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Oct 31, 2007

Josh rated it:

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 resum More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2008

brian rated it:

I couldnt get through this one -- it's not a bad novel per se, just yet another one without the power to engage me. I should have known I would have trouble when reviews kept throwing around "kafkaesque" and "noirish" and "another 9/11 novel" to describe Walter's book. But in the end, (or for me, really it was in the beginning), I just couldnt get into the dark humor. I hit Edgar and Guterak and I had enough, couldnt take anymore.

2 comments like

Jan 27, 2009

Nancy rated it:

A very strange book with the 9/11 terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York City as it’s central theme. The main character. NYPD detective Brian Remy shoots himself in the head at the beginning of the book which is never clearly explained. I assume it was because he was depressed about the devastation and death he witnessed. The story unfolds in spurts as he and his partner track down the middle-Eastern terrorists, a device explained by Remy’s spotty memory—he blacks out. He becomes involv More...

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Oct 06, 2011

Kerfe rated it:

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 who
shall I say
is calling?

I read a review of this book, put it on More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Rob added it

Engaging read centering on the aftermath of 9/11 and the shadowy operations that may or may not have developed in its wake. Brian Remy wakes up one morning with a gunshot wound to his head he doesn't remember giving himself. From there he leapfrogs through time, a period of years he experiences like a stone skipping across a pond, dropping in every once in awhile in sentience, but otherwise being animated by another self he doesn't quite understand, that does things he believes he would never do More...

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Nov 25, 2010

Jenny rated it:

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2006/dec...
'Zero' sum game
9/11 satire is one of year's best novels

By Jenny Shank, For the Camera
Sunday, December 10, 2006

The Zero by Jess Walter. Regan, 336 pp. $25.95.

This year saw the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the publication of several novels addressing them. Jay McInerney's "The Good Life" took a love-amid-the-ruins approach with its story of an adulterous affair between two volunteers at a More...

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Aug 28, 2010

Agnes rated it:

I typically read several books at a time because reading one book for 4 hours makes it difficult for me to concentrate. Switching between two or three books is much easier for me.

This was the first book I've read this year where I found myself unable to pick up another book because the story was simply too engaging.

The Zero starts off with the protagonist waking up on the floor while someone is banging loudly on his front door. He quickly looks around the room to note th More...

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Aug 17, 2010

Parksy rated it:

Interesting story around/about 9/11 - but the memory loss as a plot device makes the book difficult to read and kills some of its cohesiveness.... good, but not great.

Amazon.com
Jess Walter, whose new dark (and darkly comic) thriller opens in New York a few days following Sept. 11, 2001, does the smartest thing he could have done: He doesn't mention 9/11 by name, nor does he mention the World Trade Center or any other important person, place or thing having to do with that day. More...

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May 13, 2010

Steve rated it:

This may be perverse, but part of the appeal of this book was in trying to figure out what makes it worthwhile despite seeming to be so ungrounded. As a benchmark for contrast, Walter’s award winner from a few years before, Citizen Vince, was unambiguously good —- and good in a straightforward way. It had a fully fleshed out, likable main character, a colorful supporting cast, and a plot that strode on with cocky assurance. The Zero did not. Brian Remy, in the lead role, was a NY cop in the More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2010

Joe rated it:

Political satire isn’t Jess Walter’s strong suit. The characters in this story are cartoonish mayors, police investigators and spies, none of whom are believable. In addition, Walter pokes fun at the post-911 authorities while ignoring that every one of us had become swept up in rampant patriotism and paranoia at the time. Remember being inspired by some of Bush’s overly simplistic speeches? Remember using gloves to open your mail? I suppose by the time Walter wrote this novel, we had all calm More...

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Oct 27, 2009

Tony rated it:

I really enjoyed Walter's first book (Citizen Vince), so I picked up this, his second, knowing absolutely nothing about it. The story revolves around New York City police officer Brian Remy, who must deal with his newly unstable memory in the weeks after 9/11. It seems that while he physically survived being at Ground Zero, the mental trauma has done all kinds of interesting things to Remy's judgment -- including leading him to possibly shoot himself in the head.

