Review: Zero K: A Novel

ZERO K: A Novel by Don DeLillo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let me just start out by saying don’t ever get yourself cryogenically frozen.

The title Zero K refers to a unit of temperature associated with bionic cryostorage. People choose to get themselves preserved in such a way that they will emerge at a future date in a better world. Which begs the question: if we don’t freeze ourselves, what can we do to ride out the apocalypse?

The story begins just before the protagonist’s step-mother, Artis, is to be taken down to a secret sub-level cyber-secure area in a hidden facility in a forgotten corner of the planet, and put into a cold capsule to wait things out.

Jeffrey, the protagonist, is the observer – the “privileged witness” – and it is through his eyes that this chilling story unfolds. Jeffrey’s father Ross is a billionaire who helped fund this cutting edge facility, so Jeffrey gets to stay there for a time and take it all in.

Until reading Zero K, I thought every aspect of the question of who am I had already been explored. But DeLillo delves into it in a whole new way. If people can be frozen and then unfrozen, does that mean they can live forever? One of the facility’s founders says, “With individual death no longer inevitable, what will happen to the lurking idea of nuclear destruction?”

Zero K can’t be categorized. On what shelf could you possibly put it? Narrator Jeffrey explores the issue of the nature of consciousness as Artis is finally “taken down to the lower levels” and prepared by a team of futuristically surgical-looking white-coated scary people.

And then, in the one chapter not through Jeffrey’s eyes, we are inside Artis’ mind. She has been frozen, but we’re not sure if that means she’s alive, or conscious, or dead, or sleeping, or what. And in this chapter we don’t know if Artis is thinking, if her brain is thinking, if words are floating through some sort of mind. It’s absolutely brilliant.

“Am I just the words,” we think Artis thinks, “or is there someone thinking these words… Why does the brain keep going like this?”

This is why I say don’t get yourself frozen.

Also in this super futuristic underground facility, Jeffrey tries to figure out what part of us makes up our identity. This question of course has been asked for centuries, but in Zero K, it is new. How much of my name contributes to my identity, and what happens if I change my name? There are living sculptures hidden in back rooms; weird performance art in the otherwise cold, lifeless hallways; otherworldly statues asking whether they are form or content.

Reading Zero K is like being on an intellectual cross-fit course, a mind playground. And yet, I wouldn’t call it science fiction or fantasy. It’s futuristic, but it’s in the present.

DeLillo’s writing style is breathtaking. There’s not one unnecessary syllable, not one tiny nano-description that doesn’t have ten more meanings buried beneath. It’s perplexing and chilling. The book is indescribable, breaking new grounds between story and philosophy, and the nature of visionary art.

Review: An Enlightening Quiche

An Enlightening Quiche by Eva Pasco
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Tapestry of Culture, History, and Blue Ribbon Quiche


For a deep, warm read, settle in with a cup of cafetière a piston and a creamy slice of hot quiche, and retreat to the inner sanctum of Eva Pasco’s Proustian search for the meaning of family in the Rhode Island mill town of Beauchemins.

Weaving together synchronicity and history, karma and chance, Pasco reveals the breathtaking story of two women living in a tightly knit French Canadian community – Augusta, a Canuck native and Lindsay, a journalist from Cambridge, Mass. As Lindsay probes the captivating culture of Beauchemins, both women explore their roots and make discoveries that change their lives forever.

An Enlightening Quiche is a study in both the details of what makes a life story, and the big picture of how our lives are affected by those around us. A non-judgmental look at what lies beneath the surface, this first-person narrative embraces cultural differences and varied historical timelines to seek the ties that bind us together as one human race.

Review: A Reunion of Ghosts

A REUNION OF GHOSTS by Judith Claire Mitchell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So, like for geese it’s a gaggle; for horses it’s a herd; for bees it’s a swarm. For ghosts it’s a reunion.

Lives pass through a rent-controlled New York City apartment in A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith Claire Mitchell. Three sisters, and then an aunt. Their lives are directly affected by previous generations – I can’t give too many details for spoiler reasons – and the sisters, burdened by what came before them, give it their best try.

Generations pass stuff down to generations, and how the new generations absorb the history, how they work it – or are unable to work it - into their own lives, is the crux of this incredible story.
As the apartment hosts the lives that pass through it, the stories and traumas that pass through it come to life. Linear time doesn’t exist, even when you put together a detailed family tree – because a grandfather’s choices affect the sisters directly. A mother’s coping skills affect the sisters’ coping skills. We pass emotional and spiritual DNA along, without realizing the impact we have on people not yet born.

And the sisters must live with the spirits of their elders. Or must they? Is it a choice? Or is it already written.

This is an engrossing book about the impermanence and subjectivity of our choices. I couldn't put it down!

Review: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I almost never read a book more than once. This will be my third time through Anne Lamott’s inspirational, super-smart, funny, practical, and ethereal writing guide.

From the first page of the introduction, where the author acquaints us with her childhood and her parents (they were all avid readers and her dad was a writer) to the last page of the final chapter, we are taken on a journey into the workings of the creative mind.

Ms. Lamott is as much a teacher as she is a writer. Her gift is that she makes us all feel special. She establishes a personal relationship with each person who reads BIRD BY BIRD, just as I’m sure she does with each of her workshop students. She trusts us with the tiny details of her writing life, and we in turn trust her. She combines the practical (how to find your unique voice) with the creative (how to scan the far corners of your vision to find material) with the daily how-to’s (how to not get sued for libel) to the emotional (how to stay sane through the process of getting published).

Reading BIRD BY BIRD is like luxuriating in a one-on-one therapy session with someone who knows you very well, wants you to succeed, and actually shows you how. Each time I read it, I discover new things I didn’t see in the previous read. It’s kind of magical that way.

Suzann Kale

Review: Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes, it's a psychological thriller. Yes, you absolutely cannot put it down. And yes, it's perfectly plotted. But more than that (?!), it's a brilliantly written thesis on relationships. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn gets inside the minds of a husband and wife. Who is to say they are dysfunctional? (They probably are, but...) They are so close that each of their quirks becomes a part of the other's way of seeing the world. I don't want to say too much because of spoiler issues, but "Gone Girl" is a magnifying glass, letting us see the smallest details of the marriage connection.

"The once plentiful herds of magazine writers...

...would continue to be culled— by the Internet, by the recession, by the American public, who would rather watch TV or play video games or electronically inform friends that, like, rain sucks! But there’s no app for a bourbon buzz on a warm day in a cool, dark bar. The world will always want a drink."

Flynn, Gillian (2012-06-05). Gone Girl: A Novel (p. 10). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

Review: My Name Is Lucy Barton

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Written in the first person in the form of a memoir, the novel is delicate and deep. The writing style is direct and focused, and most of the time I forgot that this wasn't someone's actual private journal. As Lucy Barton tells her life's story, it's a time in her life when perhaps she is older, more settled and safe, and a successful writer. But most of her focus is on a particular time when she was a young mother and had to spend many weeks in the hospital. Her hospital room looked out over Manhattan and every night she looked at the lights from the Chrysler Building. Her estranged mother came to stay with her during this time, and she and her mother were able to rebuild their relationship.

The novel is about love, really. She details her life as she describes the different people she loved over the years.