The Dewey Decimal System

AUTHOR: Nathan Larson
PUBLISHED: 2011
GENRE: Fiction

Dewey Decimal is a shortcut man.

Wait, I feel like I've been here before.

A series of Valentine's Day attacks, described only as "the Occurrence" or "2/14", have left most of the world in ruins.  New York stands decimated, with only a small percentage of its population, its buildings, and its infrastructure still standing.  One building that remains is the New York public library on 42nd street, complete with its lions out front.  This is where we find our hero - well, protagonist, if nothing else - Dewey Decimal.*  Decimal is a former army man who can't remember much beyond his old apartment number and who has an insane System (always with a capital S.  Once again, we've been here before) for survival that includes no left turns before 11 a.m. and lots and lots of Purell.  Decimal freelances as a fixer - or really, an assassin - for DA Daniel Rosenblatt, one of the few authority figures left in the city.  As the story begins, Rosenblatt assigns Decimal to kill a Ukrainian union leader.  Easy enough - until the Ukrainian decides Decimal's going to do some work for him too.  After that, it's 100 pages of I-believe-him-no-I-believe-her back and forth that leaves a bunch of people dead and a bunch of questions unanswered.

This is Larson's first book, and you can tell he was going for a very definitive style, which you have to give him props for.  (The dedication, not the style.)**  He likes to leave his subject out of his sentences rather than connect the two clauses with an and ("I look right and left.  Start moving just to put some distance between me and the storefront"), which is something I actually like to do in my writing.  However, reading it here has given me serious doubts about its effectiveness.  He also really, really, REALLY likes his commas.  Oh, the commas.  "I check my front pants pocket, feeling her eyes on me, finding only a key, feeling the panic making its way up my spine."  And that's one of the better strings.  Seriously, this guy really hates the word "and".  Like I said, it's a stylistic choice, and he sticks with it whole-heartedly.  I'm just not sure it's a good one.

The story wanders around some, back and forth, until finally coming to a less-than-satisfying conclusion right where it started.  In the end, it probably would just be better not to start.

LENGTH: 251 pages
MAINSTREAM OR NOT: Kind of, in the sense that post-apocalyptic tales are become more and more popular
SO, SHOULD I READ IT OR NOT: It's not bad per se, but I can't help thinking there's something better out there.

*Get it? Cause he likes the library? That's the level of wit we're going for here.
**Larson looks extraordinarily like Daniel Faraday from "Lost", most famously known for going to the past and getting shot by his own mother.  Oh, whoops.  Spoiler!