The Zero LP

the Zero Is A Groundbreaking Novel, A Darkly Comic Snapshot Of Our Times That Is Already Being Compared To The Works Of Franz Kafka And Joseph Heller. from Its Opening Pages—when Hero Cop Brian Remy Wakes Up To Find He's Shot Himself In The Head—novelist Jess Walter Takes Us On A Harrowing Tour Of A City And A Country Shuddering Through The Aftershocks Of A Devastating Terrorist Attack. As The Smoke Slowly Clears, Remy Finds That His Memory Is Skipping, Lurching Between Moments Of Lucidity And Days When He Doesn't Seem To Be Living His Own Life At All. The Landscape Around Him Is At Once Fractured And Oddly Familiar: A World Dominated By A Machiavellian Mayor Known As The Boss, And Peopled By Gawking Celebrities, Anguished Policemen Peddling First Responder Cereal, And Pink Real Estate Divas Hyping The Spoils Of Tragedy. Remy Himself Has A New Girlfriend He Doesn't Know, A Son Who Pretends He's Dead, And An Unsettling New Job Chasing A Trail Of Paper Scraps For A Shadowy Intelligence Agency Known As The Department Of Documentation. Whether That Trail Will Lead Remy To An Elusive Terror Cell—or Send Him Circling Back To Himself—is Only One Of The Questions Posed By This Provocative Yet Deeply Human Novel. from A Novelist Of Astounding Talent, the Zero Is An Extraordinary Story Of How Our Trials Become Our Transgressions, Of How We Forgive Ourselves And Whether Or Not We Should. the New York Times - Janet Maslin the Best Of the Zero Breathes Life Into The Author's Idea Of Post-9/11 Life As A Fever Dream For Its Characters, Some Kind Of Cultural Illness They All Shared. It Wonders Why That Dream Is So Enveloping. This Book's Heightened Paranoia Invites The Asking Of More Questions, From Why Cellphones Need To Take Pictures To Why A Piece Of Cake Is So Much More Than Its Component Parts. Can a man ever realize that he's been the villain of his own story?The Zero is a groundbreaking novel, a darkly comic snapshot of our times that is already being compared to the works of Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller.From its opening pages—when hero cop Brian Remy wakes up to find he's shot himself in the head—novelist Jess Walter takes us on a harrowing tour of a city and a country shuddering through the aftershocks of a devastating terrorist attack. As the smoke slowly clears, Remy finds that his memory is skipping, lurching between moments of lucidity and days when he doesn't seem to be living his own life at all. The landscape around him is at once fractured and oddly familiar: a world dominated by a Machiavellian mayor known as "The Boss," and peopled by anguished policemen, gawking celebrities, and pink real estate divas inventing new uses for tragedy. Remy himself has a new girlfriend he doesn't know, a son who pretends he's dead, and an unsettling new job chasing a trail of paper scraps for a shadowy intelligence agency known as the Department of Documentation. Whether that trail will lead Remy to an elusive terror cell—or send him circling back to himself—is only one of the questions posed by this provocative yet deeply human novel.From a young novelist of astounding talent, The Zero is an extraordinary story of how our trials become our transgressions, of how we forgive ourselves and whether or not we should. 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. Hero Cop Brian Remy Wakes Up After Shooting Himself In The Head-- And So Begins A Harrowing Tour Of A City And Country Shuddering Through The Aftershock Of A Devastating Terrorist Attack. In The Tradition Of Franz Kafka, Joseph Heller, And Don Delillo, Comes This Extraordinary Story Of Searing Humor And Sublime Horror, Of Blindness, Bewilderment, And That Achingly Familiar Feeling That The World Has Suddenly Stopped Making Sense.--publisher. Jess Walter. Five days after a terrorist attack decimates his home city, Brian Remy struggles with gaps in his memory pertaining to a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a girlfriend whose name he does not know, deteriorating eyesight, and a new job with a shadowy intelligence operation Title from eBook title screen (viewed on Sept. 6, 2006).