O-Zone

By Paul Theroux

Book Overview

"Remarkable... Powerful... Mesmerizing... Lyrical." Susan Cheever Welcome to the America of the 21st century. The O-Zone is a forbidding land of nuclear waste, mutants, and aliens. Except for one place that is a beautiful oasis amidst the destruction. When two aliens are shot that look suspiciously human, Hooper Allbright, disurbed by the memories of those he once loved, goes back down into the O-Zone to try to reach the people he lost, though they may be unreachable by now.... "Smart, witty, grotesque, and brutal." THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399131868
• ISBN13: 9780399131868
• Release Date: September 1986
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
• Length: 527 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 9.5" x 6.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

To the safe middle ground...

Of all the Theroux books, and I have a goodly collection, this is my favorite of his.It has nothing to do with the weather term, ozone. Basically, it is about an area in the middle of nowhere (in Missouri) for the survivors of the eastern fallout. Only certain people qualify for residency at this place.He is a most prolific writer about many subjects and themes. Theroux is a man before his time, predicting such an occurrence in the future of America. I know he wrote THE MOSQUITO COAST which was made into a good movie. But...his travel books hooked me, plus his use of the English language.I have recommended this book to several friends. He is a good, cryptic writer and even wrote MY SECRET HISTORY. He is good, only equalled by Stephen Donaldson, in my opinion.

Excellent drama against a sci-fi backdrop

O-Zone is a rather unusual book for Paul Theroux, a drama in a futuristic setting rather than the contemporary setting of his other novels. Reading O-Zone brings to mind Huxley's Brave New World, both for the portrayal of the world in which it is set, and for the inevitible comparison with another noted novelist who wrote a single book set in a futuristic world. I've noticed that Sci-Fi fans as a group don't much care for O-Zone, as it violates a lot of the accepted rules of the genre- as does Brave New World, for that matter, and Huxley has never been that popular with hard core SciFi readers either. Both books use the future world as a setting to explore relationships between people, and to make certain plot developments possible, but neither gets into much detail regarding the technology.Like Brave New World, O-Zone explores the alienation of modern man in this world of the future, and the consequant attraction to the primative and atavistic world that is found on the reservation (Huxley) or in the contaminated lands of the O-Zone. And in both books, some of the protagonists go in search of amusement and entertainment from the primatives, but find something disturbingly similar to themselves.Despite the strong parallels, O-Zone owes nothing in the way of plot of development to Brave New World. The story is as original as anything Theroux's written, the characters are fully developed and well motivated, and the story compelling.

Tour de Force

It is hard to say why this novel so affected me. True, it is sci-fi and it has a tremendous plot that winds back on itself, the characters are some of the quirkiest and most interesting in literature...maybe it is a combination of all these elements.One pet peeve I have with futurists is their depiction of the Earth as an environmental disaster as hordes of free-roaming sub-humans terrify the countryside. YET, scientific progress seems to continue unabated. That aside, this tale is a gem!! From the genius teenager to the searching mom to the innocent gal - from locale to locale - Theroux has assembled a cast and story that resonates long after one finished the last words. Innocence in all its many forms is an underlying theme with almost every major character - from the mom to the son to the roamers to the gal and even to the long lost (?) male donor - involved in some type of sudden awarenenss that the world is not as benign as they once thought. The coming of age of the young teenager is perfect in its perplexity and complexity.Get this book and lock the door!!

One of the most complete books I've read in a long time

All the characters are developed well and become familiar to the reader. I read this book in Panama and bought a second copy to carry with me for the rest of my journey in Latin America. At times I found myself laughing in the middle of the day thinking about things the characters had said!

Excelent

Only Paul Theroux could write "Brave New World" better than Huxley. (As if Huxley could write.) The basic thematic structure of "Brave New World" (a journey into primitive unknowns) coupled with Theroux's talent for character, description, and satire make for a fantastic novel