Filled with style and sarcasm...

The following is reprinted from The Knight News (Queens College).

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

What do a medieval serf sentenced to death, an existential New Orleans stripper, and a former prison guard who only talks in the present tense have in common? Well, even according to Tony Vigorito, not much, except for encounters with tornadoes and a Day-Glo orange Frisbee.

Truthfully, the above sentence could pretty much sum up Vigorito's new novel, Nine Kinds of Naked, an eclectic whirlwind of coincidences and unanswered questions.

Vigorito sets up an ambitious project from Page 1, introducing all the characters at once and leaving it up to the reader to remember (and care about) them. Disorganized and truncated as the book may be, the hyperactive feeling of being dragged along for the ride grows on the reader after a chapter or two. Pretty soon, we can't help but start to wonder what will become of the foul-mouthed Diablo, toothpick-chomping J.J. Speed, and emotionally numb Dave Wildhack.

The plot is hard to describe, except as a story of the six degrees of separation, not only between people, but between time frames, storm clouds, and theories of life. Connected only by a fluke of the weather and a brightly-colored toy, the numerous characters, each more dysfunctional than the last, set out to discover what the heck this world is about and why they should even care about the answer. One wonders what happened to his left middle finger, one questions how a grandfather clock got into his bed, and one unfortunate man spends endless nights awake after not quite hearing his late wife's last words.

It's a hard plot to sell, but Vigorito does it in a stellar fashion, filled with style and sarcasm. Incredibly, this is one of the few novels one could pick up at any arbitrary page and enjoy. However, that could be because not even the characters know what is going on. There is no voice of reason, or maybe there are too many conflicting ones. Either way, Nine Kinds of Naked is a surprisingly fun read.

The charm of Vigorito's work it that it never takes itself seriously, allowing the plot to deviate where it will and take the reader to places never seen and facts no one ever wanted to know, only to pick up where it left off in a nearly seamless transition.

Unfortunately, this piece of amiable originality is also the book's downfall. Sometimes, it seems, the author lets his mind wander a little too far and for a little too long, until the reader is tempted to look at his or her watch and shout "get on with it!" One (or many) such instance is during stripper Elizabeth Wildhack's dance sequences. The author maintains a lasting obsession with Elizabeth's body, returning to its description about five times throughout the novel. I felt, at times, I was invading on the author's private fantasy and was compelled to skip to the next chapter.

Lengthy TMI moments aside, Nine Kinds of Naked is an imaginative, amusing dive into the (literal) eye of a storm and is a fresh take on the "six degrees" theory.

Even at the book's end, the picture is not completely clear; but, as the novel so aptly stresses, sometimes it's not necessary to understand everything (but a dying beloved's last words might not be the thing to blank out on).

Review by Aliza Donath.