms. Willis by, but it is also a fantastic love story, mystery, and heck - even educational, what with the paragraphs on fads of the past at the beginning of each chapter. Even if you do not think this novel is of the sort that you normally like, you should still read it. It will be worth it.

What a great book. Ms Willis has achieved a fun, lighthearted, very readable novel that obviously entertains, and pokes fun at Management, fads, and fashion. On a larger scale it just pokes fun at the human race in general.
Connie really deserves a great deal of credit for the research that went into this one. Each chapter, thirty or so, is begun with a one or two paragraph synopsis of some fad from its birth to its death (if it died.) Each of these little stories is charming if not outright hilarious.
It sports a fun plot where Sandy is researching how fads get started. She is tormented by the same office ignorance that you and I face daily, and she deals with the same idiots in her social life that you and I do. Yes the ending is a little Hollywoodish, but this work was not meant to be a War and Peace. It's just fun. Deal with it.
I think it's a stretch to call this science fiction. Other than it being about scientist, there are really no elements that would fit it into this category. That does not indicate any disappointment, but is does concern me that categorization could frighten off a significant number of readers who would otherwise just adore this book.
It was enjoyable enough for a five star rating, but the lack of any deeper meaning or prompting for introspection requires that I give it the highest rating possible for fluff. I love cotton candy, but it is after-all, insubstantial.

This delightful and insightful novel about a social science researcher investigating the cause and spread of fads. The main character was wonderful and felt like a real person. The author has wonderful observations skills. The ending had a lovely twist and was incredibly satisfying. One of my favorite books.

Connie Willis is an incredibly intuitive and complex writer. And personal opinion- this book is brilliantly written, well researched. how chaos theory in this book applied to fads makes it unique and unusual sort of SCI-FI, a very soft and sneaky science fiction for beginners that wont be heavy enough to scare you away from the genre. Did you know that it was nominated for for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1997? But against "A Game of Thrones" and Bujold's "Memory" it stood no chance. almost 20 years later and the book is still current, which i could not say for other SciFi novels.
SO, it may be more of a girly book. But is a smart girly book, with a sweet geeky protagonist that works for a acronym-obsessed HiTek Corporation. (oh what a perfect name for a company on a cutting edge!) It adds a touch of realism, how the corporate culture works, in hi-tech environments. Connie is as insightful ad Scott Adams, the creator of the "Dilbert" comic strip, in capturing the insanity of many corporate philosophies. Every time new acronym is dropped in a meeting I bless Connie, smile and nod. In one or brain-storming sessions of Bellwether on objectives for GRIM ("Guided Resource Intuition Management") one person lists:

Optimize potential.
Facilitate empowerment.
Implement visioning.
Strategize priorities.
Augment core structures.

I 've used that list my self ( for real) and having it always handy saves me hours at work
On one hand, we have sociologist protagonist Sandra Foster studying fads – those short-lived, crazed trends that we have all been guilty of following at one point or another in our lives.On the other hand, there’s chaos theorist Bennett O’Reilly now working with information diffusion among monkey. Sandra observes all the fads going on around her, and incredibly taken aback when she realizes that Bennett seems to be to all of them. And then of course, there is Flip... The story goes back and forth between chaos theme and fads in a way that is not only satirical but also thought provoking. Is Sandra immune to trends because she observes and analyses them? is Bennett really immune? Are any of us? How does Chaos theory fits in all this? Plus, even though this is not one of Willis’ time travel books, some of the ideas circulating here are part of the same proposition that both random acts and single individuals may influence historical events.
Not to mention how Sandra goes to libraries and takes home books that no one does just so they are not removed from the library forever. There are so many 'fad' books on the shelves. Books about the vampires or fairies or angels or anything else are IT and IN, one time "Girl with a dragon tattoo" had 500 people on "hold book" waiting lists in Columbus library. You would not necessarily think about this fact, or other similar super popular "its" until Connie puts int he perspective for you. It like an infection - Pandora craze, Kardashians, obsession with red lipstick and so many others.

