Just a Couple of Days

Rating:
Summary: A thousand barefoot children...
Review: I came across this book at a String Cheese show, and for the last two weeks it has kept me grinning like I was dancing under the stars all night long with a thousand barefoot children. It was incredibly uplifting! I've had my mind blown many times, but never by a book. Read it and dance...

Rating:
Summary: Twisting, roaring FUN!!
Review: This is a very thought provoking and enjoyable story. Many twists pull you in while suprises are around the corner. With this in mind, the reality of it all is almost scary! This plot line is wholly conceivable, giving the story a more realistic appeal while keeping the entertainment value extremely high. Definitely very unique and a MUST READ!!!

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic read! You won't be dissapointed!
Review: Just a Couple of Days is, hands-down, my favorite book. Ever. The plot kept me hanging on and coming back for more while the author's humor, quick wit and attention to details kept me laughing and scratching my head. As word of this book catches on it is going to snowball into a best-seller. The book is jam-packed with hilarious situations, outrageous dialogs and a wide array of characters – some that you will love and some that you will hate. So go on and read it. Kick back and laugh your head off. Ponder the future of humanity.

Rating:
Summary: Original, hilarious, fantastic!
Review: After seeing this reccomendation on Amazon for readers who have enjoyed Tom Robbins, I ransacked all the bookstores I could find to no avail. Finally, i caved and bought the book from Amazon, and it was worth it! Vigorito has achieved something you so rarely find these days: Originality. The way he writes is profound without being pretentious, and clever without seeming academic. The narrator has a tendency to digress, but the digressions are always interesting and never cause confusion in the main storyline. I don't care if you love or hate Tom Robbins (Chuck Palahnuik fans may also really enjoy this book), "Just a Couple of Days" is a must read for anyone who watches the world with amusement and a constant sense of humility. I am ready and waiting for Vigorito's second book!

Rating:
Summary: "Don't mistake the map for the road."
Review: This book left my head spinning. There are no words to describe it, which is not a way of saying that it's awesome, which it is, but a way of indicating what the book is about. In what has to be the greatest irony ever wrought, Tony Vigorito uses his gifts of articulation to express the failings of language, or as a Buddhist might say, of mistaking a map for the road. Vigorito actually tried to transcend language with his novel, and he may have succeeded. Reading this is a liberating experience. Liberating from what, you ask? From concepts and categories that have no real existence, from social illusion. Plus, it's hilarious.

The story is perfectly balanced, ranging from biological warfare and government conspiracies to outdoor weddings and apple pancakes. It never stays dark long enough for you to lose hope and never stays light long enough for you to roll your eyes. The ending is enragingly open, but it had to be. There was nothing left to say.

Rating:
Summary: Inconceivable!
Review: Tony Vigorito is just the very thing that American literature needs right now. He is not only a breath of fresh air, but gulp after gulp of wonderful endorphin - producing oxygen for the mind and soul. This book provides the full spectrum of human emotion for the reader to experience - you will laugh at loud, your heart will hammer in your ears, and you may even cry, both in joy and sadness of the human condition. If you are sleeping, this book will wake you up. If you think you are awake, then this book will take you to a new level.
Vigorito shares his vision of hope and faith in our future in such an eloquent and passionate way that any person of creativity and imagination will love this book, live by this book, buy this book and read it so often that it will become lovingly tattered.
To do otherwise, would be absolutely and entirely inconceivable.

Rating:
Summary: an apocalyptic utopian comedy,
Review: which can't possibly make any sense until you've read this book. Vigorito has not only written a remarkably funny satire of something so grave as the apocalypse, but he also managed to, umm, how shall I say, make me feel more alive? I can see how the more fearful might cower at the conclusion, and that's to be pitied, but if you're the kind of person to take a dare, then take this one. It's surprising that books like this are still legal.

Rating:
Summary: don't take my word for it
Review: Obviously, I have too much time on my hands to be writing an amazon review. I must be a computer geek lacking in social skills, so you should take my recommendation (and everyone else's on this site) with the same degree of credibility that you would give to some bleary-eyed social idiot who lurches too close to you when they talk.

Nevertheless...

I read another review of Just a Couple of Days somewhere that said, "This wasn't a great book, but it was a marvelous book." That's pretty much how I feel about it. There were little turns of phrase here and there that I wrinkled my nose at (and many others that made me laugh out loud), but by the end, none of that mattered. It was a marvelous climax, the rhythm was spectacular, and I feel really, really bad for the people who just don't get it. They're missing the bus in a big way.

