Joshua Ferris

I started with great energy: I enjoyed reading about a somewhat cynical, dentist with a somewhat uninspired homelife, his work, his two ex-girlfriends. It was fun as well as occasionally thought-provoking. Then he finds that someone has produced a website for his practice, without his knowledge, and is using it to post snippets of Jewish history. When it became a tale of his increasing obsession with an obscure Jewish sect, I became less involved. I found the history a little tedious, and tended to skip through it. Yes, it was OK. But no more than that.… (plus d'informations)

An amusingly told story about a man searching for meaning in the modern world, whose main virtue I found in the amusement, and not so much in the searching for meaning. Which means, I suppose, that it crosses the finish line as a mild disappointment, though it wasn't a bad effort to watch.

Paul O'Rourke is a successful dentist but a struggling human. Ferris seems to pull off the trick of making him both narcissistic and self-deprecating, with often funny results. His life has been dominated by a search for some larger meaning to subsume himself into. As a committed atheist, God and religion are right out, but women and baseball are definitely in. He describes a few failed relationships in which he always felt he lost his own personality in the desperately needy merging of two into one, a process he names as being "cunt-gripped". It never worked out, of course, leaving him with his growing archive of Red Sox games to keep him company instead.

In comes the bizarre: someone creates an online persona in his name - a web site, a twitter account, Facebook page. The other "Paul O'Rourke" claims to be a member of an ancient remnant of the Amalekite people of the Bible called Ulms, who have paradoxically been commanded by God to doubt His existence. Paul and "Paul" communicate via email, first in confrontation, but Paul becomes more interested in this alleged group that claims him as a member.

Plot does not appear to be Ferris's strongest suit, but he's created an amusing character and placed him in an absurdist storyline. The problems include lack of plot focus, a character I didn't feel particularly invested in despite his amusements, and no real notable payoff to the story in the final stretch. It's an okay book, but not one that should really stick out in the memory.

… (plus d'informations)

I think I have a book crush on Joshua Ferris (or "Josh" as I call him when I talk back to his narration). I super liked [b:And Then We Came to the End|2025667|Then We Came to the End|Joshua Ferris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1210008278s/2025667.jpg|2926759] and listening to The Unnamed, I felt hypnotized by the soft rhythms of his voice. Oh, Josh. Your new book is so sad. Are you, okay?

Here's the plot: Tim Farnsworth and his wife Jane are happily married, well off, etc. But they are dealing with a strange unnamed affliction. Tim has this problem where he just starts walking and he can't stop. He can't control where he's walking or how long he walks. He doesn't know when the walks will start or stop. He just get carried away by his legs and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

To me, this almost sounds like a funny premise. It has slapstick potential, right? But in my dear Josh's hands it is tragic. It adds stress to Tim and Jane's life the way that a terminal illness would, only Tim can't get the automatic sympathy a named illness would grant.

There is a really interesting look at the mind/body dichotomy in this book because Tim can't control his body and it's ruining his life. So he has a kind of psychotic break where he feels like he's two people: his mind that wants to stay put and his body that demands he walk.

Ultimately, it's Josh's writing that I love. The man has a gift for unpretentious, moving prose. This book is crushingly sad, but not in a way that made me angry or depressed. Instead I felt grateful that I don't have a disease, especially a strange unnamed walking one.… (plus d'informations)