Customer Reviews

Just a Couple of Days

5 star:		(101)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I usually cringe at gushy superlatives, but this time it cannot be helped. This is absolutely the best book I've ever read. To be certain, it would be inaccessible to folks with a fifth-grade reading level. It would also be incomprehensible to people who cannot think on an allegorical level. But for anyone who knows how to think, THIS BOOK WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! Every element of the story is tightly crafted. I wish I could describe the story but I've already tried with my friends and find myself fumbling about trying to describe it. Let me try this: It's a hilarious and hallucinogenic apocalypse, but apocalypse doesn't mean what you think it means. The story and the main characters are so engaging that after the first forty pages I couldn't put it down to answer the phone. The writing has layer upon wonderful layer of allegory and metaphor reminiscient of Thomas Pynchon or Tom Robbins, and the epilogue left me with an afterglow that I've yet to come down from.

I'm impressed, but I'm having a hard time describing why. Just a Couple of Days is not easily categorized into a neat little genre. It has elements of sci-fi, but then not really, or perhaps only to the extent that Kurt Vonnegut does. But then it's much more inspiring than Vonnegut's work, and so then it drifts toward Tom Robbins, as I've seen it compared to in other reviews, but then that comparison falters too because the plotline here is much more engaging and suspenseful. There is the wordplay, which I resisted the same way I usually resist the first 50 pages of any Robbins novel before I finally succumb. But here too, the wordplay also serves as a demonstration of the novel's theme, which has mainly to do with the significance of language to the human perception of reality. I was entertained but I was also enlightened, and so there's also some similarities to be drawn to "visionary fiction" such as James Redfield and Daniel Quinn, but then again not really, as those writers tend to be overly ponderous and contrived, with flimsy plotlines and occasional flakiness. There's really none of that here, despite the fact that one of the main characters' names is Flake, which should illustrate the fact that Vigorito takes nothing seriously. It was fun, an absurdist psychedelic satire of the apocalypse, that's my categorization. I've never read anything like it before, and I look forward to his next novel.

It is unfathomable to me that anyone could dislike this book. However, I've seen it happen with a couple of my friends. It works like this: People either love it or they hate it. There is no lukewarm shrugging. I'm no empiricist, but I think I have identified a couple of characteristics that may determine which category you might fall into.

1. If you can't stand artists who horse around with their craft, whether it's jam bands or wordplay a la Robbins, you may not like this book. I happen to love this kind of free associative spontaneity in music and writing.

2. If this godforsaken world has overcooked your spirit into hardboiled cynicism, you may not like this book. This book is about love, universal love. Some people scoff at this idea.

That's what my friends have in common anyway. Another characteristic might include whether a non-linear plot frustrates you. If so, this one will enrage you. All told, it's not my absolute favorite book, but it's definitely up there.

I normally do not write reviews. But, it's been quite awhile since I've read a book that engrossed me as much as this one did. It took me through a wide array of emotions; humor, anger, sadness, and joy. Even as I'm writing now, I am almost speechless. Almost. I love how smoothly the book flows; the story itself is beautiful. I recommend it to everyone I know, and all have thanked me profusely for it. So, I guess the real reason for writing this is to recommend this book to all of the people that I don't know. Read it. You won't regret it.

First of all, this is one of the coolest books I've ever read. A review on the front cover calls it a "Dr. Strangelove for the biotech century," but I would also compare it to Cat's Cradle, one of my favorite books, although Just a Couple of Days is a good deal more lighthearted.
Second, it was very difficult to put this book down since the chapters are short. I found myself always wanting to read just one more chapter, until the next thing I knew I had read fifty more pages.
Third, the tangents are fascinating and hilarious. The writing got a little voluptuous at times, but that was one of my favorite things. It was clear that he was enjoying himself.
Finally, the philosophy of language and communication implied by this story left me engrossed in thought for hours. This book is a celebration of life. You'd have to be a jaded cynic to not like it.

I don't typically read fiction, but I found this book in a used book store, and the cover art intrigued me, so I started reading a few pages and the next thing I know I plopped down a few bucks for the used copy. I think what most impressed me was the author's word choice: common words used in not so common ways, uncommon words used in common ways, really very nice. This book is outstanding. I can't believe I've never heard of it before. It's a fate that won't befall my friends, as I'm now recommending it right and left.

All I can say is Wow! This book is filled with so many great ideas and points of view that you almost have to read it twice just to start remembering them. The author has no other books that I am aware of and a company I have not even heard of publishes his one book, but they sure hit the jackpot.

Everyone I have given this book to has loved it and it is one of the only books that I insist on getting back after lending it.

Be forewarned that you may need a good dictionary and a very good vocabulary to handle the writing style.

Trying to summarize what this book is about is like trying to summarize a person. I could give you a plot skeleton, but then I've never found skeletons to be particularly appealing. Instead, I'll just ramble some random thoughts and hopefully that will flesh it out.

This is an end-of-the-world story, but if you think that sounds depressing, you're absolutely wrong. This is a story about how (paraphrasing Nikola Tesla) enlightenment leads inexorably to peace. This is a story about the pitfalls of language, insofar as language represents maya, or illusion. That said, it is ironic indeed that someone who uses language so well (aside from a couple of stumbles) would use it to highlight its inadequacies, but then that's really part of the larger story. The characters were fun, caricatures at times, as others have said, but then this really wasn't a drama. The writing was intense: humorous, visionary, bizarre, and beautiful. And best of all, this book was written by a real person. I emailed Tony after I read it with a question and he actually wrote back the same day. It was nice to see the wall between writer and reader so easily dissolved.

In closing, elves and faeries will love this book. Ogres and trolls will not.

The only thing I don't like about this book is that I can't find it in hardcover.

Every so often I come across a book that I want to add to my "permanent" collection. These are typically books that make me think, that allow me to see my life for what it is: an impermanent experience of the eternal divine. Why I keep them I don't know, but I do, and I like them to be hardcover. This one isn't in hardcover, but it's still earned a position on my shelf.

The best thing about this book is that it's not ponderous. Concepts whiz off every page, effortlessly. The outrageous humor, supreme articulation, and mind-bending plot made the pages turn themselves. The vocabulary was occasionally intense, but never unnecessary. I learned a few new words, like hierophantic. Look it up. It's a good one.

Five stars, easy.

Read this book at your own risk. Like an entheogen, it has entirely changed my perception of the world. This is good thing, but unless you're ready to shake things up in your reality (and laugh a whole lot along the way), you'd be advised to keep your blindfold on for now. Let me put it this way: If you understood what the movie, "The Matrix" was really about, then this one is for you. If you thought it was just a cool action movie, then steer clear of this rabbit hole.