published by: Little Brown and Company
publish date: May 13, 2014
Paul O'Rourke is a man made of contradictions: he loves the world, but doesn't know how to live in it. 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.
Then someone begins to impersonate Paul online, and he watches in horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name. What begins as an outrageous violation of his privacy soon becomes something more soul-frightening: the possibility that the online "Paul" might be a better version of the real thing.
I really had a lot of trouble with this book. I liked certain aspects of it. So I'll start with that. I thought the concept was fun in dark and twisty way. A faceless online tormentor slowly making Dr. Paul crazy by giving him a nice website and Facebook page. That's kind of funny. I liked the characters. I liked that the doctor had odd relationships with all his staff. The conversations that Paul had with himself about why we go about daily routines of small talk were hilarious.
The whole religious aspect of this book was somewhat lost on me. I didn't particularly care for some of the comments about Jews feeling more comfortable around Jew Haters than Jew Lovers because they knew their feelings were more sincere. I was kinda sitting there like "uhhhh.....wow! Way to perpetuate the intolerance!" Anyway, that sort of stuff just grated on my nerves.
So, I'm kinda wishy washy on this book. I started off really excited about it and then it just sort of when blah about half way through. Parts of it were really funny, but then obviously parts bothered me. So I'm not going to be singing from the rooftops about this one.
Very helpful and honest review. It's always such a pity when a book sounds really promising, but is a bit disappointing...
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