Tom Mccarthy: Remainder (Rating: 8)

I just finished reading Remainder by Tom Mccarthy.

I really enjoyed this book for the most part. It is well written. It is easy to read. The main character is very complex and interesting. The premise is even more interesting than the main character. And it is a fairly strange book. (Not Running with Scissors strange, but strange enough!)

So, as a matter of course, what isn't to love?

This book—which is told in the first person—begins with the main character (I don't recall him ever revealing his name, nor do I remember him ever being referred to by name), telling us about this horrible accident he has been in. Or, rather, with him telling us what he can about the accident. Which isn't much. Between the amnesia he has been left with regarding the actual event, and the terms of the legal settlement that left him eight and a half million pounds richer, he pretty much is left with succinctly summing up the incident as "It involved something falling from the sky."

He then goes on to explain what his life is like at the time he gets the news that they—you know, them—have agreed pay up: the accident has really messed him up physically, and after what sounds like an enormous amount of physical therapy he is really able to get around quite well (the phrase "is really able to get around quite well" here meaning "is only able to navigate from place to place by giving thought to what every joint, muscle, and bone needs to do in just about every part of his body to get him there, in a way that you, I, and anyone you know probably will never have to!")

Sounds like fun, no? No!

Anyway, hrmm, 8.5 million pounds. Thats better than $16,000,000 at today's exchange rate! You could do quite a lot with that kind of money, but at first he doesn't know what to do with it. Then, one day it all comes to him.

Then things get really interesting . . . .