The Unknown Knowns by Jeffrey Rotter

Book Review by Nat Smith | 01 May 2009
Book title: The Unknown Knowns
Author: Jeffrey Rotter

Everybody says they know an eccentric, but most of these supposed oddballs don’t really rate. The lead character of this book, Jim Rath, is the kind of eccentric that everyone says they know, but for real. He has a well kept comics collection (not that odd) a tendency to do weird experiments (getting nuttier) and dreams of setting up a museum based on The Aquatic Ape theory of evolution (nuts, but at least he believes in evolution). His wife leaves him, which is understandable, and that leads him to suspect that a mysterious figure is in fact an emissary from a lost underwater race, the Nautikons (now he’s properly nuts). This figure is actually a CIA agent who is rather implausibly (even here) inspecting swimming pools for some sort of anti-terrorism reason. The agent, Les Diaz, ends up suspecting Rath is a terrorist. And the two are, of course, about as crazy as each other. This can be a very funny book at times, but satire of a departed administration (the title is from Donald Rumsfeld’s “There are known knowns” speech) can be wearying. Still, it’s smoothly written, and the plot is worth following to what is a very appropriate conclusion. [Nat Smith]

Release Date 7 May, Published by Jonathan Cape, Cover Price £12.99