To Rise Again at a Decent Hour; Joshua Ferris

Boom! No more than 50 pages in and Ferris lets out that 'c' expletive which I loathe. I'm sure many would. I'm sure many would just shrug it off, flicking it away like a piece of fallen dirt on a shoulder, barely noticing. Others, like myself, wince. But this is important to the character, for we see that Paul O' Rourke, of whom in those 49 previous pages is painted to be rather placid, in a monotonous way. Paul O'Rourke is a dentist. He likes things just so, especially when it comes to dentistry and to his practice. He pedantic about keeping a spotless reputation.  He dislikes the plethora of choice that New York brings him. He dislikes the modern world. This, Ferris displays in a beautifully comic way, where you will shout out "YES" as you read and  you'll want to briefly clap in praise as all the annoyances that our technological fueled life have infiltrated into our everyday speech and movements are brought to light. Collectively billing all ipads, blackberries and mobile phones under the term "me-machine" through the book is a charming term for how we all are indulging ourselves in screen interaction rather than face to face action.

The use of the 'C' word, allows us to realise that Paul O'Rourke is capable of letting things get to him with a real pent up anger and frustration. A sense that when being pushed too far, he would act out without social graces in order keep his squeeky clean status intact. So when an online profile is set up in his name, Paul O'Rourke slowly moves from frustrated to paranoid and into the dark realms of obsession. Ferris meanders us through the turmoils of how we deal with ourselves, and in this case Paul O'Rourke's self is his own nemesis.

The book morphs itself into two narratives. One being Paul o'Rourke attempting to find a trail of who his online self is and what this person is doing using his name and occupation all over the internet, and the second narrative sees Paul O'Rourke reminiscing about his previous failed relationships and how the families of the girls he fell in love with had a impact him, most notably with regards to religion.

There are some fairly lengthy and detailed accounts of various religious beliefs and doctrines, in particularly with the unraveling of Judaism, and also the opinions of atheism. These pages, whilst being relevant to the depths of obsession that O'Rourke falls into, do, at times, (7am commute on the central line) feel quite complicated and overwhelming. The sheer level of information and research that Ferris puts into his work makes for an epic forest of a read but one in which you feel wholly and contently pleased with yourself for getting through. Ferris discusses social values and boundaries and how offence can often be taken without one knowing, and this is something that we all fear . Resoundingly clever as aged religious beliefs are mirrored with modern advances of technology; both are revealed to be completely  and dangerously encompassing.