The phenomenally talented and prolific Percival Everett (So Much Blue; Percival Everett by Virgil Russell) conducts a highwire act in Dr. No, balancing opaque mathematical theory with disarmingly deadpan humor over a daunting crevasse of nothing. Fortunately for readers, the narrator, Wala Kitu (not his given name), is an expert on nothing. But unfortunately for Wala, his expertise attracts the dangerous criminal mastermind John Sill, who wishes to harness the power of nothing for a diabolical plan.
A distinguished professor of mathematics at Brown University, Wala doesn't have a villainous bone in his body. He, like his colleague Eigen Vector, is hopelessly literal and not especially street-smart. He keeps a one-legged bulldog as a companion, whom he calls "Trigo" on account of the three missing limbs, and, curiously, man and animal converse at great length in Wala's dreams, where Trigo serves as an uncouth voice of reason. Nothing, for Wala, resides somewhere between scientific anomaly and philosophical quandary. "The importance of nothing is that it is the measure of that which is not nothing," he says by way of introducing his field of study. "I work very hard and wish I could say that I have nothing to show for it."
Sill, on the other hand, is a suave billionaire who is not afraid of killing anyone who stands in his way. He "aspired to be a Bond villain, the fictitious nature of James Bond notwithstanding." Understanding nothing's potential to be weaponized, Sill charms Wala, Eigen and numerous other eccentrics to participate in his scheme. His sights are set on Fort Knox, where he hopes to obtain a shoebox containing nothing.
Dr. No is riddled with irresistible wordplay, as again and again characters express their fascination with and desire for nothing. Likewise, Everett's referential treatment of his characters borders on the uncanny. "From passage to pastiche was how I might have characterized the last two days, though I wasn't sure why," Wala observes after Father Damien Karras (from William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist) enters the story, highlighting a rather porous boundary between what is real (Karras) and what is fiction (Bond) amid the topsy-turvy stakes at play.
The 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. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness
Shelf Talker: An unassuming expert in nothing embarks on a wildly entertaining caper when he contracts with an aspiring supervillain on a quest for nothing.