May 29, 2016

Foxlowe - Eleanor Wasserberg


Harper Collins Canada, June 2, 2016.

 

Four Stars


 

Foxlowe is the story of a utopian community gone wrong, and the lives of its members as they are pushed to their limits. It is told from the perspective of a child named Green, who has lived her whole short life in a house called Foxlowe. The novel is chilling right from the start – because Green does not know everything the adults are up to, neither do we. However, there are enough hints about the adults’ dangerous behaviour that we soon realize something is seriously wrong at Foxlowe.

 

The founders of Foxlowe – Freya, Richard and Libby – were seeking a new, better kind of family. The group is more important than anything in the outside world. If any member decides to abandon the community, they are forgotten by the family and become known only as “leavers.” The house that the group lives in was inherited by Richard, and he maintains equality to the other founders, but in fact it is Freya that takes charge of things most of the time. Although they begin the commune by working together, a clear current of jealousy runs between Freya and Libby, as they seem to share the role of wife to Richard.

 

The members of Foxlowe wish to follow ancient ways of living – they worship the nearby Standing Stones and celebrate the Solstice, which is a healing time for the community, no modern medicine needed. They keep the children in line by threatening them with the Bad, a force from the outside world that can be kept away by following the rules – but it can just as easily get inside the children and destroy them. Because we hear about their beliefs through Green’s youthful filter, it has the potential to be a true supernatural force. More likely it is simply a way to punish the children without taking any personal blame – it is ultimately an excuse for child abuse.

 

Two other children share the house with Green. One is Toby, a boy several years older than her. The other is Blue – she is brought to the house as a baby and no explanation is given about where she has come from. At first, Green is jealous of the new baby, but soon she takes Blue under her wing as a younger sister. The three have a seemingly idyllic childhood, although it is haunted by the threat of abuse. They are free to learn in the natural world, with no formal education. Because they have no outside perspective to compare their lives to, the children see their existence as normal – until Toby and Blue start plotting to escape.

 

Green is the strongest defender of Foxlowe and Freya, despite Freya’s penchant for coming up with new and unusual forms of punishment for the children. She values an experimental new way of living, but it is inevitably corrupted by human flaws. So much is left unsaid regarding the true mechanics of Foxlowe, making the story all the more disturbing and atmospheric. It has a gothic feel to it, and the house especially seems to exist outside of time and space.

 

When Green eventually leaves Foxlowe, as we know she must, she discovers startling new horrors in the outside world. She is finally free, but instead of a happy new life, she causes more damage to herself. In Green’s later life, it is revealed how Foxlowe eventually disintegrated, and the details are extremely disturbing. Foxlowe is an exploration of group mentality and the full extent of the horrors of which humans are capable. The house is haunted, but there is no need for ghosts – the human mind is dangerous enough.

 

I received this novel from HCC First Look in exchange for an honest review.

May 28, 2016

Cambodia Noir - Nick Seeley


Scribner, March 15, 2016.



Four Stars



Phnom Penh, Cambodia is the end of the road for a group of washed up journalists, including our protagonist Will Keller. He is a photographer, working for a friend who edits a local newspaper, and drifting in a haze of drugs and alcohol – which inevitably lead to sex and violence. Will is halfway through a downward spiral in a city that’s easy to get lost in, when he accidentally photographs a major governmental conspiracy in the works. Other journalists are getting killed for less, so Will burrows deeper into the underground world of Cambodia.


Meanwhile, Will is approached by a woman named Kara Saito – she has come to Phnom Penh to find her missing sister June, who was interning at Will’s newspaper. June left the city to track down a story in the surrounding countryside, and she hasn’t been seen or heard from since. She left behind her luggage in Will’s apartment building, including a journal from her travels around the world. As Will flips through the words and pictures in hope of finding a clue to June’s whereabouts, he begins to realize that she was not who she said she was, and Kara might not be either.


Will inefficiently attempts to track down June, and even her travel diaries are not much help – she travelled to many countries, seeking something that is left undefined. Meanwhile, the government is in an uproar over the incident from Will’s photographs, and the seedy underworld of Phnom Penh is closing ranks around the journalist expats. It probably helps to know a little bit about Cambodia’s political situation to follow the events of the novel, but in any case, there’s no mistaking the gritty, depraved world of poverty, drugs and prostitution.