Bellwether is short and sweet. I've been recommending it to friends everafter reading it. if i see something like "twilight" Barby i giggle because Flip been to UTAH and "I''d Stephenie Meyer. Also, borrow this book from your library in audio format. Kate Reading is one of the best readers and makes this book doubly enjoyable by speaking life into the characters. This is my feel good book, i read or listen to it at least once a year (7x! and loading my ipod again)

I opened this book expecting a serious Sci Fi look at the workings of Chaos, based on the Mandelbrot patterns on the cover and the blurbs tauting Willis as one of "science fiction's best writers". What I got was well-crafted, romantic and wickedly funny writing about scientists, not science fiction. But the quality of the writing was so good and the satire so pointed that I didn't mind in the slightest.

Sandra Foster studies pop culture fads and is currently pulling her hair out over the prime cause of the fad for bobbed hair in the 1920s. Though she can isolate several factors, none seems to fit as a prime mover. A misdirected package given to her by her office's angry slacker assistant brings her in contact with Bennet O'Reilly, a chaos researcher and perhaps the only man Sandra's ever met who seems genuinely immune to fads. Add on a coporate bureaucracy fond of anagrams like GRIM, a seriously out-of-control anti-smoking work environment and a biologist obsessed with handicapping a rare and lucretive "genius" grant and you have the makings of a funny satirical romp through corporate groupthink, fashion victimhood and the silliness of science-for-hire.

The novel is a very fast read. I was done in about an afternoon. But it is diverting, clever and lighthearted. The plot twists are somewhat predictable, though ultimately I think part of that predictable nature was calculated by the author. Willis has a acute ear for popular culture's language and clevery skews many fads from angels to anti-smoking campaigns to odd clothing trends. Overtop of the satire is a layer of science in the form of chaos theory. The entire story is structured as an exmple of increasingly chaotic systems breaking down and then suddenly creating new levels of organization. This scientific veneer isn't particularly important to understand in ordered to enjoy the book, but it does lift the book into the realm of speculative fiction.

So, it's not deep and it's not heavy. But it is fun and it is a smart read. You could do worse than spend an afternoon in Willis' wacky world.

Chris Forbes

The hero of Bellwether is Sandra, a sociologist for the massive conglomerate company, HiTek. What, exactly, HiTek produces--if anything--is shrouded in mystery (one is almost reminded of "Memoirs found in a Bathtub" by Lem, or perhaps even an upbeat Kafka), but it's abundantly clear it's got it's share of modern problems. Chief among them are paperwork and a catastrophically incompetent, branded, multi-color mohawked, duct tape-wearing, glorified mail clerk named Flip.
As the story opens (and progresses, and even ends), Sandra is researching trends--especially WHY they start and, in her mind, why they're usually of little or no significance to humanity: "why doesn't thinking for oneself or being nice for a change ever become a trend?" she wonders (for myself, I finished the book in the food court of the local mall and found myself wondering about the current trends of clunky-heeled shoes, floppy-legged jeans and Mendi bracelets/necklaces). Through a series of random events, the initus being a misdelivered package by the oft-promoted but never competent Flip, she is brought into contact with a chaos theorist who is so UN-trendy that a friendship is immediately formed (note: Dr. Ben is not ANTI-trend, as Sandra quickly points out, like the hippies growing long hair in protest of the short buzzcuts of the 50's, but seems IMMUNE to them).
At first, she is merely curious as to why he, of all people, seems so impervious to trends, and then discovers--in a flurry of ridiculous but easily recognized management and social trends--that chaos theory and the sociology of trends are actually much more linked than either of them had originally thought. That is, until Flip looses Dr. Ben's funding form (and, of course, Management believes the claim of the mohawked, duct taped lackey that she never GOT it), and enter the sheep, stage left...
As an amateur student of sociology, I personally loved the book and the fun it poked at modern society. However, sometimes Ms. Willis's character's fads DID get a bit out of hand, and the trends in the book seemed TOO trendy. Flip, of course, being a main character SHOULD have the latest trend, like putting swatches of duct tape around a brand of the letter "I" between her eyes and going off on an anti-smoking campaign. However, when EVERYONE starts rolling their eyes, flipping their hair, and sporting swatches of tape just like Flip-and I mean EVERYONE-the book looses some of it's realism. Even within trends, there's got to be room for individual variation (like KAKHI pants that completely cover the wearer's shoes vs. denim). Also, sometimes my reality got in the way of the book. For example, as "Dilbertian" as HiTek may be as a company, and though I know first hand and through the works of Mr. Scott Adams that MOST companies, no matter how big or small, have complete dunderheads making decisions, it took me the longest time to be convinced that Flip--with her appearance alone, to say nothing of her inability to do her work, etc--would ever be EMPLOYED by any large company, let alone PROMOTED... Multiple times.
"Bellwether", like Ms. Willis's other works (I especially enjoyed "Doomsday Book" and "Uncharted Territory") is a fine read, desipite the occasional difficulty I had in "willingly suspending disbelief." I recommend it highly. I ESPECIALLY recommend it to anyone who has ever gone to the mall and wondered why on earth people (especially teens who, like sheep, tend to travel in tight herds and follow their own bellwether) feel the need to do what everyone else is doing.

