From Powells.com
Our booksellers' favorite books of the year!
Staff Pick
Everett is at the top of his game; his signature wit and dark, absurd humor are on full display. An expert in nothing on the hunt for nothing with a mysterious billionaire villain who wants nothing but nothing (and revenge)! This book is as philosophical as it is funny, a satisfying and skewering take on what it means to have everything in a society willing to turn a blind eye to the crimes of the rich and powerful. There’s also a one-legged dog! Recommended By Eric L., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A sly, madcap novel about supervillains and nothing, really, from an American novelist whose star keeps rising
The protagonist of Percival Everett's puckish new novel is a brilliant professor of mathematics who goes by Wala Kitu. (Wala, he explains, means "nothing" in Tagalog, and Kitu is Swahili for "nothing.") He is an expert on nothing. That is to say, he is an expert, and his area of study is nothing, and he does nothing about it. This makes him the perfect partner for the aspiring villain John Sill, who wants to break into Fort Knox to steal, well, not gold bars but a shoebox containing nothing. Once he controls nothing he'll proceed with a dastardly plan to turn a Massachusetts town into nothing. Or so he thinks.
With the help of the brainy and brainwashed astrophysicist-turned-henchwoman Eigen Vector, our professor tries to foil the villain while remaining in his employ. In the process, Wala Kitu learns that Sill's desire to become a literal Bond villain originated in some real all-American villainy related to the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. As Sill says, "Professor, think of it this way. This country has never given anything to us and it never will. We have given everything to it. I think it's time we gave nothing back."
Dr. No is a caper with teeth, a wildly mischievous novel from one of our most inventive, provocative, and productive writers. That it is about nothing isn't to say that it's not about anything. In fact, it's about villains. Bond villains. And that's not nothing.
Review
"Everett brings his mordant wit, philosophic inclinations, and narrative mischief to the suspense genre….A good place to begin finding out why Everett has such a devoted cult." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"Everett continues to be an endlessly inventive, genre-devouring creator of thoughtful, tender, provocative, and absolutely unpredictable literary wonders." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"The phenomenally talented and prolific Percival Everett conducts a highwire act in Dr. No, balancing opaque mathematical theory with disarmingly deadpan humor over a daunting crevasse of nothing." Shelf Awareness
About the Author
Percival Everett is the author of more than twenty books. He is the recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction. He teaches at the University of Southern California and lives outside Los Angeles.