Both the language and setting are realistic and evocative – reading this novel feels like slipping into Will’s sweaty, drug-induced nightmare. The effect is hallucinatory, intense and exciting, especially for a debut novel. The story moves quickly, and it is a thrilling ride. This is true noir, at its best.


I received this novel from Scribner and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

May 25, 2016

The Night Sister - Jennifer McMahon


Anchor Canada, March 8, 2016.



Four Stars



The Night Sister is a creepy, supernatural thriller set at the Tower Motel, a derelict old building in New England. With obvious nods to Hitchcock and the movie “Psycho,” a series of violent and terrifying crimes take place in the old motel. The novel moves in time, from the 1980s childhood of sisters Piper and Margot, and their friend Amy who lives at the motel, to the 1950s and the story of Amy’s mother and aunt, to the present day in which Amy is raising her own family at the motel.


The novel opens with a horrific crime that involves Amy and her family – her young daughter is the only survivor. An extremely pregnant Margot find out about the crime through her police officer husband, and Margot’s sister Piper ends up forming a bond with Amy’s daughter. Amy leaves one clue at the crime scene: a blurry photograph and the words “Room 29” – referring to a hidden room in the Tower Motel.


As we learn more about the motel’s past inhabitants, secrets are revealed. Amy’s Aunt Sylvie left behind a series of letters written to none other than Alfred Hitchcock, describing her unusual sister, Rose. And Piper recalls the summer of 1989 in which her and Margot spent all of their time with the charismatic Amy, who kept them busy with the mysteries of the motel. Because details about the past emerge slowly, the novel is suspenseful rather than gory – there is horror, but it is scary because of what goes unsaid. The subtle twists are more exciting as we learn that almost all of the characters are unreliable, and, like Piper, we don’t know who we can trust.


The Night Sister begins slowly, and builds to a suspenseful climax – it’s not outright scary, but instead it is the unexpected elements that make it so creepy. The atmospheric details and accurate historical settings make this novel an enjoyable escapist read. The supernatural elements of the story come from obscure folklore and witchcraft, so they are still unpredictable in a world in which vampires and werewolves are everywhere. Paranormal stories don’t usually scare me, but it was pretty creepy finishing this late at night – while the ending was a bit ridiculous, it was easy to suspend disbelief and just enjoy it. I will be reading more by McMahon, just because it was so much fun to follow her lead and live for awhile in her world of suspense and intrigue.


I received this novel from Anchor Canada and Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.

May 22, 2016

The Hurricane Lover - Joni Rodgers


December 10, 2013.



Three Stars



The Hurricane Lover is set in New Orleans during the summer of 2005 – it is hurricane season, and the novel is heavy with tension because we as readers know that Hurricane Katrina is on its way. The novel focuses on the experiences of two people, along with their families – as the storm builds, during its climax, and as they bear witness to the horrific aftermath.


Corbin is a Gulf Coast climatologist who begs the citizens of New Orleans to evacuate, but many refuse because of false alarms in the past, which resulted in expensive hotel stays and the looting of homes, with no real damage from the storm. Instead, those citizens who live on high ground throw “hurricane parties” to wait out the storm. Meanwhile, perky blonde weatherwoman Shay makes light of the situation on the news, reporting that she will “shelter in place.” Her flippant attitude about the impending hurricane upsets Corbin, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend.


On the morning of the storm, Shay reconnects with Corbin because she has uncovered some startling information about his brother – she thinks he is involved with a shady website called “Hurricane Lovers” in which anonymous people make plans to hook up during major storm systems. It seems harmless, until some of the men don’t survive their meetings with one particular unknown woman. Of course, she is the one Corbin’s brother has plans to meet during Hurricane Katrina.


As Shay and Corbin set out to warn him, the hurricane hits full force and the two are trapped together in various extreme situations. They are struggling to survive, but emotions get in the way, and Shay takes off on her own. I felt that this was the strongest part of the novel, in which Shay uses a handheld camera to record the horrors of the storm. The city is truly post-apocalyptic at this point, and the scenes are shockingly graphic. Ten years later, it’s still hard to believe that these events really took place in the United States. Rodgers holds nothing back in her descriptions of the ruined city, and it was the first time that I felt I truly understood what people went through in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.


