Will I love Dr. No?

“Goofy yet sincere” is the greatest compliment I give any work of art. Typically reserved for music, this pitch perfect James Bond parody novel checks all of my favorite trope boxes:

-Constant wordplay
-Talking dog (with no legs)
-Numerology
-Mysterious door knocks
-An important waitress
-Thoughtful, heartfelt plot that doesn’t take itself too seriously

I’m embarrassed to say I’d never heard of Percival Everett before reading this book, but I’m so excited to have a large back catalog to catch up on.

Odd and disjointed, the narrative of Everett's Dr. No is unlike anything I've ever experienced before, but this style is remarkably informed by the characters themselves, who have crafted an odd and disjointed world in which they are perfectly comfortable. Everett's insights are alarming, correct, and laugh-out-loud hilarious. I'm not sure I've ever been so in awe of the way a story came together.

I saw Percival Everett discussing his newest book, James, along with his other novels, especially Erasure, which was made into a wonderful movie (American Fiction), at the Virginia Festival of the Book. His insistence that he is irredeemably ironic made me into a potential fan.

Dr. No naturally bends the genre of spy novels and films, especially of the James Bond sort, into an updated take in an imaginal world that hinges on a philosophical pun (viz. "Nothing" as an object of discourse and contemplation). Everett purposely reorients Flemingesque plot elements such that assumptions about the order of time… show more.

When a prospective agent asked me who I most aspired to be like as a writer, I said Percival Everett. Her response was, ‘But you’re not black?’

To me, labeling Percival Everett as a ‘black writer’ does him a huge disservice because, above all else, he’s unpredictable, quirky, and seriously funny. I love this book because it’s weird and subverted, with a hero who’s a mathematical expert in nothing–confronted by a villain who wants to steal and control nothing. It’s fun and frothy, with tangents and trapdoors all over the place. Like most, I came to Percival Everett via The… show more.