Dr. No

(Paperback)

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The protagonist of Percival Everetts 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 hell 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 Sills 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 its time we gave nothing back.

Dr. No is a caper with teeth, a wildly mischievous novel from one of Americas most inventive, provocative and productive writers. That it is about nothing isnt to say that its not about anything. In fact, its about villains. Bond villains. And thats not nothing.

Reviews

Everett continues to be an endlessly inventive, genre-devouring creator of thoughtful, tender, provocative, and absolutely unpredictable literary wonders.

* Booklist (starred review) *

Everett brings his mordant wit, philosophic inclinations, and narrative mischief to the suspense genre[He] is adroit at ramping up the tension while sustaining his narrators droll patter and injecting well-timed ontological discourses onwellnothing. It may not sound like anything much, so to speak. But then, neither did all those episodes of Seinfeld that insisted they were about nothing. And this, too, is just as funny, if in a far different, more metaphysical manner. A good place to begin finding out why Everett has such a devoted cult.

* Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *
Everett is a true American genius, a master artistAs off-kilter as ever, Dr. No is Percival Everett at his most artfully absurd and ironic, and it might be just the thing to finally propel this star into the literary ether. * Oprah Daily *
It is hard to write or even think about his work without sounding like an inferior edition of Percival EverettOne way to evaluate an artist is to observe the quantity and quality of misinterpretation his work begets. By this measure Everett ranks very highly. Damn it, I dont understand it, but I love it, mutters one of the characters, regarding Sills weapon of nothingness. Same. * New York Times Book Review *
If the unexpected always happens in Everetts individual novels, the variety across the work also astonishes. * Washington Post *
The latest zany masterpiece from the novelist Percival EverettThis is the fantasy of Black capitalism, and in Dr. No, Everett has given us an antagonist up to the task of representing its delusionsa villain who thinks he is a hero, a savior who shows up empty-handed. * Atlantic *
Percival Everett approaches genre like a veteran card shark does poker: methodically patient, rarely playing the same hand twice. His books30 and countingare full of ambition and mystery, each one of them sustained by a sense of existential wonderHis latest, Dr. No, doesnt rely on the themes and tricks that outline any of his previous books but remains needle sharp in thought and originality. * Wired *
Its hardto imagine a novelist today with fresher eyes than Percival Everett. * Chicago Tribune *
Immensely enjoyableThroughout, Everett boldly makes a farce out of real-world nightmares, and the rapid-fire pacing leaves readers little time to blink. Satire doesnt get much sharper or funnier than this. * Publishers Weekly (starred 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 nothingThe result is an entertaining caper of philosophical proportions. It is an adventure that can be appreciated on any of the numerous levels that Everett is working on, from the unassuming bumbling of a humble mathematician to the provocative consequences of unmitigated power, nothing is quite as enjoyable as Dr. No. * Shelf Awareness *
Percival Everett has always been a prolific writer, but the past few years have been an epic run even for him. . . . This caper novel will keep you laughing and pondering; nothing will get in the way of that. * Vulture *
The caper is beautifully choreographed, and has a number of little winks to the Fleming oeuvreEverett is astute on character names[and] has always managed to combine the best of postmodernism with a genuine love of pulp fictionIt is a delicate balance to put together the zany and the profound. * Spectator (Australia) *

Author Bio

Percival Everett is the author of more than thirty books, most recently The Trees (shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and Telephone (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize).