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From Publishers Weekly
A deliriously mordant political satire, Walter's follow-up to 2005's critically acclaimed Citizen Vince begins moments after New York City cop Brian Remy shoots himself in the head. He isn't seriously wounded, and he can't remember doing it. It's less than a week after 9/11, and Brian serves as an official guide for celebrities who want a tour of "The Zero." With stitches still in his scalp, Brian is tapped for a job with the Documentation Department, a shadowy subagency of the Office of Liberty and Recovery, which is charged with scrutinizing every confetti scrap of paper blown across the city when the towers fell. As he learns the truth about his new employer's mission (think: recent NSA-related headlines) and becomes enmeshed in a sinister government plot, he finds an unseemly benefactor in "The Boss," the unnamed mayor who cashes in on his sudden national prominence. Meanwhile, Brian's cop and firemen colleagues shill for "First Responder" cereal, his rebellious teenage son acts as if Brian died in the attack and the president provides comic background sound bites ("draw your strength from the collective courage and resilientness"). Walter's Helleresque take on a traumatic time may be too much too soon for some, but he carries off his dark and hilarious narrative with a grandly grotesque imagination. 100,000announced first printing; 12-city author tour.(Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.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. And yet we know exactly who's who and what's what. Even the book's title, The Zero, is a reference to Ground Zero, but by stripping away a single word, he makes the place both fresh and nightmarish all over again. Walter builds the hellish aftermath from scratch, transforming that day -- and the months that follow -- into a noir page-turner with powerful social commentary about the marketing of a tragedy and the endless ways in which some citizens have profited by it.

When writing about the "Zero" itself, Walter doesn't spare us details that have the ring of truth:

"Everyone knew that it stunk especially bad here, and everyone knew what the smell had to be, but no one could find the exact source. An elevator bank? A stairwell? A fire rig? A few years ago, when he was still married, Remy had kicked his kid's jack-o'-lantern underneath his porch and this was how it smelled in spring."

The Zero is the story of policeman Brian Remy, whose life begins slipping out of control after the towers come down. During bouts of mysterious memory loss, Remy has been enlisted by a secret organization involved in tracking down a woman named March Selios, who worked in one of the towers but may have survived. What ensues is a cross-country hunt for clues and Remy's growing suspicion that he is committing unspeakable acts during his blackouts. Why is he searching for March? Like a character out of a Kafka novel, Remy isn't sure what the purpose of his pursuit is, and yet he pursues.

A large cast of minor characters makes The Zero particularly rich: Paul Guterak, Remy's old partner, who is obsessed with his newfound post-9/11 fame and can't stop talking about it; Edgar, Remy's teenage son, who enjoys the attention he receives when he tells his classmates that his father perished in one of the buildings; Markham, Remy's partner in the covert operation, who waxes philosophic on the attractiveness of deer ("I'm not saying I'd necessarily want to have sex with a deer").

Walter's deadpan dialogue rivals that in scenes from Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son:

"Guterak looked over. 'Hey, you got your hair cut.'

" 'Yeah.' Remy put the cap back on.

" 'What made you do that?'

" 'I shot myself in the head last night.'

" 'Well.' Paul drove quietly for a moment, staring straight ahead. 'It looks good.' "

Walter nails our often surreal post-9/11 world, where exploitation of the tragedy has become commonplace. Remy spots "rows of news trucks, two dozen of them queued up for slow troll, grief fishing, block after block -- Action and Eyewitness and First At, dishes scooped to the sky like palms at a mass." His old partner signs a deal to promote First Responder cereal.

The novel falters, however, when Walter tries to sustain the credibility of Remy's frequent memory loss for 300 pages. Since we are confined to Remy's perspective, the reader experiences these lapses along with Remy. His disorientation becomes our disorientation, and his lapses raise a host of critical questions: Why is Remy remembering certain things but not others? Why does he remember "not remembering"?

The book's individual scenes are aesthetically appealing, but the reader can't get a grip on the plot's larger issues (namely, what is Remy's role in this secret organization; why does he continue doing what he's doing?). It becomes increasingly hard to care for a narrator who is unsure of his own motives and whose goals remain murky even to himself.

Despite this weakness, I was still won over. Walter is an immensely talented writer. In April, his Citizen Vince won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel, and now he's written a new thriller not only with a conscience but also full of dead-on insights into our culture and its parasitic response to a national tragedy.

Reviewed by John McNally
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
encrusted sole, ghost bar, athletic bag, meat trucks, gypsy cab, rubbed his temples Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
March Selios, The Zero, Brian Remy, Middle Eastern, San Francisco, Ann Rogers, Bishir Madain, Kansas City, April Kraft, Bruce Denny, Russell Givens, Tony Addich, West Street, Ass Chief Carey, Gerald Addich, Sarah Jessica, First Responder New!
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