3 out of 4 stars
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Contrary to its title, Nothing Important Happened Today explores a hypothetical yet gravely serious event: nuclear warfare. The reader follows Jack, an advertising agent living in pre-apocalyptic London. When the news announces that nuclear warheads are en route to the city, panic ensues and the once-orderly streets become savage as people desperately attempt to flee. As droves of humanity turn on each other, Jack seems to be one of the few maintaining his sanity. Rather than make a mad dash out of the city, Jack chooses to carefully make his way home, using his wits and martial arts training to forge a path through the chaos.
Nothing Important Happened Today is a unique story that contrasts base human instinct against logic and rationality. As nuclear bombs plummet toward London, the general populace panics and reverts to animalistic survival tactics. While violence and theft are rampant, Jack remains calm and calculating. He thinks ahead, stays alert, and even tries to help people in need when he can. The irony of this situation is that Jack is medicated for a mental illness, yet throughout most of the book seems to be the only sane person left in the city. As someone with a background in psychology, I appreciated this non-stereotyped depiction of a mentally ill person.
However, Jack is not a saint. Although he stays calm, he wants to survive like everyone else. Throughout the book, Jack must use violence to defend himself or others, and often finds himself breaking the law to obtain needed items or to escape a bad situation. The line between right and wrong gets blurrier as the story progresses, and Jack questions his own morality on several occasions.
I enjoyed this story, but I must confess that the beginning was a little slow. However, the pace picked up after the announcement of nuclear war, and I found it difficult to put the book down thereafter because I had to know what was going to happen next. As Jack moved from one scrape to another, I was reminded of an episode of 24 (whose main character is coincidentally also named Jack!)
Despite the dark subject matter, the author infused this story with a good deal of humor. I found myself chuckling on more than one occasion at the numerous examples of Jack's dry wit. These lighter moments in the writing helped to diffuse some of the tension of reading about humanity's less endearing qualities.
My only true criticism of this book is that there were a few errors in the writing, many of which appeared to be simple typos. The author is clearly a talented writer, but those occasional mistakes did stand out a bit. However, they did not detract from my enjoyment of the story.
Nothing Important Happened Today is an engaging story, and I give it 3 out of 4 stars. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys post-apocalyptic or dystopian literature. Although this book technically takes place before doomsday, it's definitely in the same vein.
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Nothing Important Happened Today
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