Gotta love Connie Willis. Her usual dry sense of humor is evident here. As is her ever present introspective protagonist attempting to deal with a problem while juggling a love interest. I dont mind that Willis seems to use the same plot structure story after story, its not a bad one, and so minimal that it fundamentally works as a foundation supporting an idea she is trying to get across.

This time, Willis is trying to talk about Chaos Theory. Basically she does an admirable job of spelling out how it works by making her lead character, Sandra, a woman employed to study 'fads' and how they are created. Willis spends a lot of time going into an exact meaning of fads, how they relate to chaos theory. Its lightly written, and enjoyable to contemplate.

I would totally recommend this book to anyone who can take a book that in all regards is VERY SLOW. As I said the humor here is 'dry'. I loved it, but you might pick this book up and think of yourself in hell if you are looking for an action packed page turner.

Probably the most enjoyable book I've read that asks the question: why do people jump on the latest bandwagon only to discover that it doesn't make them any happier than they were before? The protagonist-narrator of the story is a social scientist, working for a research corporation and trying to find how fads begin. The corporation wants to figure out how to use her research to make new fads, and of course gobs of money in the process. The weekly meetings presided over by "management" are hilarious.
This book reads so easily that you might be deceived into thinking that it's simply written. Hardly. Willis has worked very hard to tie together a number of disparate elements. Some of the most enjoyable parts of the book are the short descriptions of dozens of past fads -- everything from coonskin caps to bobbed hair to mah jong. In the process, Willis tells us a lot about what we're willing to do to "belong."
I noticed from previous reviews that some people were disappointed with this book because it really isn't science fiction. It's true, this is not traditional science fiction, with a futuristic setting, new technology, etc. But Willis's remarks that relate fads to chaos theory are very well thought-out. In giving the reader something new to think about, she meets the basic test of science fiction. And in creating an enjoyable, perceptive story, she meets the challenge of being an exceptionally good writer.

Connie Willis combines her love of chaos theory, science, literature and screwball comedies into an entertaining romance set in the world of high-tech research.
Sandra Foster is a sociologist researching fads, and Bennett O'Riley studies chaos theory at a commercial research insitute called Hi-Tek. When the incompetent and outrageous departmental assistant, Flip, misdelivers a package and fails to hand in a research funding form on time, she sets off a chain reaction of events that forces Drs. Foster and Bennett to combine their studies into one. As the remaining scientists at Hi-Tek try desperately to figure out how to win the coveted but mysterious Niebnitz grant, Foster and Bennett try to study information diffusion in higher mammals. Unfortunately, the only higher mammals on which they can get their hands are a flock of sheep, which bear a surprising resemblence to the people who inhabit Dr. Foster's day-to-day world. In the process of trying to find out why people behave as they do, Drs. Foster and Bennett rediscover their love of science and discover their love for each other. Along the way, they are helped out by the strangely competent Shirl, who no one else wants around because she smokes, but who seems to understand science, sheep, and perhaps a whole lot more.
Connie Willis successfully conveys a joy of science and literature, while wryly looking at the trials and tribulations of trying to be trendy and successful. It's hard to describe this melange of sheep, Barbie dolls, personal ads and science adequately, but if you like intelligent and literate humor with a touch of romance, this book is for you.