One of my favourite things about the novel is that the story is interspersed with actual news reports, speeches by then-President George Bush, and emails to and from Michael Brown, head of FEMA. Some were so horrifically comical that it’s hard to believe they really happened – for instance, as displaced people are starving in the Superdome, Brown’s staff are sending him urgent emails to roll up his sleeves when on tv, in order to seem more involved in the recovery effort.


As I said, the parts of the novel set during and immediately after the storm were by far the most powerful, but the story carried on much longer than it should have. The settings and characters after the storm were unrealistic and contrived, especially Shay’s clichéd rich southern family. I wish it had wrapped up sooner, because the romance/family drama tropes were a disservice to the earlier, more powerful aspects of the novel.


Meanwhile, the thriller/murder plot dragged on to the end, although it was superfluous to the Hurricane Katrina story, and completely unnecessary. For most of the middle of the novel, I had actually forgotten there was a killer on the loose. It felt like two different novels were being forced into one, and it didn’t help either one to develop. The Hurricane Lover is certainly worth the read, but you can safely stop reading once Shay and Corbin escape New Orleans, and get more out of the novel that way than if you finish it.


I received this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

May 19, 2016

Lie in Plain Sight - Maggie Barbieri


Minotaur Books, March 15, 2016.

Two Stars



Lie in Plain Sight is the third in a series of books about bakery owner Maeve Conlon, who finds herself at the centre of every crime that takes place in her small town. She acts as an amateur sleuth in these cases, but they also all involve her personally – it seems like too many dramatic incidents to happen to one woman. It would probably be better to read these books in order, otherwise there are some parts of Maeve’s back story that are missing; however, it can be read on its own as a surface-level crime novel.


When Maeve needs help at her bakery, she hires the mother of another student at her daughter’s school. The new employee is down on her luck and desperately needs work, but there is something suspicious and really unlikeable about her as well. Soon after she starts work, the employee’s daughter Taylor gets sick at school. The school calls the bakery, and Maeve gives the girl permission to go home – but she never arrives. Now the mother and much of the community blames Maeve for the girl’s disappearance, even though Taylor is eighteen and weeks away from graduation – more than capable of making her way home in the middle of the day.


Conveniently, Maeve is dating a local cop, so she uses what little information she hears from him about Taylor’s disappearance to launch her own investigation. Maeve’s crime-fighting initiative seems to come out of nowhere, although apparently it happened before in her previous novels. During her search, many local characters become suspects, but none are all that believable. Really, that was my problem with the entire novel – none of it seemed very likely, and the whole scenario was too far from reality.


Maeve is a completely unlikeable character, which is fine – but I just couldn’t even identify with or understand her motivations, which made it hard to become immersed in the story. There is no explanation of why she thinks she can act as an amateur detective, and no plausible reason for why she gets away with her vigilantism, especially with her police officer boyfriend hanging around – apparently, he isn’t very observant. The story started out with an appealing and provocative mystery, but it didn’t really follow through. Perhaps it would help to read the first two books in order to identify with Maeve, but this novel just didn’t work for me.


I received this novel from Minotaur Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

May 16, 2016

The Lamentations of Zeno - Ilija Trojanow


Verso Books, May 3, 2016.

Four Stars



Zeno Hintermeier’s lamentations are endless, as he takes us on a journey in this novel. Not only is his marriage failing and his career faltering, he is also undergoing an existential crisis due to the melting of the polar ice caps. Zeno is a geologist, and he has been watching the progress of global warming throughout his lifetime. Now, as a scientist working as a tour guide on a cruise ship, he has a front row seat to the potential end of the world.


Overqualified for his job as tour guide, Zeno feels superior to his coworkers and especially to the guests on the ship. As they traverse the Antarctic, he finds new and powerful ways to convey the rapid loss of the glaciers, desperate to make the tourists take this tragedy seriously. The tourists, meanwhile, are more interested in taking selfies with penguins and gorging themselves on cruise ship buffet dinners. In his desperation, Zeno creates an extreme wake-up call for the effects of global warming – and it almost ends in tragedy.


In his sixties, Zeno is in the process of looking back at his life, and lamenting all he has lost. With the end of his marriage, he has taken a lover on the cruise ship, but he doesn’t see her as an equal in passion and intelligence. His career has become irrelevant, and his behavior is increasingly erratic. The melting of the ice caps pushes him over the edge, bringing back memories of a colder, idealized past. The novel becomes more complex as Zeno’s inner world begins to unravel.


