Joshua Ferris Libri

Charlies Barnes... is a mid-century man devoted to his newspaper and his landline. But he is about to get dragged into our troubled age by his storyteller son, who has a different opinion of Charlie than Charlie has of himself. Then there are Charlie's other children, his ex-wives, present wife, business clients, friends and acquaintances, all of whom have their competing opinions of him. He certainly seems simple enough: he's a striver, a romantic and a thoroughgoing capitalist. But suddenly blindsided by the Great Recession and s dose of bad news, he might have to rethink his life from top to bottom, and at short notice. What makes a man real? What makes him good? And how does the story we tell about ourselves line up with the life that we actually live?

He reflected in future retrospect on the evening and foretold every gesture, every word. "I can't do it," he said. "I can predict everything that will happen from the moment they arrive to the little kiss on the cheek goodbye and I just can't goddamn do it."' The Dinner Partyimmerses us in the comic and strange realities of modern life, as we journey through the lives of the unlovable, the unloved, and those who love too much- Jack, who nervously tries to befriend the surly removal man by buying him a latte and a croissant; Sarah, who endlessly imagines how her evening would have been better had she only chosen a different restaurant; Joe, who spends a night alone at the office and surreptitiously starts to rearrange his colleagues' belongings. These are stories about the infinite possibilities of a person's life, from an agonizingly funny and original writer.

During their 20-year marriage, Tim and Jane Farnsworth have savored the fruits of his labor as a high-powered lawyer: they live in a beautiful home, they travel on exotic vacations, they don’t worry about money. When a past illness sudden resurfaces, Tim is driven out of his comfortable existence and into a way of life that he doesn’t recognize, and that tests Jane’s love in the most fundamental ways.

No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week.

Paul O'Rourke, 40-year-old slightly curmudgeonly dentist, runs a thriving practice in New York. Yet he is discovering he needs more in his life than a steady income and the perfect mochaccino. But what? As Paul tries to work out the meaning of life, a Facebook page and Twitter account appear in his name. What's at first an outrageous violation of privacy soon becomes something more frightening: the possibility that the online 'Paul' might be a better version of the man in the flesh. Who is doing this and will it cost Paul his sanity?

Poslání Charlieho Barnese je humorným, a přitom hlubokým zamyšlením nad životními hodnotami, rodinnými vztahy a nad tím, jaké zdání o sobě budíme a jak se příběh, který o sobě vyprávíme, shoduje s tím, jaký život skutečně žijeme. Charlie Barnes to rozhodně nemá v životě jednoduché. Přesto tento nenapravitelný intrikán a věčný romantik nepřestává usilovat o to, aby se vymanil ze současných neuspokojivých poměrů a vydal se vstříc americkému snu. Pak ale přijde pohroma v podobě hospodářské krize a vážné nemoci a Charlie musí svůj život velmi rychle přehodnotit. Ale jaký ten jeho život vlastně je? Jaký je Charlie vůbec člověk? Podle čeho jej můžeme posuzovat? Vždyť sám se vidí jinýma očima než vypravěč příběhu. Pak jsou tu jeho děti, bývalé manželky, klienti, přátelé, známí… a každý z nich má o Charliem odlišnou představu. Lidé jsou často úplně jiní, než jakými se zdají. A první dojem bývá stejně falešný jako fraška, kterou mnozí z nás svému okolí předvádějí.

Главный герой, преуспевающий юрист Тим Фарнсуорт, жил обычной жизнью: карабкался по служебной лестнице, наслаждался маленькими семейными радостями, однако эту идиллию разрушила странная и страшная безымянная болезнь. Тим обречен, но жизнь на краю пропасти, у входа в вечность на многое открывает ему глаза.