"Bellwether" is an amusing, light read, but it is hardly science fiction.
Sandra is a sociologist studying fads. Bennett is a physicist specializing in chaos-theory working in animal behavior. Together using an interdisciplinary approach, they try to define the chaotic nature of faddish behavior in mammalian populations by studying a herd of sheep. All this against the background of a "science" factory, and the ultimately, hip population of Boulder, Colorado.
Willis's prose is good, the story is light, breezy, and funny as she pokes fun at every target within range. The author's treatment of the main character's friends and colleagues is particularly funny. They are all technically sound and socially impossible. I found the capsule summaries of various fads and discussion of the serendipitous nature of some important science discoveries interesting.
This story is however without any depth and could have been written as a short story. The end was apparent before half the novel was read. In addition, it can only be called science fiction because the main characters are scientists and it is a work of fiction.
"Bellwether" is humorous. It reminds me of Po Bronson's The First $20M is the Hardest', although not quite as dark. It's a quick read that will keep you smiling.

There's just something about Connie Willis' books...Bellwether is a book about fads, what starts them, and how they impact society. Unlike Willis' two time travel books (Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog), Bellwether is set in contemporary Denver, Colorado. Sandy Foster works for a corporation there, where she researches fads. She spends much of the book trying to figure out why women suddenly cut their hair into bobs in the 1920's. Ben O'Reilly also works for HiTech; he researches chaos theory. Naturally, Sandy and Ben start working together, trying to correlate their two fields.
Like her other books, every character is fleshed out, and used in the plot, even the ones that seem incidental. And naturally you don't find out how everything fits together until the end of the book. And like To Say Nothing of the Dog, this book made me laugh out loud in public places. It also pokes fun at the scientific community, trendy restaurants, and libraries which refuse to keep classic books. I was a little surprised by the anti-anti-smoking sub-plot, but that's not enough to make me give Bellwether anything less than five stars. Highly enjoyable and re-readable.

BELLWETHER was recommended to me a few years ago when the bureaucracy was too much with me late and soon. Since then, I've given copies to friends when they need comic relief from corporate culture or trendiness of any kind. This satire of contemporary manners is not searing and it will not solve a reader's own issues, but it is fun to watch Willis kickbox the major annoyances of our lives. That this is classified as science fiction is a stretch; it follows fictitious scientific research at a high tech firm in the present day without alien intervention, genetics gone mad, time travel or alternative history. So much is it in the present day that many of the over-the-top trends that the one scientist studies or is otherwise annoyed by are many of those we're still enduring or by now are waving, gratefully, good-bye. Think flavored coffee drinks and angels, name brand catalogue clothes and expensive ugly sandals. Lest we never forget, Barbie dolls. This wouldn't be Connie Willis without a Disney idea of an adult flirtation, but this time the characters aren't unduly sappy. I find it a little odd that Willis decides to illustrate her protagonist's good nature in rejecting the politically correct by subtly promoting smokers' rights. Smoking transcends the political despite the tobacco lobby--it is NOT a good choice no matter what and smoke-free workplaces and restaurants are examples of social progress in the very late 20th century. This book deserves three and a half stars, but since there are no "halvsies" allowed and since it is worth passing around, it gets 4.

I really admire Connie Willis' talents. She is usually pigeonholed as a science fiction author, but she is really much more than that.

BELLWETHER is a short novel that involves a group of scientific researchers doing work for a dysfunctional corporation. Willis has great fun skewering office life, and the herd-like tendency of society to blindly follow trends, no matter how silly they may seem. Most of this novel is quite funny, but it's also filled to the brim with a lot of interesting historical and scientific ideas.

If you enjoy intelligently written satire, I think BELLWETHER will be right up your alley. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and believe this novel, which is easy to read and finish, serves as a nice introduction to Willis' writing style. If you enjoyed this novel, I would recommend one of Willis' longer works, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG.

