Just a Couple of Days
Originally self-published in 2001, Vigorito's bloated first novel goes  mainstream in this "newly updated" version. When Dr. Blip Korterly, the  eccentric philosopher best friend of narrator and molecular biologist Dr. Flake  Fountain, vandalizes a bridge with the words "uh-oh," he starts a chain  reaction that ends in cataclysm. Along the way, Flake is enlisted by Tibor  Tynee, the megalomaniac president and CEO of Tynee University (and Flake's  boss), to create a vaccine for the Pied Piper virus, a U.S. military-designed  bug that destroys humans' ability to communicate. General Kiljoy, in charge of  the Pied Piper project (and very, very Gen. Ripper fromDr. Strangelove), works out a deal with the local  police and the university to test the virus on prisoners. Blip, arrested after  a confrontation with a raving preacher on the university green, ends up  becoming one of the test subjects. The virus, of course, escapes the test  facility, leading to some very bad things. Vigorito frequently delves into  goofy metaphors and hippie screeds, and though his novel offers plenty of  absurdity, his inability to go big with humor or vision leaves this feeling  like Pynchon ultra-lite.(Apr.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.