His head injury leads More...

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Aug 07, 2010

Sara rated it:

Not in recent memory have I read a book so enthralling, heartbreaking and with such deadpan humor. In what he calls his "9/12" novel, Jess Walter’s The Zero follows "hero cop" Brian Remy, who is trying to make sense of the world while also suffering from memory lapses. His journey is at once bewildering and mournful, and though I’m not one to go on about perfect first lines, Walter had me at the outset:

They burst into the sky, every bird in creation, angry and agi

More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2010

Kristiana rated it:

I love books that make me think and confuse me and keep me on my toes. The Zero did all of those things and at the end I was wonderfully confused. I read reviews to try to make sense of this National Book Award finalist - which kind of feels like cheating, but I can't help myself. I like to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Hank often asks me what I'm reading, because that is how I answer the question 'How was your day?' I usually answer, 'I'm reading a ____(good, interesting, weird, More...

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Sep 08, 2010

Lauren rated it:

I'm intrigued. I began reading this last night, and it is described as a dark, comic satire on 9/11. The other book I read by Jess Walter, "The Financial Lives of the Poets," was very sweet -- funny, poignant, well-written. It reminded me of Nick Hornby and Tom Perotta, but a bit deeper. So, I'm intrigued by this book because it's definitely much darker. And it's a thriller. Different genre, very different tone. And so far so good...

--

Eh. It's hard to sa More...

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Jul 18, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I loved moments of this book, but didn't really love it as a whole.

It was reminiscent of Catch-22 in parts, which I really did like (I love Catch-22). But I don't know if its because 9/11 is still too recent or what, but some of the more cynical parts just didn't strike the right chord, in my opinion.

Still, I enjoyed the book for its subject and the fact that it didn't treat it in the way you might expect. The people were not all heroes and everything was not all about More...

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Dec 03, 2009

Jason rated it:

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 b More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 14, 2010

Maggie rated it:

You spend about 85% of the time reading this book having no idea what's going on because the main character suffers from gaps in his memory and constantly blips out mid stream from one scene to the next.

He's a cop who was on the scene of 9/11 and actually ran into one of the towers, but doesn't remember what happened after that. Publicity around his heroism puts him in a special task force that basically involved a bunch of different US government agencies sending in guys undercov More...

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Dec 07, 2007

Lynne rated it:

Many people have been turned off by my description of this book when I recommend it to them. If you want to read a sort of darkly comic noir-ish thriller about a cop who was at Ground Zero and who now may or may not be working for a covert government agency but can't tell because he has all these strange memory gaps, then you will like this book.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 24, 2008

Kari rated it:

This book was just too dark for my taste. I really didn't like it. I read it for my book club and I was supposed to be the facilitator for the discussion. That was difficult since I disliked the book, but we did have some good discussion about it once we all got together.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 16, 2011

Sharon added it

This is the first Walters book I have read, but it won’t be the last. He said in his craft talk that The Zero is his favorite, and I can see why. It is ambitious and risky in so many ways: stylistically (the satire is both searingly funny and sad because it illuminated how screwed up our culture is), structurally (the way the protagonist’s memory has been scarred his mirrored in the way the narrative jumps around and is abruptly cut off), and topically (Walters tackles one of the most sacred cow More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2009

Alexis rated it:

Given the book centers around the 9/11 attacks, I feared Walters might stray into the banal -- relying on the inherent emotion connected with 9/11. I can clearly state that this was not the case. In fact, this book borders on genius. It reads like Kazuo Ishiguro meets George Orwell in contemporary America. I think many people may be bothered by or dislike the choppy narrative design; however, the skips and gaps in the story line and the main character's memory are what tie the story together More...

