The Wave
by Walter Mosley
Published by Warner Books
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Reviewed by Mayra Calvani
"... naked, naked...I don't have any clothes...so so cold..."
New York Times bestselling author Walter Mosley starts his latest novel with this intriguing line. Don't be fooled by its short length and light writing, because this is highly allegorical and filled with deeply hidden themes.
Errol Porter, a computer programmer turned potter, receives a creepy phone call from a strange man speaking in single words. The stranger's voice is pleading, desperate and crazed. A few days later the man calls again. This time his language is more developed and he claims to be Errol's father. There's just one problem: Errol's father has been dead for many years. But if the stranger is not his father, then who is he, and why does his voice sound so similar? And he seems to know so many secret things only his father could have known.
Errol goes to his father's grave and meets the stranger, and from that moment on his life is turned upside down. The stranger--or GT--is the identical, much younger version of his father. It doesn't make sense, but Errol's desire to believe that somehow his father has come back to him is too strong. He soon realizes this "creature" is, in a way, his father, yet at the same time a much more disturbing and wondrous being whom the American government is frantically after.
The Wave is an interesting read, to say the least. It brings up many questions to mind: Can innocence and survival be evil? Who is more evil--the creature who acts on evolution and survival--or the man who, driven by fear, commits acts of unspeakable atrocity? Does the end justify the means?
The only disappointing element in the novel is the villain. The story is so well written I was surprised to find such a cliche, cartoon-like presentation of the "mad" government scientist from such an accomplished author. In spite of this, however, the novel is worth reading for all the moral questions it raises.
Armchair Interviews says: The book can be read in a day or two yet haunts the reader with these questions for many days afterwards.