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Jason's Reviews > The Zero
The Zero
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my review: this book kicked ass.
my top five interesting bits learned from having jess walter come to my form & theory class to discuss "the zero":
1. nicole, the real estate boss, speaks in "bush-ism"s, and the bits you see in the book represent about a 70% reduction in those phrases from what earlier drafts contained
2. wasabi marinated duck = WMD, and zingers = "yellow cake" = enriched plutonium
3. some things in this book sprang from jess's experience as a ghost writer for bernard kerik, who is apparently a bigger #sshole that you can possibly imagine (and by extension, the ghost writer in "the zero" is actually the author)
4. brian remy is a stand-in for the crazy schizophrenia america took on after 9/11, and that's why the book opens with him shooting himself in the head and seeing birds/paper (i.e., bullet = planes)
5. march & april are named as such because the war in iraq started in march and april is when bush decided that we'd "won"
and maybe a spoiler, or possibly just a really good piece of advice:
instead of reading the parts where remy sees (1) his own handwriting on the postcard and (2) the "grow up" note, and thinking they were kinda weird/ambiguous and not being 100% sure what to do with them (like i did), you should hold onto those facts as perhaps the best pieces of evidence on how to read the nature/culpability of remy's character. just sayin'.
my top five interesting bits learned from having jess walter come to my form & theory class to discuss "the zero":
1. nicole, the real estate boss, speaks in "bush-ism"s, and the bits you see in the book represent about a 70% reduction in those phrases from what earlier drafts contained
2. wasabi marinated duck = WMD, and zingers = "yellow cake" = enriched plutonium
3. some things in this book sprang from jess's experience as a ghost writer for bernard kerik, who is apparently a bigger #sshole that you can possibly imagine (and by extension, the ghost writer in "the zero" is actually the author)
4. brian remy is a stand-in for the crazy schizophrenia america took on after 9/11, and that's why the book opens with him shooting himself in the head and seeing birds/paper (i.e., bullet = planes)
5. march & april are named as such because the war in iraq started in march and april is when bush decided that we'd "won"
and maybe a spoiler, or possibly just a really good piece of advice:
instead of reading the parts where remy sees (1) his own handwriting on the postcard and (2) the "grow up" note, and thinking they were kinda weird/ambiguous and not being 100% sure what to do with them (like i did), you should hold onto those facts as perhaps the best pieces of evidence on how to read the nature/culpability of remy's character. just sayin'.
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Started Reading
November 25, 2009
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November 25, 2009
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Jamie
(new)
Nov 25, 2009 01:19PM
Wait - are you reading this before Citizen Vince? I told you Citizen Vince was the best! Or are you afraid of reading about the shady side of Spokompton?
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"citizen vince" may or may not be the best - i don't know. i will say that "the zero" was a national book award finalist. i will also say that it doesn't matter which novel you (or i) think should be read first, because the next time *i* get to choose which book i read it will probably be june 2011. so i have to read "the zero" for class. i also *have* to sit through a four hour discussion of the book... which the author himself is going to take part in. then i think the class will probably go knock back some pints with jess walter. at which point we'll probably talk all about the shady sh*t that goes on in spokompton. so s*ck on that for a while.
I really liked this book. Largely because I'm a fan of books that drop you in the middle of some pretty strange plot structures and force you to figure it out. Sadly, I only came away with 2 of the 5 things listed here.
This is one of my favorite books. I've reread it a few times and really appreciate your tips.
What a wonderful review, sharing those tidbits. I finished and reviewed and was blown away by this book yesterday. I really appreciate your sharing Walter's tips. Thanks, Jason.
Your”interesting bits” are very useful. The first time I read this book (in ~2009, if not earlier), I did get #2 & #4. But #1, #3 & #5 feel like juicy insider information. I knew at the time of 9/11 happening that Giuliani was a NYC joke (he, & Trump, were an embarrassment to the city, and both were considered fools by the NY cognoscenti at that time, and afterwards). But now that Rudy has become an international buffoon, I feel compelled to re-read this Walter novel, just to read how perfectly he captured that con artist that we now all know him to be. I’ll be looking out for your “tips”, so, thanks.