1 comment like

Aug 12, 2009

Chris rated it:

The story follows a former police officer after the events of 9/11. He is part of a forced called the Department of Documents (funny, eh?) and he has these moments where he blacks out and forgets where he is (we are unaware as readers as to his whereabouts, as well). Whatever transpires while Brian is blacked out is up to your imagination, but you can tell that he lives a less than savory life. The situations he ends up in are comical and serious at the same time, but you can't help but feel More...

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Feb 08, 2010

Kate rated it:

The Zero in this book is ground zero in 9/11 Manhattan. It's the background but more like another character throughout the novel. Jess Walter is great at describing strange occurrences in a matter-of-fact way. This story is about Brian Remy, a police officer who who flashes in-and-out of his life. He literally doesn't know what's going on or how he got there from one moment to the next. He also has severe macular degeneration which makes for interesting descriptions. All of this was exciting at More...

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Sep 02, 2009

Molly rated it:

a disappointment. some interesting descriptions and insights into the dominant narrative after 9/11 -- an onslought of superficial responses that distract people from looking inward and outward, preventing people from the difficult process of grieving... a narrative based on false patriotism, fear of the other, denial of the complexity of the human condition, oversimplifications of just about everything. But the author uses "..." way too much, thinking he is perhaps letting the reade More...

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Oct 30, 2009

Cbricephd added it

The Zero is the best post 9/11 novel I've read - better than Maynard's, "The Usual Rules," and McInerney's, "The Good Life." In "The Zero," Brian Remy is a police dective who attempts to shoot himself in the head on 9/12 but fails. A a result, he experiences large gaps in memory that Walters skillfully uses to satrically expose some of the horrendous abuses our government heaped on us post 9/11. The only post 9/11 novel that is better is an unpublished book by a fri More...

2 comments like

Apr 05, 2009

David rated it:

Reading this in fits and starts couldn't have helped, but even if I'd had my head down and soldiered all the way through, I think I'd have been defeated by the author's choice to tell the story through the consciousness of a guy unmoored in time. He'd just become aware in the middle of some scene or pause between scenes and have no idea what was going on, what he was in the middle of doing. Too many pieces for me to hold in my head and put together, though I think I probably got 70% of them fit More...

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Feb 16, 2010

Heman rated it:

Jess Walter's books fall under mystery category in bookstores, but his books are far from your typical mystery books. He is a fine author with a keen insight. His characters are loners who are in a relationship most often than not, and are usually very imperfect people with lots of troubles. His latest book "Zero" is about a cop's adventures after 9/11, who is recruited into a clandestine and Kafkaesque governmental agency; the only thing is he can't remember what he has been up to mos More...

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Aug 31, 2008

Jason rated it:

this book could have been a very different experience for me...
there were aspects of it i really liked, but, as i seem to find so much lately, the bad elements outweigh the good...

the problem here is the same problem that plagued 'the x-files'...
not nearly enough explanations are provided for what is happening or what has occurred...i'll give an example that contains the least amount of spoilers....
in the opening sequence the main character awakens and realizes he h More...

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Mar 10, 2008

Tim rated it:

This was an interesting book on a couple of different levels. On one level the novel is exploring 9/11 and what the aftermath was for those involved, but also in a satirical way, how 9/11 became a banner for people and the country to use for personal gain.

This isn't some prosaic, let's all explore a cultural psyche type of novel. Or something that panders to the East Coast center of the universe mentality think (The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud, instead it is a hardboiled de More...

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Jan 10, 2008

Rick rated it:

A book that is captivating yet on a very fragile level because twice I almost put down (in the literal sense and in the sense of disposing of a wounded animal) the book. Once when the Boss (Giuliani) makes his first extended appearance and again, much later, when a team of security operatives from competing agencies meet to go over their entwined operation. Both are meant to be instances of biting, bitter satire (think Heller) but instead are lazy, empty cartoons (think Mallard Fillmore, only fr More...

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