I really admire Connie Willis' talents. She is usually pigeonholed as a science fiction author, but she is really much more than that.

BELLWETHER is a short novel that involves a group of scientific researchers doing work for a dysfunctional corporation. Willis has great fun skewering office life, and the herd-like tendency of society to blindly follow trends, no matter how silly they may seem. Most of this novel is quite funny, but it's also filled to the brim with a lot of interesting historical and scientific ideas.

If you enjoy intelligently written satire, I think BELLWETHER will be right up your alley. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and believe this novel, which is easy to read and finish, serves as a nice introduction to Willis' writing style. If you enjoyed this novel, I would recommend one of Willis' longer works, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG.

What do thirty sheep, a disheveled chaos theorist, and a statistician have in common? Everything, according to this very eccentric love story from Connie Willis.

I found myself waiting for "something" to happen, yet being interested enough in the characters not to put the book down. While a bit repetitive in driving home its chaos theory-related/serendipity-is-the-mother-of-invention points, the book is unique it is approach to romance running through the lines of scientific dialogue.

Willis creates vivid characters who border on the absurd, but not in a fictional way. The reader will laugh out loud in recognizing co-workers, friends, and probably even family members in the characters in the novel.

An unusual and fun reading experience recommended for scientists, animal lovers and everyone in between.

I think Connie Willis is the best writer of English prose alive today. Her other books, in particular "Lincoln's Dreams," are astoundingly beautiful and lyrical, serious books told in a vivid voice that draws pictures, scenarios and characters together with what seems like effortless grace. She is like a breath of cool clear air after the stuffiness of a closed room. "Bellwether," however, is about as subtle as a grocery cart at it careens around the heroine's self-conscious pre-occupation with fads and trends. I must admit, however, there were several things i liked: Flip the office assistant; the little girl's use of a map to tell a story about her Barbie doll; the scene in the cafeteria where everyone has to come up with Dilbertesque slogans. But overall, the book is a disappointment, albiet minor. It's also fast and easy so you might as well read it. My husband, btw, liked it more than I did, especially the bits about bread pudding, the longevity of the angel/devil's food cake fads, po-mo pink, Malibu Beach House Barbie, Alice Blue, diorama wigs and, of course, Billy Ray and the sheep.

Don't be fooled by the collage cover of Mandelbrot patterns, moth and human hair - this book is all about the sheep. A semi-scientific, extremely funny, geeky love story emerges from chaos, which is embodied by a fad-obsessed, incompetent mail clerk named Flip.

If you've ever entered an IKEA through the front entrance (instead of sneaking through the marketplace), you'll understand the "sheep" reference. People walking along assigned pathways, eyes glancing downward nervously, following large black arrows on the floor, not daring to stray from the path, much less walk in the opposite direction.

Sandra Foster works in a "Dilbert" type corporation, trying to work out what causes fads, from hairstyles to crossword puzzles. Bennett O'Reilly works for the same corporation, studying chaos theories. When these two get together thanks to a misdelivered package, things really start to get chaotic, compounded by the hiring of an assistant for Flip, who is (gasp) a SMOKER, and Management's efficiency meetings.

Studying the behavioral patterns of a flock of sheep proves to be a lot harder than it looks (almost as hard as filling up a Corporation request for a paper clip) but through some coincidental occurrences they learn the secret of the wooly herd-followers the hard way.

An enjoyably easy read, I especially liked the information on various fads at the beginning of each chapter. Like most of the other people who've read this book, you'll probably like it.

Amanda Richards, September 24, 2005

I had the eerie feeling that Connie Willis was reading my mind when she wrote this book - I worked for years as a scientist in a very dysfunctional environment and my experience is described with great accuracy. I think it really is science fiction, of the most thought-provoking sort. It presents and develops a sociological hypothesis - that new trends in society are catalyzed by individuals who for the most part go unrecognized - and envisions a scientific environment in which that hypothesis is rigorously demonstrated. Another theme which is common to Willis' novels is the notion that innovations come fro people negotiating a system which is not working, and not giving up but persisting until they find a path to their goal. It is well developed here.

