Dr. No: A Novel

This is either childish or brilliant or both but at least it was a fun and engaging use of the English language. A spy thriller with all the tropes told with mathematical terms and philosophical cul-de-sacs. Fun. Weird. Fun.

I read this book on the bus, and it was great for that. It was a parody. It made fun of everything. Some of the references were dated, but it was generally very funny. In fact, the final scene was basically slapstick, as evidenced by the comment of one character, "Hey, I'm the villian here." The plot was irrelevant. It was more like a series of skits on a variety show than a unified story. So, it was ok to stop reading when I got to my bus stop. No stress. It was an entertaining read.

Despite his prolific output, I was not familiar with Mr. Everett’s work; however, when I read about this book, it sounded interesting, so I thought I’d give it a go. Unfortunately, though I understand what Mr. Everett was trying to accomplish (to a degree), I found it to be too scattershot, too repetitive, and too vague to be truly enjoyable.I was disappointed because I generally like novels with mathematician protagonists. And there is something endearing in Wala Kitu’s Candide-like wandering through events he doesn’t seem to understand while still maintaining his personality throughout (unlike the strange Eigen Vector who seems more changeable cipher than person). Then there’s John Sill, the billionaire-turned-Bond-villain, who has some fun, over-the-top moments dragging Kitu into his plans, while DeMarcus and Gloria (Sill’s henchmen) are probably the most interesting characters. In fact, I would say that it is the minor characters that make this novel worthwhile.Because the recurrence of nothing as the heart of this novel quickly becomes tedious. Wala Kitu studies nothing. Sill plans to steal nothing from Fort Knox. The superweapon turns towns into nothing. And nothing pops up again and again. In the end, this novel turns out to be about nothing, but not in a way that is very entertaining.

I loved this book so much that I'm ready to reread it, even though I've already purchased two more by Everett. There's some heavyweight vocabulary as well as a lot of math and physics and metaphysics in it that goes over my head, but that didn't affect my enjoyment (just my comprehension). I bought it after seeing American Fiction, based on his Erasure, and this one was the first that I read (a $ decision). As I said, I can't wait to dive into more of his work.

a mathematician, nearly as isolated as kosinski’s chance from Being There, named wala kitu–wala in tagalog means nothing, kitu in swahili, also nothing–has devoted his professional life to the study of nothing. yes, there is nothing, kitu believes. he is paid three million dollars by john milton bradley sill, a billionaire who wants to be a bond villian. like goldfinger he wants to rob fort knox. he tells kitu that there isn’t any gold in fort knox, what’s kept in fort knox is nothing, sill wants to steal nothing, and he needs the authority on nothing, professor wala kitu, to help him steal nothing, the nothing kept in fort knox.as tiring as this sounds, it has some moments in a kind of slapstick woody allen way–mathematical theorems and jokes, a one-legged dog, the bond femme fatale who can’t get kitu to have sex with her, ordinary people with names of famous people, the parody of Goldfinger, characters from novels by other writers, dreamscapes–think allen’s early films, What’s up Tiger Lily? and Bananas.more rewarding are everett’s dizzying references of nothing. not too far from the real world, for those who recall several years ago that an artist created invisible art, found a gallery to install her invisible paintings, and buyers to purchase them. the art was delivered to homes where they were displayed by private owners. or you might want to read this book as a companion piece to everett’s novel Erasure, inspiration for the film American Ficton, the concept of nothing hinging on the concept of erasure.if your reading tastes include lewis carroll, bertrand russell’s books on the logic of mathematics, david mitchell’s novels, and woody allen, including his role as a bond villian in the film Casino Royale, then this wackiness has your name written all over it.

I loved this book. I have been a huge fan of Bond, and read all the Fleming novels, and many by his successors. I have also studied mathematics, but as an engineer, not a mathematician. This is a book about nothing, but not like the Seinfeld version of nothing! It was reminiscent to me of a short story by Ted Chiang, titled Division by Zero, though we are reminded that nothing is not zero! I was not previously aware of Percival Everett, but I will be reading more of his works. Very entertaining tale!

Extremely fun, but the plot is repetitive cat and mousing for too long.The hook ("Nothing") doesn't really do anything for the plot except give some Abott and Costello wordplay.Recommend to anyone that wants a well written caper without much behind it.

I can’t say nothing about this book, there’s nothing to tell, just nothing. If you’re looking for something, it’s here, except it’s nothing.

A good read, though at times both confusing and enjoying. As a Bond fan, I did like the Bond connections and there was a lot of tropes lifted from the film 'Goldfinger ', but this is far from a 007 parody it's more a satirical look at villianly and the extremes wealth can go to achive the impossible. To say there is nothing of interest in this book is what makes it such a good fun read.

Imagine being a Bond villain. I’m thinking a lair inside a volcano, a solid gold gun, a fluffy white cat, and don’t even get me started on what means of transport I have at my disposal. John Sill has aspirations. And like the very best of Bond villains, he has a heist planned. Meanwhile, mild mannered Wala Kitu is up for some excitement. And in Wala’s world, nothing is exciting. It all makes sense, I promise.The narrative takes plenty of cliches from the Bond world and hams them up to full effect. There’s plenty of humour in its own right but you’ll get far more out of this novel if you are a Bond fan. I thought this was wholly original and very cleverly constructed.