The Apotheosis

February 18, 2019
A wealth of nonessential detail and pernicious misogyny and bigotry spoil this futuristic novel from Lee (The Gravitational Leap). When John Numen’s father dies, John inherits an enormous fortune hidden in offshore accounts, and a sizable share in the family pharmaceutical company, leaving him free to pursue his hobby of human cloning experiments. At a company holiday party, John meets Amira, the wife of Ethan, a caricatured Orthodox Jewish man who manages the company and controls his family with dogma. Ethan and John view each other as intellectual and professional threats. Amira and John begin an affair, but when Amira tries to leave Ethan, he attacks her and inadvertently kills their daughter. Amira and John attempt to clone the child, which ends in Amira’s sudden death. Convinced he has the power to reclaim his lost love, John begins kidnapping and murdering women in order to find a way to clone himself and, eventually, Amira. Though fans of antiheroes may be drawn to John’s deadly rampage, the chauvinism and prejudices underlying the story will turn most readers away.