Connie Willis rarely ever disappoints and this book is one of her funniest---light, clever and a quick read. Save an evening to read this as you won't want to put it down once you've started it.
In Bellwether, Willis brings together a sociologist studying fads and a chaos theorist (who seems immune to fads). Both work for a nameless faceless corporation which seems to thrive on chaos itself---even as it searches for a way to control and manipulate its workers.
The main characters are wonderful as always (as always, Willis has created a wonderful heroine---a mix of savvy and naivity). But it is her minor characters who keep you laughing--Flip, the assistant who makes everyone's lives a nightmare, the mothers at a birthday party for pre-schoolers who are driven by discipline fads, and even the faceless and nameless Management.
Don't miss out on this!

This book doesn't really shine the first time you read it. I mean, it shines, like all her stuff does. And it lingers in your mind, and replays significant scenes now and then when you're not paying attention. But it doesn't really shine the first time you read it. And not the second, or even the third. It really starts to shine when you start to be able to pick out the triggers, to watch the patterns unfold before your eyes, to see everything they're talking about and looking for happening in their own life--that's when the story goes supernova. I've lost track of how many times I've read this book. I stole my mother's copy, and won't give it back (it's okay, she stole my copy of "After You'd Gone," and gave it away, so we're even.). I don't even need to read it now, I could probably recite it from memory by now, but I still do, still pick it up and roll the words around in my head, play with the phrases. No one writes like Connie Willis.

This is an attempt at a Katherine-Hepburn/Spencer-Tracy sort of romantic farce. The Hepburn character is a sociologist researching trying to discover why flappers bobbed their hair in the twenties. This circumstance affords the author the opportunity to skewer various fads circulating in the middle nineties. One problem is that Ms. Willis and her heroine define "fad" very loosely and arbitrarily: for example, a running theme is that legislation which prohibits smoking in public places is a pernicious and monumentally unjust fad--smokers with persecution complexes will be sympathetic, the rest of us simply annoyed. Another problem is that, unlike her Tracy character, whom she exalts for his imperviousness, the author is herself very susceptible to insidious fads of language: I found one "hopefully" pretending to mean "I hope," two "oxymoron"s used incorrectly (an oxymoron is by definition not just any contradiction in terms, but a deliberate literary device), and one "just that" (a perfectly correct but obnoxious rhetorical mannerism prevalent in the eighties). Overall, the prose is glib and perfunctory. The climax and denouement of "The Bellwether" are predictable, unconvincing, unsatisfying, and forced. (On the other hand, the protest about libraries throwing out classics that happen not to have been checked out lately to make room for tens of copies of worthless ephemeral bestsellers is very much on the mark.)

Connie Willis just became one of my favorite authors. I've read and loved Lincoln's Dreams, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Doomsday Book, and now Bellwether. I recommend them all.

Bellwether is clever and biting satire. It's a wonderful comedy featuring a few sane and balanced people trying to survive in a world of incompetent, sheep-like trend followers. That they find love amongst this chaos and develop a thought-provoking hypothesis about scientific discovery makes this novel additionally a love story and science fiction -- added bonuses for us readers!

This is not science fiction as some may normally think of science fiction. It's a light-hearted social satire, love story, and comedy that takes place in an environment of scientific research. It's well-written, with a great plot and great characters. I can't imagine who would not like this book!

Which of Ms. Willis' books will I read next? I don't know, but I can't wait.

This one is the modern, fully developed Connie Willis, firing her wit at your boots to keep you dancing. Chaos theory, the origins of fads, Dilbertesque management methods, sheep, and fashion impairment, Alexander Fleming, latte, Winston Churchill, pineapple upside-down cake, this book has it all . . . even though, in many ways, it's more of a very long short story than a novel. Sandra Foster is the fads researcher, Bennett O'Reilly is the chaos-driven sheepherder (sort of), and everything comes out all right in the end. A light, fluffy read -- but lots of fun, with the author's usual great grasp of characterization and some interesting points to make about the nature of scientific discovery.

