Just a Couple of Days

I don't typically read fiction, but I found this book in a used book store, and the cover art intrigued me, so I started reading a few pages and the next thing I know I plopped down a few bucks for the used copy. I think what most impressed me was the author's word choice: common words used in not so common ways, uncommon words used in common ways, really very nice. This book is outstanding. I can't believe I've never heard of it before. It's a fate that won't befall my friends, as I'm now recommending it right and left.

I'm impressed, but I'm having a hard time describing why. Just a Couple of Days is not easily categorized into a neat little genre. It has elements of sci-fi, but then not really, or perhaps only to the extent that Kurt Vonnegut does. But then it's much more inspiring than Vonnegut's work, and so then it drifts toward Tom Robbins, as I've seen it compared to in other reviews, but then that comparison falters too because the plotline here is much more engaging and suspenseful. There is the wordplay, which I resisted the same way I usually resist the first 50 pages of any Robbins novel before I finally succumb. But here too, the wordplay also serves as a demonstration of the novel's theme, which has mainly to do with the significance of language to the human perception of reality. I was entertained but I was also enlightened, and so there's also some similarities to be drawn to "visionary fiction" such as James Redfield and Daniel Quinn, but then again not really, as those writers tend to be overly ponderous and contrived, with flimsy plotlines and occasional flakiness. There's really none of that here, despite the fact that one of the main characters' names is Flake, which should illustrate the fact that Vigorito takes nothing seriously. It was fun, an absurdist psychedelic satire of the apocalypse, that's my categorization. I've never read anything like it before, and I look forward to his next novel.

It is unfathomable to me that anyone could dislike this book. However, I've seen it happen with a couple of my friends. It works like this: People either love it or they hate it. There is no lukewarm shrugging. I'm no empiricist, but I think I have identified a couple of characteristics that may determine which category you might fall into.1. If you can't stand artists who horse around with their craft, whether it's jam bands or wordplay a la Robbins, you may not like this book. I happen to love this kind of free associative spontaneity in music and writing.2. If this godforsaken world has overcooked your spirit into hardboiled cynicism, you may not like this book. This book is about love, universal love. Some people scoff at this idea.That's what my friends have in common anyway. Another characteristic might include whether a non-linear plot frustrates you. If so, this one will enrage you. All told, it's not my absolute favorite book, but it's definitely up there.

I normally do not write reviews. But, it's been quite awhile since I've read a book that engrossed me as much as this one did. It took me through a wide array of emotions; humor, anger, sadness, and joy. Even as I'm writing now, I am almost speechless. Almost. I love how smoothly the book flows; the story itself is beautiful. I recommend it to everyone I know, and all have thanked me profusely for it. So, I guess the real reason for writing this is to recommend this book to all of the people that I don't know. Read it. You won't regret it.