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.

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