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 from Dr. 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.)