Here's a tip: Read for allegory. There's more going on here than the story. Language represents illusion... But honestly, don't take my word for it. Skim the pages for yourself.

My recommendation: Read it. You'll love it. But don't let some social idiot misinterpret it for you.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, at times fun, but plot-slop nonetheless.
Review: I too was seduced by this novel. It promised modern day intrigue: A manmade virus designed with good intentions: to debilitate the ability for man to categorize, and symbolically reference the world around him (including basic communication by language). This in theory could provide a peaceful means for one country to incapacitate an enemy nation, but not literally kill anyone. Ok, so guess what happens? Predictable, but that's not why I take issue with the book. In fact, that's why I gave it 3 stars. I like the premise, I think it's believable, interesting, and certainly scary.

I would have awarded four stars were it not for the end, which tied the whole plot together. I'll get to that in a second (sans plot-spoiling).

Tony Vigorito deserves kudos. This is a good first work. The book is filled with many musings and interesting metaphysical theories. Beyond the timidity of most first-timers, and much like his literary analog Tom Robbins, there is some real meat to his ideas. For that, he should be proud, and you, the reader, should be thankful. However, in my opinion, the writing quality is, quite frankly, pretty weak. Weak in two ways:

Firstly, this is one of those books that requires a dictionary at your side if you want to fully understand it. Now, mind you, a voracious reader (like that vocab?) myself, I don't mind a little mind expanding vernacular, but on every page? This book is rife with rare and difficult language. For those of you with 30lb brains, that may be attractive, but for me, it interfered with immersion.

But worse, the frequent use of analogies are annoying, and quite often, just plain corny. Take for example:

"Despite their indignant cooperation, outward movement was slower than an injured turtle in line at the post office during December".

Or, how about on the very next page:

"He began pacing, hands now flirting with his fiddle like the devil down in Georgia".

Forgivable, especially considering this is a first work. What wasn't, however, was what I found to be the basic premise of this book. And I'll outline it as best I can without any plot-spoiling.

The central revelation in this book is this: Evolution is good. Variety, which originates change, is key to evolving. (Ok, so far, but this is where it starts to stink). Man, as accomplished as he may be in certain regards, is basically living out a miserable existence; a greedy, poverty riddled, and pointless existence, despite (and maybe because of) all his technology. To liberate man from this desperate condition, Man must evolve. He posits one way to do that would be to get rid of that whole language thing.

Ugh.

He argues that verbal communication is the culprit in approximate truths, and, more often, miserable misunderstanding. Further, he argues against the use of language as a tool to advance selfish interest, citing selfishness as the chief opponent to peace and human happiness. As evidence, he offers up analogs in nature, Ants for instance: "survive thanks to group-oriented behavior".

The philosophical climax, which comes late in the book, asserts that selfishness causes everything from road rage and jealosy, to corporate greed. Further, that selfishness should be left behind, but perhaps we're reluctant as a species to leave it behind because we can't trust each other, because "there is a certain twisted comfort in assuming others might harm you". Finally, in escaping this prison of selfishness, in order to evolve, we must simply "trust each other".

The author offers up one simple word to lubricate that potential: Faith.

Have faith. Faith, as defined by the dictionary:

(1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof.

Have faith that others won't hurt you, that you won't be enslaved, that if you work hard for others, others will provide for you (who needs that whole money system anyway?). What's that smell...Communism? Is that back on the table these days?

To those that haven't read this book, I would really think twice about starting it. I was slack jawed and astounded at the ending the author chose, and the positions taken in the book. The whole darn thing just unraveled into a total thought-mess. If you're into apocalyptical fiction that questions language (much like this book did), and deals with viruses (both info and bio), consider reading Neal Stephenson's "Snowcrash". It is, in my opinion, an infinitely better read.

I hope my opinion was helpful.

Christian Hunter

Santa Barbara, California


Rating:
Summary: Absurdly Real
Review: I don't know how he did it. Well, I do know how he did it. I just finished reading it, but I'm still amazed. Tony Vigorito has crafted a beautiful novel with what seems like it should be an utterly absurd premise, but which has hauntingly familiar overtones to possibilities in the real world. I recommend this book if you enjoy any or all of the above: wild theories, spirited rants, wordplay, a compelling story, a humble protagonist, that beautiful feeling of sharing something with someone you've never met when you catch a glimpse of their true art.