Zeno’s personal issues are a small-scale view of what can be lost in a lifetime. The larger issue of global warming then becomes a haunting view of our entire existence as a species – and the potential for an end to the world we know. Zeno recognizes the fragility of the glaciers, and how we don’t appreciate them until they are almost gone – much like other aspects of his personal life. This novel brings humanity to the struggle to preserve the natural world. It is a small book, but it is packed with ideas that must be understood slowly and deeply.


I received this novel from Verso Books in exchange for an honest review.

May 13, 2016

Spill Simmer Falter Wither - Sara Baume

Houghton Mifflin, February 1, 2016.

Three Stars



This novel is a (one-sided) conversation between a man and his dog, and in many ways it is a love story, told with affection and empathy. The adventures of man and dog follow the seasons, as echoed in the title of the novel. However, the plot is secondary to the experimental structure and lyrical language.


The narrator is overcome with loneliness after the death of his father, his only real companion in life. As he tells us more about himself, we realize that he might not be the most reliable narrator, with his sheltered upbringing and undeveloped sense of self. In fact, he is likely living with a high-functioning form of autism, and his experience with mental illness is told with care and compassion. The story seems to moves at a fast pace due to the brisk speech patterns, yet there is actually very little action.


When the man sees an advertisement for an unwanted dog, he finds the answer to his isolation. The dog comes to be named One-Eye, for obvious reasons. He is a scraggly mutt that no one else wanted, but the narrator becomes attached to him almost immediately, able to see the world through the eyes of another unwanted member of society. One-Eye, however, is also lacking in training, and he bites a child in his excitement – leading to a cross-country road trip to escape a one-way journey back to the pound. The man must leave the only home he is ever known in order to save his dog, yet he doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice everything for One-Eye.


Although there are a few incidents where the two run into other humans, the man and his dog are essentially the only characters in the novel. And in fact, One-Eye becomes a reflection of the man’s own inner world – the man begins to have dreams from the dog’s perspective, and there are many similarities between the two. The man treats his dog better than he cares for himself, and imagines that One-Eye has human characteristics and desires. However, One-Eye is fearless, going after what he wants, while the man lives with constant anxiety about the world around him – although he is slowly inspired to become more like his dog.


With a sense of dread, the story slowly accelerates toward disaster, just as the action words of the title move toward decay. The actual plot is slow and repetitive, which adds to the distinctive voice of the narrator. The ending is in fact worthwhile, giving us a completed (and somewhat shocking) picture of our narrator, but it just takes so long to get there. The strength of this novel is its creative use of language, which manages to be poetic and playful at the same time. The exploration of speech patterns is fun and interesting, once you get into the rhythm.


Please don’t pick this up if you are looking for a feel good story of a man and his dog – instead, it is the character study of an unstable man, with dog as confessor. His loneliness is assuaged by the unconditional love of a rescue dog, and in spite of the heartache presented here, the love between human and pet is thoughtfully and realistically portrayed.


I received this novel from Houghton Mifflin and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

May 10, 2016

We Love You, Charlie Freeman - Kaitlyn Greenidge


Algonquin Books, March 8, 2016.

Four Stars



The Freeman family have been given a unique opportunity. They were invited to the Toneybee Institute in rural Massachusettes in order to study the behavior of chimpanzees, and one chimp in particular – Charlie. The Freemans already have two daughters, teenage Charlotte and nine-year-old Callie, and Charlie is quickly welcomed into their family. They live in the institute, alongside Charlie, ostensibly observing his behavior. However, Charlotte finds some information that leads her to believe they may all be a part of the Toneybee’s experiment.


The Freemans are black, and they have suddenly been transplanted into an almost entirely white community. Charlotte especially struggles with her sense of identity, as she tries to fit in while preserving and celebrating her differences as well. In her search to understand her role within the Toneybee research project, she discovers an old book that exposes the Institute’s questionable past – it is a study of black people in the 1920s, and one woman in particular, who was put on display and studied much like Charlie the chimp. This woman’s perspective alternates with the Freeman family throughout the book, making the novel an examination not only of chimp-human relations, but also a study of race. It asks what ultimately makes us human, and whether our human similarities are enough to overcome the concept of race.


