AUDIO

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

by Joshua Ferris
8 CDs. retail ed. unabridged. 10 hrs. Hachette Audio. 2014. ISBN 9781478953029. $30; Playaway digital; digital download. F
COPY ISBN
Ferris (Then We Came to the End) here examines what it means to exist in the contemporary world by presenting the story of Paul O'Rourke, a dentist in New York. O'Rourke's professional life is exemplary, but his personal life is a shambles. An atheist who longs for God, the son of a father who committed suicide and left his boy afraid of human connection (while at the same time longing for it), O'Rourke cannot even enjoy his beloved Red Sox without angst. What breaks the logjam is the sudden appearance of a web page, followed by a Twitter account and a Facebook page that have been created for him. The question is, by whom?
VERDICT There are points in this novel where the story bogs down and, despite the excellent narration by Campbell Scott, the plot comes dangerously close to tedious. The patient listener will be rewarded in the end, however, by this story of doubt, religion, belonging, and living in the world today.
Reviewed by Wendy Galgan, St. Francis Coll., Brooklyn , Sep 15, 2014
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