To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is described by one reviewer as "the Catch-22 of dentistry". That's a pretty good one-line summary. This off-beat and very funny book, shortlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize, chronicles the life of the protagonist, Dr. Paul C. O'Rourke, a dentist with a successful NYC practice but not particularly successful life. For much of the early part of the book, Paul's personality is established in a series of hilarious rants that brought to my mind the narrator of Thomas Bernhard's Extinction, also an off-beat and very funny book. He's cynical, self-absorbed, prone to obsessive relationships with women and his beloved Boston Red Sox. The Catch-22 link comes as Paul's identity is "stolen" online, involving him in a strange journey to establish his "roots" as a member of a hidden, proscribed community called "Ulms" - a kind of foil of Jews. Issues of faith and doubt, religion and belief are explored in unpredictable ways. There are a few slow sections in the latter parts of the book as we wade through the Jewish/Ulm stuff, but overall, the book is both fun and thought-provoking. It's certainly very well written.
For a review of the book from NY Times Review of Books, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/books/joshua-ferriss-to-rise-again-at-a-decent-hour.html?_r=0
For a review of the book from NY Times Review of Books, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/books/joshua-ferriss-to-rise-again-at-a-decent-hour.html?_r=0
