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Σημείο μηδέν
Η περιπετειώδης άφιξη ενός μικρού πρόσφυγα από τη βασανισμένη Αϊτή στο ξένοιαστο και φιλήδονο νησί του Κι Ουέστ γίνεται αφορμή να περιπλεχθεί η πορεία του Σεν Κλου με την πορεία του Χούστο. Ο πρώτος είναι ένας απογοητευμένος ακτιβιστής, πνιγμένος στον ωκεανό της αυτολύπησης, με μόνες "ανάσες" του τις ανούσιες ερωτικές περιπέτειες και το ποτό. Ο δεύτερος είναι προπύργιο των παραδοσιακών αξιών, πιστός οικογενειάρχης και αδιάφθορος μπάτσος που προσπαθεί να κρατήσει το νησί και την οικογένειά του σε τάξη. Η προσωπική τους ζωή παράλληλα με τον κοινό τους αγώνα να γλυτώσουν το προσφυγόπουλο από τις δαγκάνες της γραφειοκρατίας αλλά και να προστατευτούν από έναν αλλόφρονα δολοφόνο χρησιμοποιούνται από τον συγγραφέα ως παλέτα με την οποία ζωγραφίζει την ανθρώπινη υπόσταση τόσο σε ατομικό όσο και σε συλλογικό επίπεδο.
Είναι πράγματι εκπληκτικό πώς, σ' ένα μυθιστόρημα που γίνεται ταυτόχρονα ερωτικό, κοινωνικό και αστυνομικό θρίλερ, μπορούμε να ταξιδέψουμε σε όλα ίσως τα είδη των ανθρώπινων σχέσεων. Την ίδια στιγμή που "ακτινογραφεί" με λυρικό τρόπο την ανθρώπινη ψυχοσύνθεση χρησιμοποιώντας τον μικρόκοσμο των πολλών ηρώων του, αναλύει κριτικά ολόκληρο το κατασκεύασμα της σύγχρονης κοινωνίας. Βασικό εργαλείο του συγγραφέα το "Σημείο Μηδέν" στο νησί του Κι Ουέστ, ένα μέρος όπου συναντιούνται ο αφρικανικός πολιτισμός, με τον ισπανικό και τον αμερικανικό, οι πλούσιοι με τους φτωχούς, οι συντηρητικοί με τους ριζοσπαστικούς, οι τίμιοι με τους παράνομους. Το Σημείο Μηδέν είναι ένα λογοτεχνικό έργο αριστουργηματικής γραφής και κλιμακούμενης μέχρι το τέλος πλοκής το οποίο διεγείρει τη διάνοια και αγγίζει την καρδιά.
Είναι πράγματι εκπληκτικό πώς, σ' ένα μυθιστόρημα που γίνεται ταυτόχρονα ερωτικό, κοινωνικό και αστυνομικό θρίλερ, μπορούμε να ταξιδέψουμε σε όλα ίσως τα είδη των ανθρώπινων σχέσεων. Την ίδια στιγμή που "ακτινογραφεί" με λυρικό τρόπο την ανθρώπινη ψυχοσύνθεση χρησιμοποιώντας τον μικρόκοσμο των πολλών ηρώων του, αναλύει κριτικά ολόκληρο το κατασκεύασμα της σύγχρονης κοινωνίας. Βασικό εργαλείο του συγγραφέα το "Σημείο Μηδέν" στο νησί του Κι Ουέστ, ένα μέρος όπου συναντιούνται ο αφρικανικός πολιτισμός, με τον ισπανικό και τον αμερικανικό, οι πλούσιοι με τους φτωχούς, οι συντηρητικοί με τους ριζοσπαστικούς, οι τίμιοι με τους παράνομους. Το Σημείο Μηδέν είναι ένα λογοτεχνικό έργο αριστουργηματικής γραφής και κλιμακούμενης μέχρι το τέλος πλοκής το οποίο διεγείρει τη διάνοια και αγγίζει την καρδιά.