This novel is also very much an exploration of family – it looks at marriage, sisterhood, and the bond between a parent and child. The Freemans and Charlie communicate using sign language, which creates obstacles in getting their point across – however, the human Freeman family struggle more with communication amongst themselves. Both Charlotte and Callie find themselves competing with the chimp for their mother’s attention, which affects the girls even into adulthood. They are constantly searching for language to express their emotions, and much is lost in translation. The characters have very realistic reactions to their unusual situations, and so their endings are not always happy ones.


The obvious comparison to this novel would be Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – the main premise is the same, but this novel becomes a larger, all-encompassing story. It situates the chimpanzee interactions in a broader time and place, using questionable anthropological research to explore ideas about race. Greenidge’s perspective is unusual, and it really makes you think about the psychological implications of both the Freeman’s experiment, and the earlier study.


There is a lot of psychological tension because so much goes unsaid between the characters. At the start of the novel, the Freemans are a tight-knit family, but as their experiment progresses, there are multiple secrets kept from each and every family member. I found the Freeman family sections completely compelling, and Charlotte was easily relatable. The flashback sections were more difficult to become immersed in; however, they are also more difficult in subject matter, and necessary to the novel – I just felt like maybe there was another way to deal with those sections. Regardless, this was an intriguing, thoughtful novel that everyone should read.


I received this novel from Algonquin Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

May 08, 2016

Innocents and Others - Dana Spiotta

Scribner, March 8, 2016.



Three Stars



Meadow and Carrie grew up together in L.A. during the 1980s. They were so close that they even chose to follow the same career path. Both women became filmmakers, although their work couldn’t be more different. While Carrie makes mainstream, popular movies, Meadow is edgy and avant-garde, preferring to film in a confrontational documentary style. Their contrasting ideologies are much of the reason that the two best friends grew apart.


The novel is filled with supposedly source documents, beginning with the story of Meadow’s affair with a much older filmmaker, although this account is later discredited by other sources. Right away, we are shown that these primary documents are unreliable, and that fact calls into question the whole concept of documentary films. When each section contradicts what came before it, we cannot know if anything is absolute truth. Meadow films real people telling their authentic story, yet she manipulates it to fit her own preconceived plot – it is a reminder not to believe everything we see on a t.v. screen.


The novel also poses moral questions about exposing people’s innermost thoughts and feelings on film. There is the matter of consent, and whether the documentary subjects truly understand what they are agreeing to. This is best illustrated in the character of Jelly, a woman who seduces male members of the film industry over the phone, in order to disguise her physical self. She eventually agrees to be a part of one of Meadow’s projects, and exposing herself on film dissolves her sense of self. While Carrie works on films with happy endings, Meadow wishes merely to incite people to reveal themselves, regardless of the consequences.


Because the story jumps around between so many sources, including multiple perspectives, articles, reviews, diaries, etc., it was hard to really sink into the novel. It didn’t really come together for me until the final third or so, and I wish the various plot threads had connected sooner. The quickly changing points of view bring a cinematic element to the novel – as we suddenly cut to different scenes, the reader is manipulated by the filmmaker/author. Spiotta is clearly talented, but I found her style of writing cold and distant, often slipping too far into the abstract. It would be gimmicky and pretentious if it hadn’t been handled so well. Even so, I couldn’t help but compare this novel to one I read last year, also about a filmmaker: The Life and Death of Sophie Stark was much more compelling, both as a character study and as a novel about the making of films.


I received this novel from Scribner and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

May 06, 2016

Nowhere Girl - Susan Strecker

Thomas Dunne Books, March 1, 2016.



Four Stars



Cady’s twin sister Savannah was always prettier and more popular in high school – until she was murdered. The killer was never found, and years later, Cady is still struggling with survivor’s guilt. The girls had a strong psychic connection between the two of them, and Cady could feel her sister’s last breath. She channels her unresolved issues of guilt into a promising career as a writer of homicide novels.


Although her professional life is a success, Cady’s personal life is a disaster. Her marriage is falling apart, and her husband is drifting away from her. Overall, everything is stalled because of her obsession with finding her sister’s killer. She runs into an old friend, Brady, who works as a prison guard and she convinces him to let her interview a serial killer. The interview is ostensibly for her novel, but really she is searching for the motivations behind her sister’s seemingly senseless death. Meanwhile, old feelings between Cady and Brady are rekindled, creating further stress on her marriage.


