Vigorito, Tony

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Vigorito, Tony

PERSONAL:

Born in PA.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Northern CA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Former professor of social theory; has taught at Antioch College, Ohio University, and Ohio State University.

WRITINGS:

Just a Couple of Days (novel), privately printed, 2001, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Tony Vigorito has written several novels but did not find a publisher until his Just a Couple of Days was released by Harcourt in 2007. Originally self-published, the satirical book is a parody of government, the military, and other institutions that seek to control people. The tale is set at the fictional Tynee University, where geneticist Flake Fountain works. He is friends with Blip Korterly, an unemployed sociology professor, who is married to another professor on the Tynee faculty. Flake is approached by representatives of the military, which has developed a virus that affects people's ability to communicate. The intention is to use the virus as a weapon, but to protect American troops Flake is asked to develop a vaccine. In performing secret experiments on prison inmates, complications arise when Blip is briefly arrested for a minor crime and is given the virus. Released, Blip spreads the disease to others at a party with unexpected results that address Vigorito's theme of the futility of trying to control people. "The final apocalyptic vision is a twist not seen since Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle," reported Joshua Cohen in a Library Journal review. A Kirkus Reviews contributor, however, felt that "suspense takes a backseat to philosophizing and linguistic fireworks" and that Vigorito's attempts at satire are "not quite enough to sustain a full-length novel." Similarly, a Publishers Weekly writer decided that the author's "inability to go big with humor or vision leaves this feeling like [Thomas] Pynchon ultra-lite." Nevertheless, Royce Carlson asserted on the Zenzibar Web site that Just a Couple of Days "provokes thought and laughter and shows that freedom is, indeed, a bigger game than power."