616 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 22, 2011
This is my review for the San Francisco Chronicle in October 1989:
Thomas Sanchez writes with such grace and power that he can be forgiven for the sometimes blatant shortcomings that bog down this often brilliant book.
''Mile Zero,'' Sanchez's third novel, is often bewildering, but it delivers enough nourishment to make it good _ even memorable. It's a scattered tale of strange events in the lives of an offbeat collection of people in Key West.
Sanchez, whose first novel, ''Rabbit Boss,'' was an impressive chronicle of four generations of Washo Indians living in the Sierra, tries without success to imbue this book with a kind of mythic importance. Two chapters are actually printed on darkened paper _ an attempt to inject a sinister, otherworldly mood. Threatening notes _ signed by someone or something called Zobop _ a murdered goat, a murdered man and a toad with its mouth nailed shut never stack up as half so interesting as the more immediate concerns of a lively, sympathetic group of characters.
The central character, St. Cloud, lives in a haze of rum, having sacrificed years on the altar of altruism. His thoughts, as reflected in the narrative, make the reader wish he'd grab a cup of coffee or sleep it off before he offers more insights into himself.
At the outset, he contemplates Evelyn, the wife he lost, the woman he has lured onto her own boat ''for one last fling with the meat of nostalgia.'' Not a pleasant image. ''He knew Evelyn's passions had long since melded into dark crevices of female flowered gardens, where he committed the crime of bearing witness to the dragon of his jealousy.''
Any writer can be forgiven awful writing now and then, but Sanchez is far too good to ignore the fingernails-on-chalkboard sound of this. Perhaps he is trying to do too much: He wants the force of St. Cloud's rummy ruminations to reach the reader, wants to set a very male tone in which Evelyn's relationship with another woman can't be presented neutrally, wants the prose to hint at the fraught-with-meaning reference points of tropical, volatile Key West.
Like St. Cloud, who met Evelyn at Berkeley, Sanchez has migrated to Key West from California. He is clearly also struggling with the demands of talent.
When he's working to live up to comparisons with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Sanchez's prose turns opaque and unedifying. But when he relaxes and gets down to the honest work of introducing his characters, his writing comes alive. One woman who frequents a bar is in love with Dave, the bartender; but nothing ever happens because Amigo, a cocky parrot always on Dave's shoulder, never offers the requisite whistle of approval.
A petty hustler whom Justo finds killing greyhounds ''suffered a bad case of snorter's shoulder, an uncontrollable muscle spasm twitching his right shoulder like a baseball pitcher about to fire off a nervous spitball.''
A beautiful young Georgia woman watches a man gun down her husband, who is jealous of the attention she pays to a TV program on cooking. She then greets the man. ''Her voice was shaky but she spoke her mind. 'Do y'all like French cooking?' ''
Justo, a friend to St. Cloud, provides a kind of moral bedrock for the story. He's an honest cop with a taste for Cuban aphorisms. He's also a big man who excites the passions of Angela, the wonderfully lascivious and comfortable-with-herself bartender at the Wreck Room.
St. Cloud has spent years dealing with his inability to stop the Vietnam War as a protester at Berkeley. The novel provides an interesting and deft look at how the war's legacy plays a part in diverse lives. The backdrop of portents, island superstitions and imminent hurricanes may never quite come together, but with characters such as these, Sanchez's failings almost don't matter.
Thomas Sanchez writes with such grace and power that he can be forgiven for the sometimes blatant shortcomings that bog down this often brilliant book.
''Mile Zero,'' Sanchez's third novel, is often bewildering, but it delivers enough nourishment to make it good _ even memorable. It's a scattered tale of strange events in the lives of an offbeat collection of people in Key West.
Sanchez, whose first novel, ''Rabbit Boss,'' was an impressive chronicle of four generations of Washo Indians living in the Sierra, tries without success to imbue this book with a kind of mythic importance. Two chapters are actually printed on darkened paper _ an attempt to inject a sinister, otherworldly mood. Threatening notes _ signed by someone or something called Zobop _ a murdered goat, a murdered man and a toad with its mouth nailed shut never stack up as half so interesting as the more immediate concerns of a lively, sympathetic group of characters.
