To Rise Again at a Decent Hour -- Review

Zev McManus-Mendelowitz

“Paul O’Rourke is a man of contradictions… He’s a Luddite addicted to his iPhone, a dentist with a nicotine habit, a rabid Red Sox fan devastated by their victories, and an atheist not quite willing to let go of God.”

Joshua Ferris’ book “To Rise Again At A Decent Hour” lives up to this book jacket description as a work of contradictions: there wasn’t much of a plot, yet the book hard to put down; the narrator’s struggles were common, yet his way of describing them was unique.

Over the course of this 337-page novel, NYC dentist Paul O’Rourke brings us through his life as an outsider. Despite his successful career, O’Rourke struggles with depression and longs to “be normal.” O’Rourke desperately wants something that can give meaning to his life or, as he puts it, “something that could be my everything.” After failing at music and golf, numerous relationships in which he became obsessive and came on too strong, and basically everything else he tries, Paul feels hopeless.

A self-proclaimed atheist, Paul tries to use his relationships as a way into religion; he thinks it might be able to solve his problems, make him feel a sense purpose. Bad luck and lack of awareness, however, quickly bring those dreams to a hold. That is until one day when Paul, a man completely against technology, finds that someone has been impersonating him online. Through a website about his practice and a twitter account with Paul's name, this impersonator speaks of a lost religion--a religion that has “endured greater suffering than the Jews,” a religion so oppressed that there are no historical records.

Enraged at whoever this person is, Paul immediately tries to shut everything down. After emailing the suspected impersonator, however, Paul becomes more and more drawn to the religion, a religion based on doubt, a religion that thinks God doesn’t want people to believe in him. Shown a family tree going back many generations, Paul is increasingly convinced that he may descend from people who adhered to this religion. Digging into this religion, Paul is introduced to people ranging from private investigators to billionaire investors.

O'Rourke's entire life has been dominated by philosophical questions and existential crises. These universal issues are a part of being human, but the way Joshua Ferris describes O’Rourke’s struggles with these problems helps those struggles to seem vivid. The endless possibilities for what to do with one’s life paralyze O’Rourke; this endless range also highlights for him the feeling that nothing matters when death is inevitable, no matter what one chooses to make life seem worthwhile. Ferris does not leave O’Rourke as a purely despairing character, though. Near the end of the book, O’Rourke has a realization.

For his entire adult life, Paul has been a Red Sox fan, the kind of fan that watches every single game, the kind of fan that needs to eat the same pre-game meal, wears the same lucky jersey, and sits in a different room to watch the sixth inning-- for the sake of the team. This particular night is important. It’s the last game of the regular season, and it decides whether or not the Sox will advance. Everything comes down to the final pitch. They are down in a one-run game, two strikes, two outs. At this moment, Paul should be praying for a home run, praying for his team to win. Instead, Paul doesn’t know what to feel. If the Red Sox lose, he’ll be disappointed, quite logically. But if they win, he would also feel sad. The Red Sox that he knew and loved were the Red Sox that went 86 years without winning a World Series. How could he prove what a good fan he was if the team was doing well? Like so many aspects of his life, Paul was in a lose-lose situation. Somehow, this night was different. “Why?” Paul wondered. Maybe he would die anyway, but why was that an excuse to make life miserable? Why did the ultimate triviality of all things prevent him from being able to enjoy them? Why was he searching for one thing to be his everything?

As superficial as it sounds, sometimes it’s nice to read a book that points out how trivial our lives are. Sometimes people get so caught up in themselves and their stress that they forget the most basic facts of existence. One can choose either to let these ideas depress them, due to life seeming meaningless, or to allow these realizations to free them to not take life too seriously, to just enjoy life’s moments without questioning everything. If you want an action-packed page-turner, this book isn’t for you, but if you ever want to take a step back and reflect, then consider giving it a try.