During the summer of 1960, I was assigned to assist a professor in the Social Psychology Department at the University of Missouri with a project on the grocery-buying habits of central Missouri housewives. That was in the days of punch cards and a big mainframe computer that occupied a room in the College of Business Administration that was about the size of the house I now live in.
Willis' Bellwether is much more about the social sciences than it is about the physical sciences, which may be why some reviewers were unhappy with it. From the perspect of a social historian who works in a large bureaucracy, it comes through as an excellent satire.

This book has probably the most infuriating character in a recent book. It annoyed me that the rude, disdainful and thoughtless Flip got away with her actions. I was also irritated at Sandra, the prtagonist, for accepting Flip's behavior without giving her a good shake. A couple of times, I almost put the book aside. What kept me reading were the interesting factoids included about fads. Later on, when the sheep took center stage, the book was actually laugh-aloud funny. Glad I managed to persevere.

I found this book years ago seriously discounted at a book store. I think I paid about a dollar for it. I will buy just about any book for a dollar. Well, it hung around the house for a while before I even started reading it. The cover photo and the author winning science fiction awards sort of scared me. I am not a big fan of science fiction.

But this is not really science fiction. It's like "chick lit" really.

A light fun read, lots of trivia thrown in...a bit of a love story and it's funny.

I've actually read it about 4 times - and I hardly ever reread books.

Since I liked this so much I have also read Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog" and "Doomsday" and I recommend those as well. They are not typical science fiction either.

If you are a fan of chick lit, try this book. It will change how you think of "science fiction" authors.

This laugh out loud novel is a witty observation of academic foibles and management follies in its attempts to control scientific discoveries. A must read for anyone who aspires to enter the rarified atmosphere of uber-researchers and faux prophets. Beware: side effects of reading this book may include altitude sickness, hallucinations of power, and uncontrollable bouts of public hysteria.

Bellwether combines the idiocy of office doublespeak with the absurdity of today's trend-following society while still expecting you to think. Our heroine studies fads, in the hope that she might discover how they start. She collaborates with a fellow scientist studying chaos theory who loses his funding. How do you combine fads and chaos theory? As the title tell you, by studying sheep - chaos and group behavior all rolled into one. The story isn't particularly complex, but the telling is interesting and entertaining.
If you work in an office where giving something a name is more important than content, don't (care to) understand the difference between latte and cappuccino or wonder why the fashion world brought back the seventies, give this book a try.

Wonderful, funny, "works on multiple levels," romantic, escalating. Characterization, romance, and plot sneak up on you in a comfortably structured, seemingly meandering way. A fairy tale in scientific clothing. Thanks to Connie Willis for working hard to write cheerful fare without apology. Already read the book, exhausted Willis's backlist, and looking for new authors? If you liked this book for its intelligentsia romance, try Freedom & Necessity by Brust & Bull and Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. For its light tone and the way threads come together, Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart.

With _Bellwether_, Willis has created something strikingly like _To Say Nothing of the Dog_, one of the funniest compilations of highbrow wit this side of Stoppard and Shakespeare. But _Bellwether_ comes off feeling somewhat inferior: a bit less clever, a bit more oversimplified. While Willis obviously did scads of research regarding the lives of scientists, chaos theory, and fads, her characters are very familiar. For example, as something of a 20-year-old myself, I gritted my teeth through the novel, waiting for a single character between the ages of 15 and 30 to be anything but vapid, vain, and irrationally unfriendly. I don't know what kind of horrid teenage customer service experience Mrs. Willis has had in Greeley, but I resent being defined by association as an i-branded lemming. Through an entire novel crammed with minor-role twentysomethings, nothing but empty-headed lovers of _90210_ and Eddie Vedder ever appear.
Still. This is Connie Willis we're talking about. The writing is almost terminally good, and if a bit of the humor seems a touch forced, well, a lot of it isn't. (In one case that I caught, she drops the gratuitous word "corduroy" in a sentence, which, coupled with an observation her main character made 100 pages earlier, makes for a very funny joke; just to make sure you're awake.) If she resorts to gushy sentimentalism, she cordons it off safely to one five-page section of the novel where it doesn't infect the rest of the work. All in all, this is a fine book. But it has its flaws, and when compared to the virtual perfection of _Dog_, it cannot help but suffer by comparison.

