Book Review: Dr. No by Percival Everett

My Rating : 4.5⭐

(Audio Narration: 5/5; Story : 4/5)

“Infinity means nothing to me. How could it? Nothing is neither finite nor infinite. Nothing is neither a null set nor a member of that set that contains all things that are not something. Things are matter, some things matter, nothing is never matter, nothing matters.”

Percival Everett’s Dr. No revolves around thirty–five–year–old Wala Kitu, a distinguished professor of mathematics at Brown University whose area of expertise is “nothing”. The name Wala Kitu (both first and last name) also means nothing. He is essentially a loner, brilliant, perceptive, and logical, on the spectrum, never having learned to drive nor ever even kissed a woman ( as the narrative progresses he does manage to do both, sort of!) with his one-legged bulldog Trigo as his constant companion (with whom he converses in his dreams). His research and in-depth knowledge of “nothing” attracts the attention of a wealthy aspiring supervillain (with a complete origin story and evil persona cultivated from watching James Bond movies), John Milton Bradley Sill who pays 3 million dollars for Wala Kitu’s expert consult. Wala’s colleague/friend/ fellow mathematician Eigen Vector succumbs to the charms of our supervillain and is subsequently drugged and manipulated to participate in Sill’s plans. As the narrative progresses, our protagonist begins to understand how dangerous Sill truly is and the devastation his plans will cause. Sill’s nefarious plans involve breaking into Fort Knox to steal the stock of nothing and using a weapon called a “complex projective plane orbiter” to wreak havoc and exact revenge against the United States for events from his past. What follows is a series of events involving submarine rides, helicopters, corrupt people in power, henchmen, secret identities, a vampy pilot, secret lairs and shark pits and a whole lot o villainy and Wala’s heroic plans to save the day.

Though the plot is not similar to the James Bond film of the same name, Percival Everett's Dr. No is a cleverly written (the wordplay on “nothing” is mind-boggling!), entertaining parody of the James Bond series with sci-fi and socio-political elements interspersed throughout the narrative (some subtly and some not so much). A laugh-out-loud funny, bordering on absurd yet thought-provoking read that is much more than a whole lot of “nothing”, Dr. No is a wild ride that might not appeal to everyone, but those who enjoy satire and wordplay, not to mention James Bond references would enjoy! The Trees was the first Percival Everett novel I’d read and thoroughly enjoyed. With Dr. No, the author does not disappoint.

I paired my reading with the incredible audio narration by Amir Abdullah which truly elevated my experience with the novel.