O-ZONE by Paul Theroux

Finished Su 1/18/14

Another one of mine that I last read and finished Su 2/6/94. Although I only remembered some of it, I really enjoyed it the second time around.

'O-Zone' is the outer zone of the US. Located in Missouri and the site of a nuclear spill that was at first called a natural disaster, then an accident, then....an incident.

The novel begins when the group decides to visit 'O-Zone' for New Years Day. The zone is supposed to be unpopulated, but during the course of the novel it is revealed that many different types of people live in the area.

THE THEME-
The aliens are just like 'the owners', and it's basically a PR scam against the poor and disenfranchised.  Kinda like today although this novel was written in 1986. When you first learn of the aliens you think they were actually 'not of this world', but soon it's clear that they are just poor people.

Hardy and Hooper Allbright are brothers. Allbrights was a department store that converted to 'on-line, catalog sales'. Hooper runs 'the store', and Hardy works for 'Asfalt Corporation'. He is a scientist who works to change the weather to encourage land usage. It's an offshoot of the oil industry. Large areas of desolate land are covered in oil. This darkens the soil and changes the air currents. Probably has some basis in fact.

Holly and Willis Murdick- Willis is a 'neo-con' nitwit, heavily into guns and firepower. He belongs to a paramilitary outfit called 'Godseye'. They patrol the border and prey on 'aliens'. 'Snake Eyes' is their unit.

Holly is shallow and never faithful to her husband. I don't think he cares and all the marriages are pretty loose, and you can do as you wish.

Hardy is married to Moura. She has a son, Fisher (Fish, Fizzy) by a 'clinic'. These were fertility clinics that have now become more or less bordellos.

Moura is obsessed with her donor who she met (used) sixteen years earlier. She found his name, Boy or Boyd, and in the end of the novel rekindles their relationship.

Fish is super intelligent but socially retarded. Fish ends up left behind in The Zone and becomes part of a band of aliens. He gives them technology and they help him to grow into adulthood. Fish stays in the Zone at the end of the novel.

Hooper falls in love with an alien, Bligh. She is a fifteen year old girl who lives with the aliens.  

I liked the book and it would probably make a great film.