I stumbled upon this small book and decided to give it a try, mainly because I also have Doomsday Book but haven't read it and wanted to read a book by such an accomplished author. For the most part I am very glad that I read Bellwether and you can certainly see why Willis is such an accomplished author.

Willis is a very fluid and smooth writer, transitioning well from character to character and chapter to chapter. Early on she established a theme that rang true throughout. Sandra Foster studies fads and is continually annoyed by Flip, who continually tries to be hip, trendy and up with every fad. Add to the mix Bennett O'Reily, a biologist studying chaos theory, and the basics for a well rounded book are there. Initially I was annoyed with Flip and some of the other characters, who are idiosyncratic and weird, to say the least. At first they don't seem to fit and are nothing more than a way for the author to inject character to the book with a little flare.

Eventually all the elements coalesce as, just as the characters theorize, the chaos grows and grows to the point that it organizes itself and begins to reveal the underlying plot. I was annoyed in the beginning of the book, enjoying myself in the middle of the book, to finally falling in love with the book by the end. Willis masterfully built her characters and plot so that eventually everything was fluid and believable. A definite recommend and I cannot wait to read another book of hers.

4.5 stars.

A strong book that kept getting better as it progressed. This is the second Connie Willis novel I have read, the first being the Doomsday Book. This book fell a little short of her Hugo & Nebula award winner, but still a very good book. Reading through this book has given me the feeling that she has worked in Corporate America. Here portrayal of management's lack of common sense and inept practices will hit home for any Science/Engineering company employee (see dilbert). I would highly suggest this book for anyone in one of those fields....

Anything Connie Willis writes is worth reading. She spins ideas and weaves the plot around them to create very entertaining novels and short stories. Sometimes quirky and funny, and sometimes serious but always a unique. perspective.

A compilation of well researched fad history woven with Ms. Willis' understanding of scientific corporate behavior. Unfortunately for corporate America, her understanding is fairly accurate for most organizations, which makes the description of corporate management's behavior identifiable to a large readership, scientific and non-scientific.

The Author's ability to link fads with corporate social behavior is somewhat superficial but effective. But then the entire book is light reading for groupies against corporate bureaucracy, i.e., the cartoon character "Dilbert", et. al.

Categorizing the book as "Science Fiction", however, is somewhat of a stretch even if the author is touted by the Denver Post as "One of Science Fiction's Best Writers."

When will America's critics wake up and recognize Ms. Willis for what she is? She stays in the SciFi ghetto where her many fans are happy to have her but where the larger crowd of general readers will never hear of her. Willis can hold her own with the best of them. Doomsday Book was a moving drama which offered wise thoughts on the roles of science and religion in society. Bellwether is wonderful social satire. C'mon you eggheads! Time to wake up and smell the genius!

Connie Willis displays the same subtly whacky sense of characterization in "Bellwether" as she shared with us in "To Say Nothing of the Dog". This time, however, the setting is corporate America with its "management style of the week", administrators who shouldn't, and clerical staff who won't. Although not a life-and-death plot like "Doomsday Book", I found myself caring for the future of Sandra and the others as they tried to bring sense out of research lab chaos. This story should be required reading for anyone who has to cope with manipulators, poor managers, and the other strange characters to be found at work every day. But be prepared to laugh out loud.

Willis writes great fun books. Her new ways of addressing old (and in this case new) SciFi situations is always interesting. In this case, the story revolves on what triggers a state change in a complex adaptive system (words she doesn't use.) Solve this problem and get richer than Bill Gates. Her solution is both unique and has a basis in old human experience (with sheep.) Maybe she is right.

What fun. Buy it.

This reminded me of reading Coupland's Generation X or Shampoo Planet. Even though some of the references are dated, I think the discussion of fads from 15 years ago in the context of researching fads from almost 100 years ago makes for a great read. I can't remember why I downloaded this book, but I'm certainly glad I did. Fantastic read!