Eastern Standard Tribe Eastern Standard Tribe Eastern Standard Tribe is a 2004 novel by Cory Doctorow. Like Doctorow's first two books, the entire text was released under a Creative Commons license on Doctorow's website, allowing the whole text of the book to be read for free and distributed without the publisher's permission. The novel takes place in a world where online "tribes" form, where all members set their circadian rhythms to the same time zone even though members may be physically located throughout the world. The protagonist, Art Berry, has been sent to an insane asylum as a result of a complex conspiracy.
Eastern Standard Lombard, the heiress who adopts a tramp in "My Man Godfrey," or Joel McCrea, the Hollywood director who goes underground as a hobo in "Sullivan's Travels", they are driven by conscience to see how the other half lives . . . . If Mr. Greenberg's only achievement were to re-create the joy of screwball comedies, from their elegant structure to their endlessly quotable dialogue, "Eastern Standard" would be merely dazzling good fun. But what gives this play its unexpected weight and subversive punch is its author's ability to fold the traumas of his own time into vintage comedy without sacrificing