"ferris' to rise again at a decent hour is part mystery, part social commentary, part religious exploration. dr. paul c. o'rourke, dds, one day discovers his private practice has a website he did not create and by which he is very much enraged. from there it snowballs into a full-on internet presence much to his personal dismay. he begins a communication with the other dr. paul c. o'rourke, dds, which begins an odyssey of what it means to be religious, a believer, or to damn it all and doubt."
Publisher Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date 2014-05-13
Section New Hardcover - Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Nathalie B.
Format Hardcover
ISBN 9780316033978
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this big, brilliant, profoundly observed novel by National Book Award Finalist Joshua Ferris explores the absurdities of modern life and one man's search for meaning.
Paul O'Rourke is a man made of contradictions: he loves the world, but doesn't know how to live in it. He's a Luddite addicted to his iPhone, a dentist with a nicotine habit, a rabid Red Sox fan devastated by their victories, and an atheist not quite willing to let go of God.
Then someone begins to impersonate Paul online, and he watches in horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name. What begins as an outrageous violation of his privacy soon becomes something more soul-frightening: the possibility that the online "Paul" might be a better version of the real thing.
As Paul's quest to learn why his identity has been stolen deepens, he is forced to confront his troubled past and his uncertain future in a life disturbingly split between the real and the virtual.
At once laugh-out-loud funny about the absurdities of the modern world, and indelibly profound about the eternal questions of the meaning of life, love and truth, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is a deeply moving and constantly surprising tour de force.
