Vigil

A ghost attempts to guide an unrepentant oil executive toward redemption and the afterlife in the staggering latest from Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo). The story takes place over the course of one night, when the spirit of Jill Blaine descends to Earth and takes on human form at the home of K.J. Boone, her latest “charge.” As opposed to the hundreds of others Jill has visited at the end of their days, the terminally ill Boone is uninterested in finding peace or reckoning with his misdeeds. Instead, he revels in his accomplishments, taking credit for the U.S.’s decision to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, which one of his lobbyists ridiculed as the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Crap” for “greenies with hostile agendas.” A fiery French colleague of Jill’s shows up to help, repeatedly crying “Quelle horreur!” as he tries to convince Boone of the devastating effects of climate change by showing him specimens of endangered bird species felled by wildfire smoke. Alone with Jill, Boone recalls his childhood, his experiences as a “Wyoming hick” at college in Michigan, and his defiant rise to power, during which he came to be unfairly seen, in his view, as “the villain... the principal baddy.” What emerges is not a simple story of redemption, though. As more of Boone’s transgressions are revealed, Jill decides she hates him, and the novel barrels into gleefully absurd territory while posing weighty questions about salvation and justice and whether they’re even feasible. Saunders has outdone himself with this endlessly irreverent work of art. Agent: Esther Newberg, CAA. (Jan.)