A Naked Singularity

By Sergio de la Pava

Book Overview

The mind-bending, brilliant, often hilarious PEN Award-winning classic novel of justice, the law, and the brutal gap between the two.

A Naked Singularity tells the story of Casi, a child of Colombian immigrants who lives in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan as a public defender--one who, tellingly has never lost a trial. Never. In the book, we watch what happens when his sense of justice and even his sense of self begin to crack--and how his world then slowly devolves. It's a huge, ambitious novel clearly in the vein of DeLillo, Foster Wallace, Pynchon, and even Melville, and it's told in a distinct, frequently hilarious voice, with a striking human empathy at its center. Its panoramic reach takes readers through crime and courts, immigrant families and urban blight, media savagery and media satire, scatology and boxing, and even a breathless heist worthy of any crime novel. If InfiniteJest stuck a pin in the map of mid-90s culture and drew our trajectory from there, A Naked Singularity does the same for the feeling of surfeit, brokenness, and exhaustion that permeates our civic and cultural life today. In the opening sentence of William Gaddis's A Frolic of His Own, a character sneers, "Justice? You get justice in the next world. In this world, you get the law." A Naked Singularity reveals the extent of that gap, and lands firmly on the side of those who are forever getting the law.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226141799
• ISBN13: 9780226141794
• Release Date: April 2012
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 688 Pages
• Weight: 2.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Absolutely Entertaining and Brilliant

A Naked Singularity One of the most creative books I have ever read. I could not put this book down for two weeks. It is a dramatic and humorous look into the life of a young attorney as his life takes a twist into the unknown. All of the characters in this novel help to shape the brilliant and provoking dialogue, in what amounts to non stop banter that will leave you riveted. This was Law And Order meets The Honeymooners meets Ring Magazine meets The Sting. I could feel all of the character's emotions spilling off of the pages. On top of that, the author took me back to my favorite era in boxing, triggering some wonderful memories. The conclusion of this read left me with one question for the rookie author......when can we expect a follow up effort from De La Pava???

A fine and highly recommended read

What's behind the nature of selfishness? "A Naked Singularity" is a novel about boxer Wilfred Benitez. Using Benitez as the stage, author Sergio De La Pava writes a story that gives readers something to think about. Speaking on the nature of evil, human nature, psychology, Hispanic life, and much more, Pava picks at the readers mind as the story rolls on and hopes to leave them wiser having read it. "A Naked Singularity" is a fine and highly recommended read.

A wild ride!

Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (1/09) The author has created a wonderful, sarcastic, humorous book through the eyes of a public defender of our criminal justice system. Casi, the main character and public defender, first begins his tirade of the criminal justice system when he vocalizes about individuals who have become "bodies" in police and court precincts. He continues to discuss how these individuals got into the system in the first place- did they actually commit a crime? Was it the environment they lived in or was it the need for over-time for the officers? As we read this I know, and you know, we have all questioned this at one time or another. Public defenders don't get a choice of whom they will represent- and sometimes their caseload is so high at some point they don't care. But as we see in Casi, he does care and he does want to help out his fellow man- but he can't do it in this crazy, mixed-up environment. The author's vivid descriptions of lawyers, the system and the criminal make you believe you are in court with them. You will shake your head at some of the stupidity we all know happens. At some point, Casi decides that he must make a change and maybe he isn't cut out for this type of work. He will not take what others force on him- but what happens then? When one of his clients is killed, Casi is approached by the police asking him what he knew. He knew plenty, but in his usual way he makes it a riddle for the police as he decides they will be coming for him, because a lot of money that was supposed to be on the dead client has disappeared and they think Casi knows where it is, or has it. It is then the race for his life is on. "A Naked Singularity" by Sergio De La Pava is an extremely long read at six-hundred eighty-nine pages. Some of the dialogue and action became a bit tedious to read, yet at the same time you are caught up in the author's vivid descriptions of what is going on and for this reason can't put the book down.