To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
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3.2 • 18 Ratings
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
*** Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize 2014 and Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014 ***
'The Catch-22 of dentistry' Stephen King
Joshua Ferris's dazzling new novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is about the meaning of life, the certainty of death, and the importance of good oral hygiene.
There's nothing like a dental chair to remind a man that he's alone in the world . . .
Paul O'Rourke - dentist extraordinaire, reluctant New Yorker, avowed atheist, disaffected Red Sox fan, and a connoisseur of the afternoon mochaccino - is a man out of touch with modern life. While his dental practice occupies his days, his nights are filled with darker thoughts, as he alternately marvels at and rails against the optimism of the rest of humanity.
So it goes, until someone begins to impersonate Paul online. What began as an outrageous violation of privacy soon becomes something far more soul-frightening: the possibility that the virtual 'Paul' might be a better version of the man in the flesh . . .
'Frenetic, very funny, it confirms Ferris as a rising star of American fiction' Mail on Sunday
'Glorious . . . A very, very funny novel' BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
'Dismayingly funny in the way that only really serious books can be' Guardian
Joshua Ferris was born in Illinois in 1974. He is the author of Then We Came to the End (2007), which was nominated for the National Book Award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and The Unnamed. In 2010 he was selected for the New Yorker's prestigious '20 under 40' list. In 2014 To Rise Again At A Decent Hour won the Dylan Thomas Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Joshua Ferris lives in New York.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Paul O'Rourke, the main character of Ferris's (Then We Came to the End) new book, is a dentist. And he's a good one, informed and informative even if the mouths that once seemed so erotic have devolved into caves of bacteria, pain, and lurking death. Ferris depicts Paul's difficulties: in the workplace, he struggles to say good morning, has problems with the office manager (who's also his ex-girlfriend), and likewise has problems with the devout Catholic hygienist, who can't see why he doesn't believe. A constant ruminator and obsessive Red Sox fan, Paul would like to believe and belong, but he can't. And then the Ulms, who claim to be followers of Amalek (a figure from the Old Testament), hijack his Internet presence and claims him as their own. As an angry and incredulous Paul reads "his" tweets, learns about the unlikely history of the Ulms, and tries to figure out what it all means, readers may find themselves questioning whether the drama of the Ulms amounts to much. Paul is an appealing albeit self-involved everyman, but Ferris's effort to take on big topics (existential doubt, grief, identity, the Internet, the lure and limits of religion, and the struggle to floss in the face of life's meaninglessness) feels more like a set of thought experiments than an organic or character-driven story.
Customer Reviews
Starts off great, but...
This book has an excellent beginning. It really does. It has character and humour and interesting detail and you think it will be great. But, I'm afraid, I almost didn't finish this. It took such Herculean levels of effort to get through the last half of this book because it is actually so, so very, very boring.
Don't be fooled. Make authors and publishers create good books - not half a good book and half a boring one.