Warning: I am about to gush. And possibly use cliches. But The Unnamed is just that good. It's easily the best book I've read in a while, and it puts Joshua Ferris on my list of favorite writers. He was just named one of the New Yorker's 20 under 40 writers. I had read his first novel, Then We Came to the End and liked it, but I don't remember being conscious of loving that one every second I was reading it, which is how I felt about this book.
In The Unnamed, Tim is a highly paid Manhattan lawyer who lives an upper class life in Westchester with his real-estate selling wife and angsty teenage daughter. The story follows the family as they deal with Tim's affliction- his need to take long, nonstop, medically unexplainable walks that leave him falling asleep in crazy places from which his wife needs to come retrieve him. It sounds kind of quirky, and it is, but it's also a lovely and complex portrait of a family. The writing is amazing, and the tone is perfectly balanced- darkly funny at times and very touching at others. Every word in this book is perfect. I'm in awe of Joshua Ferris's writing. This book is one of my new favorites. (See, I warned you that I would gush.)
In The Unnamed, Tim is a highly paid Manhattan lawyer who lives an upper class life in Westchester with his real-estate selling wife and angsty teenage daughter. The story follows the family as they deal with Tim's affliction- his need to take long, nonstop, medically unexplainable walks that leave him falling asleep in crazy places from which his wife needs to come retrieve him. It sounds kind of quirky, and it is, but it's also a lovely and complex portrait of a family. The writing is amazing, and the tone is perfectly balanced- darkly funny at times and very touching at others. Every word in this book is perfect. I'm in awe of Joshua Ferris's writing. This book is one of my new favorites. (See, I warned you that I would gush.)
Wow! I'll be picking this one up tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteThis is great. I really, really enjoyed his first book, but for some reason I was always hesitant to pick this one up (though I considered it a few times, I just wasn't sure if it was going to be good.) But with your glowing review, my mind is made up! I'm definitely going to read it now.
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