≡ Read Gratis To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Joshua Ferris 9780316033978 Books

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Joshua Ferris 9780316033978 Books

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To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Joshua Ferris 9780316033978 Books

The third novel by Joshua Ferris delves into the world of a man who excels at his profession, dentistry, while struggling to make it as a human. The protagonist's internal strife is forced into the public eye when an imposter begins to create an elaborate online persona on his behalf, and not to his liking. The "real" Dr. O'Rourke must defend his identity against his online doppelganger - but is his identity worth defending? Is his identity even what he thought it was in the first place?

Dr. O'Rourke, while languishing in his own exclusion, unwittingly explores the concepts of community and beloging through many different channels: the online world, faith communities, sports fandom, business relationships, ancestry, and even the simple act of losing oneself in a shopping mall. Through this character, we are invited to consider our own identities - what we project and what we protect.

Ferris has once again brought a quirky individual to life in order to explore the "normal" around him. Well worth the read.


Tags : To Rise Again at a Decent Hour [Joshua Ferris] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 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,Joshua Ferris,To Rise Again at a Decent Hour,Little, Brown and Company,0316033979,Literary,Psychological,Dentists;Fiction.,Online identity theft;Fiction.,Self-doubt;Fiction.,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Humorous General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Psychological,FICTION Religious,Fiction,Fiction-Literary,GENERAL,General Adult,Identity (Psychology),Online identity theft,Self-doubt,United States,award winner; award winning; american contemporary fiction individual authors; fiction; fiction general; humorous; general; literary; psychological; religious; humorous general; religious general; humorous fiction; modern contemporary fiction post c 1945; new york n.y.; psychological fiction; modern life; search for meaning; man booker prize; national book award; social media; invasion of privacy

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Joshua Ferris 9780316033978 Books Reviews

Really liked this novel, as I did his first one "Then we Came to the End". Joshua Ferris writes novels that are funny but also make serious points about our society. The protagonist in this one is a dentist living in New York living a somewhat empty life. He is estranged from his family, and lacks any spiritual/religious life. The only sense of belonging he has are to his dental profession and his devotion to the Red Sox. I think Ferris is making a point here about modern society in the old days people got a sense of belonging to a community, but in modern times that belonging is gone. Paul O'Rourke is just an exaggerated version of many of us in modern-day society. His back history includes a brief office romance with his office manager, in which his attraction was not just to her, but even more to the sense of community she got from being a religious Jew. So much so that the protagonist became a religious Jew himself and attempted the convert. The catch He didn't actually *believe* in God, he just wanted the sense of belonging to something. So he "flunked" his conversion. Then something weird happens Someone starts impersonating O'Rourke on the internet. But the impersonator, unlike the real person, has an affiliation with a fictitious religion called the Ulms, supposedly descended from a tribe in ancient Israel who was an ancient enemy of the Jews. Unlike the Jews, whose god demands faith, the Ulms god demands that his followers *doubt* him. This seems like a religion tailor-made for O'Rourke. He becomes obsessed with his impersonator, and starts an email conversation with his impersonated self. From there, things get increasing absurb and funny (as if what I've related so far isn't already absurd and funny). Ferris has written here a brainy book that pokes fun at modern society, religion, social media, Wikipedia, and a long list of other things. You'll like it if you like this sort of humor.
This novel makes dentistry seem like the grossest profession on the planet, and maybe it is. Paul O’Rourke’s practice has no internet presence, until some unknown entity creates a fairly comprehensive website for him. The only problem is that Paul did not instigate the creation of this site and certainly does not approve of it. This is not a book of action so much as it is a book of conversation and contemplation, as O’Rourke makes it his mission to uncover the identity and the purpose of the organization or person who has become his unwelcome avatar. Before you know it, someone is tweeting on Paul’s behalf and even emailing him. The novelty of this unlikely identity theft (who would go to this much trouble?) begins to wear thin as Paul become increasingly obsessed with unearthing the culprit. Paul soon discovers that his heritage is not Irish, as his last name would imply, but in fact he is possibly one of the few descendants of a persecuted ethnic group, the Ulms, whose “religion” was to doubt the existence of God. I liked this novel, but I became a little weary of the history of the Ulms, and I think his first novel, Then We Came to the End, is superior. Paul is basically a loner, with no life beyond work and watching the Red Sox on TV, so that this unwanted internet activity at least gives him something else to do. The women in his office—his assistant Abby, his hygienist Mrs. Convoy, and his office manager and former girlfriend Connie—make for a colorful trio, alongside Paul’s dreary personality. The book is laugh-out-loud funny from time to time, especially in the beginning, but the author’s descriptions of the insides of people’s mouths are often yucky. Paul has some pretty quirky patients, but my favorite is the guy who declines to have his cavities filled because he just doesn’t feel like he needs to. There’s also the very successful guy, who comes in at the behest of his boss and coworkers, because his dental health has become so repugnant that his breath has become offensive. Eeew.
The third novel by Joshua Ferris delves into the world of a man who excels at his profession, dentistry, while struggling to make it as a human. The protagonist's internal strife is forced into the public eye when an imposter begins to create an elaborate online persona on his behalf, and not to his liking. The "real" Dr. O'Rourke must defend his identity against his online doppelganger - but is his identity worth defending? Is his identity even what he thought it was in the first place?

Dr. O'Rourke, while languishing in his own exclusion, unwittingly explores the concepts of community and beloging through many different channels the online world, faith communities, sports fandom, business relationships, ancestry, and even the simple act of losing oneself in a shopping mall. Through this character, we are invited to consider our own identities - what we project and what we protect.

Ferris has once again brought a quirky individual to life in order to explore the "normal" around him. Well worth the read.