The central character, St. Cloud, lives in a haze of rum, having sacrificed years on the altar of altruism. His thoughts, as reflected in the narrative, make the reader wish he'd grab a cup of coffee or sleep it off before he offers more insights into himself.
At the outset, he contemplates Evelyn, the wife he lost, the woman he has lured onto her own boat ''for one last fling with the meat of nostalgia.'' Not a pleasant image. ''He knew Evelyn's passions had long since melded into dark crevices of female flowered gardens, where he committed the crime of bearing witness to the dragon of his jealousy.''
Any writer can be forgiven awful writing now and then, but Sanchez is far too good to ignore the fingernails-on-chalkboard sound of this. Perhaps he is trying to do too much: He wants the force of St. Cloud's rummy ruminations to reach the reader, wants to set a very male tone in which Evelyn's relationship with another woman can't be presented neutrally, wants the prose to hint at the fraught-with-meaning reference points of tropical, volatile Key West.
Like St. Cloud, who met Evelyn at Berkeley, Sanchez has migrated to Key West from California. He is clearly also struggling with the demands of talent.
When he's working to live up to comparisons with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Sanchez's prose turns opaque and unedifying. But when he relaxes and gets down to the honest work of introducing his characters, his writing comes alive. One woman who frequents a bar is in love with Dave, the bartender; but nothing ever happens because Amigo, a cocky parrot always on Dave's shoulder, never offers the requisite whistle of approval.
A petty hustler whom Justo finds killing greyhounds ''suffered a bad case of snorter's shoulder, an uncontrollable muscle spasm twitching his right shoulder like a baseball pitcher about to fire off a nervous spitball.''
A beautiful young Georgia woman watches a man gun down her husband, who is jealous of the attention she pays to a TV program on cooking. She then greets the man. ''Her voice was shaky but she spoke her mind. 'Do y'all like French cooking?' ''
Justo, a friend to St. Cloud, provides a kind of moral bedrock for the story. He's an honest cop with a taste for Cuban aphorisms. He's also a big man who excites the passions of Angela, the wonderfully lascivious and comfortable-with-herself bartender at the Wreck Room.
St. Cloud has spent years dealing with his inability to stop the Vietnam War as a protester at Berkeley. The novel provides an interesting and deft look at how the war's legacy plays a part in diverse lives. The backdrop of portents, island superstitions and imminent hurricanes may never quite come together, but with characters such as these, Sanchez's failings almost don't matter.
April 4, 2015
This was a luscious book--atmospheric, character-driven and rife with superstition and ritual. I really enjoyed being taken to the place and time where the book was set and enjoyed the slice of lives at every turn. At times comedic at other turns outlandish, I was happy to take this journey.
October 5, 2022
A Herculean effort at mediocrity.
December 16, 2007
One of my all time faves in part because it's so over-the-top. Sanchez is an interesting writer who's had a varied career but has never really gotten much attention. This was supposed to be his breakthrough book; VANITY FAIR even did a profile of him in 89 to promote the book. Alas, it wasn't that successful, although it's certainly TS's best-known. While people tend to consider Tom McGuane's NINETY-TWO IN THE SHADE the "quintessential" Key West novel, I'd put my money on this baby. Like the island, it's often loud, tropical, gaudy, profane, druggy, horny, multicultura, and even sinister. There's a plot here involving a disaffected Vietnam vet, a Cuban cop, a Haitian refugee, and a mysterious drug runner who may or may not be the devil in disguise. Not a whit of that matters. It's all about the style---dense, lyrical, descriptive, beautiful. The ending line is one that any writer would wish s/he could come up with. Some will inevitably consider the writing florid, but words bloom as much as flowers do in the tropics, and not everybody in the world needs to be spartan and niggardly when it comes to a good sentence.
