In her debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, Rivka Galchen has attempted to create a romantic, even sentimental, take on the works of P.K. Dick. J.G. Ballard, (early)Thomas Pynchon and (to a degree) William Burroughs, authors who created obsessive -- some might say delusional -- renderings of the altered states that contemporary consciousness takes when overloaded with raw data, cultural and/or scientific input, technological stimulus, education, or some combination of any or all of these,and wove them into intricate tapestries filled with complex patterns the meanings of which have been ceaselessly debated.  Galchen enters this essentially masculine debate specifically to ask the reader to step outside of it and consider how it might be impacted by gender.  She coaxes readers to her point of view through the device of employing a masculine first-person voice to tell a tale in which the authorial sympathies are clearly more aligned with the feminine perspectives on the the events as they unfold.  The book provides an important -- some might say essential -- proviso to the literary creation of the modern mind.  Check out the book's very own website, where you can absorb some of its flavor while you read an extract from the novel, an interview with the author, and more.