Jess Walter
Hardcover | Pages: 336 pages Rating: 3.51 | 2379 Users | 365 Reviews
Mention Based On Books The Zero
| Title | : | The Zero |
| Author | : | Jess Walter |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 336 pages |
| Published | : | August 29th 2006 by Harper (first published 2006) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. Novels. Suspense. Contemporary |
Ilustration Supposing Books The Zero
What's left of a place when you take the ground away? Answer: The Zero. Brian Remy has no idea how he got here. It's been only five days since his city was attacked, and Remy is experiencing gaps in his life--as if he were a stone skipping across water. He has a self-inflicted gunshot wound he doesn't remember inflicting. His son wears a black armband and refuses to acknowledge that Remy is still alive. He seems to be going blind. He has a beautiful new girlfriend whose name he doesn't know. And his old partner in the police department, who may well be the only person crazier than Remy, has just gotten his picture on a box of First Responder cereal. And these are the good things in Brian Remy's life. While smoke still hangs over the city, Remy is recruited by a mysterious government agency that is assigned to gather all of the paper that was scattered in the attacks. As he slowly begins to realize that he's working for a shadowy operation, Remy stumbles across a dangerous plot, and soon realizes he's got to track down the most elusive target of them all--himself. And the only way to do that is to return to that place where everything started falling apart.Declare Books In Pursuance Of The Zero
| Original Title: | The Zero |
| ISBN: | 0060898658 (ISBN13: 9780060898656) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award Finalist (2006) |
Rating Based On Books The Zero
Ratings: 3.51 From 2379 Users | 365 ReviewsAssess Based On Books The Zero
I've actively avoided the 9/11 novel. I read a couple in the early years, I can't even tell you which they were (oh, if I thought about it, I'd come up with the titles, but that's not the point) but they pissed me off and so I vowed to make a wide berth around the ouevre. Ian McEwan's chilling and intense Saturday was an exception to my 9/11 Literature Moratorium, yet Saturday took place in London in 2003, tangentially related to the attacks in the United States two years before. But the others
So, heres my dilemma. Jess Walter is one of my favorite contemporary authors. This is based on Citizen Vince and The Financial Lives of the Poets, which I read and devoured with glee. His wickedly dark humor resonates with me and therefore I greatly anticipated reading this book. Sadly, The Zero did not live up to my expectations. The protagonist, Brian Remy, has these gaps of memory, possibly due to his having shot himself in the head in the beginning of the book. He forgets how he got where he
I just wanted to add some Leonard Cohen; it sets the tone better really than any review could:And who by fire, who by water,Who in the sunshine, who in the night time...Who by avalanche, who by powder,Who for his greed, who for his hunger...And who shall I say is calling?...and who by brave assent, who by accident,Who in solitude, who in this mirror...and whoshall I sayis calling?I read a review of this book, put it on reserve in the library; months later, there it is, I don't have a clue.So I
Brilliant.This is brilliant. I'm sensitive to the whole 9/11 thing, and have not been able to really enjoy much fiction or art based on that horrific event. Mark Helprin's story, "Monday", has been the only exception until now. The Zero will be compared with Catch-22 by Heller, with the work of Kafka, and also with Kosinski's Being There...all for good reason. This was one I could not put down. This perfect blend of pathos, irony, dark humor, and absurdity addresses the most serious subjects
Jess Walter is from Washington State, so it goes without saying that he's a genius. This book came to my attention because the hilarious author Nick Hornby has declared Walter to be an extraordinary and gifted talent. I agree, as I do with most everything Nick Hornby utters. This is one of those books that I wasn't sure I liked when I was 20 pages into it. Then I blinked once and was somehow 100 pages in, hooked, and the story was coming together nicely. The story jumps around constantly because
This is not a bad book. It participates in two genres: it is a hard-boiled crime novel and a kind of absurdist satire in the style of what I imagine Catch-22 reads like (although I've never read it) or how I imagine some people prefer to read Kafka's novels. The novel uses these two genres to tell a story about 9/11. The hero is a detective who suffers from a degenerative eye condition and from profound short-term memory loss (so that the focalized narrative always breaks off mid-scene and
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