What makes this novel so exciting is that everyone is a suspect, including Cady – sometimes she even begins to doubt herself. She has a great, quirky group of friends, made up of amazingly realistic characters, and she is suspicious of each one in turn. Cady herself is completely flawed, which makes her all the more likeable. She is an unusual character who doesn’t fit into a distinct stereotype, and I found her to be so realistic and fun to read about. Cady is a different kind of heroine, and this novel is unlike a traditional thriller/mystery. It is plot-drive, but with so much depth of character.


Each character is solid and fleshed-out, with intriguingly realistic backstories. The dialogue between the friends is witty, fun and completely believable. Cady has her love interests, yet there are no instant romances – every one of these people have believable complications. Although the subject matter is dark, much of the story is told with a light touch, making this really fun to read.


When Cady lost her sister, she also lost herself – the girls were so connected, that Cady did not think she could survive without Savannah. As she rediscovers her own strength and independence, she is able to focus her energy and find the killer. All of her friends and family are suspects, but I certainly never came close to guessing the culprit. Strecker’s writing style is complex and entertaining, and I look forward to reading more by this author.


I received this novel from Thomas Dunne Books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

May 03, 2016

Zero K - Don DeLillo

Scribner, May 3, 2016.



Four Stars



Jeff Lockhart has an unsettled relationship with his father, Ross, who abandoned him and his mother when Jeff was thirteen. However, when Ross summons Jeff to a secret compound in the desert near the border of Kyrgyzstan, Jeff doesn’t hesitate to make the long, uncomfortable journey to see him. Upon arrival at the cult-like enclave known as The Convergence, Jeff discovers that his billionaire father is the main investor in a new technology that seeks to keep death at bay – they will preserve the bodies of the fatally ill until medical advances are able to cure them. Jeff’s stepmother Artis is dying, and she will be one of the first bodies used in the experiment. Ross wishes to follow her, unable to face life without his wife.


So far, the premise of this novel sounds like science fiction, but it is so much more than that – it is a meditation on humanity and the necessity of death, which gives structure to life. In seeking to transcend mortality, Jeff feels that his father is betraying those he will be leaving behind. In contrast, Ross asks, “[i]sn’t it a human glory to refuse to accept a certain fate?” The meandering conversations between Jeff and Ross, who represent spirituality and science, respectively, are some of the most interesting parts of the novel – DeLillo uses his characters as a way to express ideas, which can be impersonal, but it works here. Zero K is filled with weighty philosophical observations discovered in small moments that, when analyzed, are found to be so much more.


While Jeff is committed to living out his natural life and experiencing old age and death, Ross is willing to sacrifice his present experience in order to reawaken in some hopeful future, alongside Artis. Father and son must deal with their conflicting ideologies, but they also have more traditional familial issues. Jeff is conflicted about even being with his father and Artis, out of a sense of loyalty to his mother – he cares about his stepmother, but he is bitter that Ross abandoned his first wife. It is ironic that Jeff seems so unhappy, or at the most, detached from his current life, yet he defends it vehemently against his father.


The darkest elements of human nature are contrasted against the awe and beauty of human experience. The compound is filled with absurdities, one of which is the television screens in the hallways that play scenes of natural disasters and acts of terrorism. Ironically, Ross made his money by analyzing the economic impact of these natural disasters – he takes an “act of God” and translates it into scientific fact. In the same way, he claims that The Convergence is scientifically sound, with nothing speculative or wishful about the process.


Jeff is obsessed with naming people and defining them, perhaps because of his own fractured sense of identity. His analysis of those around him is cold, which is emphasized by the stark dialogue throughout the novel – the speech patterns are realistic, yet lacking emotion. Although the setting of the compound seems mysterious and surreal, Jeff’s return to his real life in New York is just as inscrutable, with the city as a strange backdrop for Jeff’s attempt to make living meaningful. In the end, it is the natural beauty of the city, and its literal light, that gives Jeff hope for his present life, eclipsing the darkness of terror and disaster. Zero K is a short read, but it is not an easy one, and I think it could be enjoyed multiple times to absorb the many layers of human experience as presented by DeLillo.


I received this novel from Scribner/Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.