Book 182: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
Book 182: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour.
Author: Joshua Ferris, 2014.
Genre: Contemporary. Comedy-Drama. Religion.
Other Details: Hardback. 337 pages.
Paul O'Rourke, 40 year-old slightly curmudgeonly dentist, runs a thriving practice in New York. Yet he is discovering he needs more in his life than a steady income and the perfect mochaccino. But what?
As Paul tries to work out the meaning of life, a Facebook page and Twitter account appear in his name. What's at first an outrageous violation of privacy soon becomes something more frightening: the possibility that the online "Paul" might be a better version of the man in the flesh. Who is doing this and will it cost Paul his sanity? - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
This novel started off fine as a comic take on a single middle-aged, baseball-obsessed New Yorker rather out of touch with modern technology and dealing with an unusual type of identity theft. However, that fades into the background and the reader is presented with tons of material on the Bible, Judaism, Gentiles wanting to become Jews as well as exploring contemporary anti-Semitism. It all felt very familiar bringing to mind Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question . So I ended up nicknaming it 'Finkler 2014'; though I did not feel it was as good. Part of that experience might be the cultural shift between the UK and USA.
I would not class it a bad book and it had entertaining bits even if I grew glassy-eyed over the religious and philosophical musings. Not my least favourite of the Man Booker 2014 short-list but second.from the bottom.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.