“Most men live their lives vacillating between hope and fear,” he’d say. “Hope for heaven, on the one hand, fear of nothingness on the other. But now consider doubt. Do you see all the problems it solves, for man and for God?” – Excerpt from To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour tells the story of Paul O’Rourke, a dentist in Manhattan. Paul is a man of contradictions – he is a passionate Red Sox fan – he hates the Yankees, records every Red Sox game on his VCR, he even have seven VCRs in backup for the fear that he will not be able to buy a new one when the current goes bad, eats the same meal before every match and even travels to New Jersey, checks into a hotel to watch the game outside city limits, if his team is nine or more games below the Yankees. And yet, one of his greatest disappointments in life is the 2004 Red Sox world series victory over the Yankees.

In spite of being a successful and well to do dentist, Paul is not happy with his life – he is missing purpose or meaning and is desperately lonely – he wants to find a “something” which can become “everything” for him.

Paul’s life turn upside down when someone starts impersonating him on internet/social media and starts writing about a group called ‘Ulms – follower of a religion based on doubting God’.

I must warn that this is not an easy to read book. There are heavy religious references, which makes it hard to follow and understand. There a long monologues, the narrative keeps jumping from one topic to another – basically this book requires (and deserves) absolute devotion in order to understand, appreciate and enjoy it. However, there are passages so beautifully written, so candidly exposing the hollowness of today’s world – there is one section where Paul is describing his inability to say Good Morning to his office staff, just a plain simple platonic good morning, but he is just unable to do that – absolutely brilliant! Overall this book, about the existential suffering of today’s world, is witty and intelligent, yet sad and thought provoking.

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour has been longlisted for the Man Booker prize 2014. This is Joshua Ferris’s his third novel, after the hugely successful and critically admired Then We Came to the End and admired and criticized in equal measures The Unnamed. He sometimes reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut.

PS: Bonus material – Joshua Ferris talks about the book (In a hangout organized by MashableReads)