Z/Web

This was a book on CD we rented for listening during our trip. It was okay, a mindless political thriller that entertained, but had some surprisingly artificial action sequences and forced drama that didn’t gell with the cerebral storyline. The idea was interesting: the “zero game” is a game bored politicians in Washington came up with in which they bet on the outcomes of various bills and events. It’s all secret, with no one knowing who else is in the game. The bets are always on “sure things,” events where the outcome is practically guaranteed, or silly meaningless things like if someone can insert certain keywords into a senator’s speech. The idea is to bring spice into trite and staid political lives of endless speeches. This all goes wrong, however, when someone uses the game to murder, and then the main character uncovers a huge conspiracy. Unfortunately, the novel’s strangely and awkwardly paced: one main character dies early into the story, suddenly shifting to another. That character is written first person, but we occasionally switch to an omnicient narrator at times to keep up with other threads of the story. Then the link between the game and conspiracy is extremely weak, and the conspiracy itself is convoluted, and if you think about it for oh, two seconds, you’ll find about fourteen dozen plot holes big enough to drive semis through. Pretty lame. Add in an overly dramatic reading, forced drama (The main character’s flashlight dies so he’s trapped in the dark — ooh, drama!), and you’re in for a tiring read. It’s also much too long. But it’s not all bad. There are a couple interesting characters, and some of the political stuff is astute. Unfortunately nothing works together and the whole thing is rather a mishmash of dreck in the end. Save your time and do something more valuable, like counting the bumps on your ceiling.

Our trip is finally over. It was only a week, but felt like a month. On Tuesday we drove to Leighton, Alabama, which is west of Huntsville and in the middle of nowhere. It was great, though. We got to see my Uncle Jack and Aunt Wanda, and my cousins JJ and Corina and their families (they both have spouses and kids I’d never met). JJ barely remembered me — he was probably only about four the last time I saw him. I was worried it would be a little awkward seeing relatives I haven’t seen in so long, but it was great. I don’t know how or why we drifted apart (this country’s just too large), but it was great to see them again. I’m glad we made the effort and they really appreciated it. We couldn’t stay long at all — just had dinner — and then we were off to Nashville. We arrived before midnight and crashed, my flu or cold or whatever wiping me out. I was slow going in the morning, but there was lots to do. We had to return our book-on-CD to Cracker Barrel restaurant (they have a nice lending program), fill up the rental SUV with gas, return the vehicle, and check into our flight home. Fortunately the weather cooperated and everything was on schedule. After the mess on the west coast for a while there, it was dry and our flight into Oakland was routine. We had a two-hour layover there, then it was back home to Portland. I was exhausted and sick and just wanted to sleep, but my mom was already trying to figure out how to deal with Grandpa and his situation.