March 27, 2013
A solid 3.5 this novel was woven well with beautiful language and riveting metaphors in a style reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy or Mario Vargas Llosa. Probably could have used a little more straight dialogue for the present moment situations, but the past storytelling flowed with such passion that it put you in the moment when Justo recalled his ancestors or St Cloud related Lila's failed marriage. Zobop's chapters were obviously difficult but kept the mystery going.
I started this book the last time I was in the Keys and I had a depressing kind of moment when I thought about how there wasn't any mystery left in the Keys from the hey days of smugglers and Cuban tension and voodoo, and even though this book is set in post-Vietnam 70's, it serves to illustrate that that same kind of power is still prevalent in the Conch republic, you just might have to sift through the Fantasy Fest bullshit to find it sometimes.
I started this book the last time I was in the Keys and I had a depressing kind of moment when I thought about how there wasn't any mystery left in the Keys from the hey days of smugglers and Cuban tension and voodoo, and even though this book is set in post-Vietnam 70's, it serves to illustrate that that same kind of power is still prevalent in the Conch republic, you just might have to sift through the Fantasy Fest bullshit to find it sometimes.
May 12, 2012
Water, rum, barroom brawls, voodoo, pug puppies, crusty fringe characters... I had high hopes for this novel. Why didn't I love it? Something about the tone is off key (sorry, no pun intended) There is a kind of forced, overstated tinge to much of the prose of this novel; a pity and a sacrilege because some of the passages, as well as the general premise, are excellent. Too many didactic backstories, a tad too many overwritten metaphors, and especially, a wavering, undecided tone, somewhere between cosmic cool and grave profundity.
That being said, there is much to like and admire in this novel, notably an astute rendering of Key West in the late 80's, and a reflection on the 60's Vietnam generation, 10 (or 20) years after.
That being said, there is much to like and admire in this novel, notably an astute rendering of Key West in the late 80's, and a reflection on the 60's Vietnam generation, 10 (or 20) years after.
January 16, 2013
I enjoyed the character development as well as the history that Sanchez describes in the story. Before I moved to Florida in 2010, I had a much different notion about the Keys and of Florida in general. That is until I had a chance to experience some of the culture (and sub culture) that seems to "back up" northward from Key West up along US 1. My experience reading MIle Zero is that I was, at times lulled, delighted, and enticed while other times I was repulsed and ready to fly far away as quickly as possible. All in all, I am happy I read this fascinating tale of life at the end of the road.
December 30, 2019
Had to take a break half way through on this one. I always wanted to visit Key West until I started reading this book. I'm not a fan of the author's style but I guess you could consider it good character development since his characters are drunks and druggies. Sentences that take up a page; paragraphs that are a couple pages long; flight of ideas.....following his thinking takes it's toll on the reader
Will probably never finish this book. Too many more interesting things to read
Will probably never finish this book. Too many more interesting things to read
December 28, 2011
Pretentious. Wannabe poet, but poetry don't pay is the author's obvious bio. False symbolism and disorganized plot make this an irritating read. I could find some good quotes, but it fails as a complete work. It would probably fit in the magic realism category and it may be I just wasn't in the mood for it. Go for, Carlos Ruiz Zafón or Borges before tackling a weaker work like this one.
April 12, 2009
Along with 'American Gods' this book is one of my "envy" books- works that I wish I would have written. One of my favorite openings of all time:
"It is about water..."
From that moment the work just keeps on rolling until the end. One of the few I have read twice. Amazing.
"It is about water..."
From that moment the work just keeps on rolling until the end. One of the few I have read twice. Amazing.
July 9, 2013
Overwritten and trying WAY too hard. But I was most put off by the descriptions of the female characters: each one introduced through a male gaze so lascivious I thought it might be parody. Gave up after eighty pages.
October 12, 2007
An interesting story about Key West.
January 11, 2009
A dazzling book painted on a large canvas. A great novel about America located on the edge of American society in Key West, Florida.
A neglected modern classic.
A neglected modern classic.
February 18, 2009
A great book by a local author about a favorite hangout of mine. Nice detective story with a twist.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews