Jeff Somers is the author of
Lifers,
the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books,
Chum from Tyrus Books, and the Ustari Cycle from Pocket/Gallery, including
We Are Not Good People. At the B&N Reads blog he tagged
ten top anti-novels, including:
Remainder, by Tom McCarthy
This is actually one of the easier anti-novels on this list to enter, the story of a man who suffers debilitating brain damage after an accident he doesn’t quite remember and is awarded a fortune in damages, money he uses to hire people to recreate moments from his life he only partially remembers. His obsession with these moments leads him to reenact increasingly violent events that may or may not have actually happened, as the whole thing spins into what might be the textbook example of the most unreliable narration of all time. The questions McCarthy raises about memory, and identity, and how we can rely on what we “know” make the effort well worth it.
Read about
another entry on the list.
Remainder is among
Emily Temple's fifty best novels about madness.
The Page 69 Test: Remainder.
--Marshal Zeringue
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