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Man in the Empty Suit
Say you're a time traveler and you've already toured the entirety of human history. After a while, the outside world might lose a little of its luster. That's why this time traveler celebrates his birthday partying with himself. Every year, he travels to an abandoned hotel in New York City in 2071, the hundredth anniversary of his birth, and drinks 12-year-old Scotch (lots of it) with all the other versions of who he has been and who he will be. Sure, the party is the same year after year, but at least it's one party where he can really, well, be himself.
The year he turns 39, though, the party takes a stressful turn for the worse. Before he even makes it into the grand ballroom for a drink he encounters the body of his 40-year-old self, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. As the older versions of himself at the party point out, the onus is on him to figure out what went wrong - he has one year to stop himself from being murdered, or they're all goners. As he follows clues that he may or may not have willingly left for himself, he discovers rampant paranoia and suspicion among his younger selves, and a frightening conspiracy among the Elders. Most complicated of all is a haunting woman - possibly named Lily - who turns up at the party this year, the first person aside from himself he's ever seen there.
For the first time, he has something to lose. Here's hoping he can save some version of his own life.
The year he turns 39, though, the party takes a stressful turn for the worse. Before he even makes it into the grand ballroom for a drink he encounters the body of his 40-year-old self, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. As the older versions of himself at the party point out, the onus is on him to figure out what went wrong - he has one year to stop himself from being murdered, or they're all goners. As he follows clues that he may or may not have willingly left for himself, he discovers rampant paranoia and suspicion among his younger selves, and a frightening conspiracy among the Elders. Most complicated of all is a haunting woman - possibly named Lily - who turns up at the party this year, the first person aside from himself he's ever seen there.
For the first time, he has something to lose. Here's hoping he can save some version of his own life.
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First published February 5, 2013
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About the author
Sean Ferrell
7 books126 followersSean Ferrell lives and works in New York City. He writes novels, middle grade sci-fi, and picture books.
His most recent work is The Sinister Secrets of Singe .
His novels include Man In The Empty Suit and Numb: A Novel.
His picture books are I Don't Like Koala and The Snurtch.
Sean has been published in several literary journals, including The Adirondack Review which awarded him the Fulton Prize for his short story "Building an Elephant."
His most recent work is The Sinister Secrets of Singe .
His novels include Man In The Empty Suit and Numb: A Novel.
His picture books are I Don't Like Koala and The Snurtch.
Sean has been published in several literary journals, including The Adirondack Review which awarded him the Fulton Prize for his short story "Building an Elephant."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 626 reviews
February 17, 2013
chapter 1 - ok i'm hooked. damn that was effective.
chapter 2 - already picturing David Lynch directing the movie version
chapter 3 - most genius chapter ever since the dawn of chapters.
chapter 7 - cracked book open a couple hours ago and might have to call out sick tomorrow so i can finish this.
chapter 9 - my brain has never hurt so good. total mind F*.
chapter 12 - i'd suck at time travel, i could not handle this. this is a lot to handle.
chapter 15 - whoa. wait ... what?? whoa. i can't ... i can't.
And the ending? I hate it when people ruin endings for me. "I won't say anything, I'll just say it ..." Well, you just stole the unknown from me then, so screw you. I don't read books to get someone else's opinion of the ending before I get there myself.
Anyway, I don't smoke, but I need a cigarette. That was a trip. A trip everyone should go on. 10+ stars. Amazing. How many truly great books come across our paths over the years? Lots of quality ones for sure, but sadly, only a handful of reads that thoroughly engross you, that make you fearful you'll never find another book this good again, and you compare every future story to it. This is it. I've given other books 5 out of 5 stars but this book raised the bar. By comparison, I never realized I've only been reading 3 star books. This will ruin you. So, on second thought, maybe you shouldn't read it. Everything after will suck. I haven't started a new book yet. My brain is still as twisted as the cord on my headphones that I hurriedly threw in my bag.
chapter 2 - already picturing David Lynch directing the movie version
chapter 3 - most genius chapter ever since the dawn of chapters.
chapter 7 - cracked book open a couple hours ago and might have to call out sick tomorrow so i can finish this.
chapter 9 - my brain has never hurt so good. total mind F*.
chapter 12 - i'd suck at time travel, i could not handle this. this is a lot to handle.
chapter 15 - whoa. wait ... what?? whoa. i can't ... i can't.
And the ending? I hate it when people ruin endings for me. "I won't say anything, I'll just say it ..." Well, you just stole the unknown from me then, so screw you. I don't read books to get someone else's opinion of the ending before I get there myself.
Anyway, I don't smoke, but I need a cigarette. That was a trip. A trip everyone should go on. 10+ stars. Amazing. How many truly great books come across our paths over the years? Lots of quality ones for sure, but sadly, only a handful of reads that thoroughly engross you, that make you fearful you'll never find another book this good again, and you compare every future story to it. This is it. I've given other books 5 out of 5 stars but this book raised the bar. By comparison, I never realized I've only been reading 3 star books. This will ruin you. So, on second thought, maybe you shouldn't read it. Everything after will suck. I haven't started a new book yet. My brain is still as twisted as the cord on my headphones that I hurriedly threw in my bag.
March 26, 2015
A real surprise this one, I loved it.
It's one of the most original time travel books I've read (and I've read a few). A thoughtful tale of a time traveller who returns to a hotel on his birthday where the only other attendees are himself, at different ages, some older and some younger than his current 39 years. What happens next is perplexing, confusing and utterly compelling.
I'm not sure I understood every plot twist or even followed the story that accurately, in fact I found myself regularly re-reading sections to check my understanding. Funnily enough, this didn't spoil the experience for me as I finally decided to just go with it and was left with a tale that will haunt me for some time.
Brilliant... I think.
It's one of the most original time travel books I've read (and I've read a few). A thoughtful tale of a time traveller who returns to a hotel on his birthday where the only other attendees are himself, at different ages, some older and some younger than his current 39 years. What happens next is perplexing, confusing and utterly compelling.
I'm not sure I understood every plot twist or even followed the story that accurately, in fact I found myself regularly re-reading sections to check my understanding. Funnily enough, this didn't spoil the experience for me as I finally decided to just go with it and was left with a tale that will haunt me for some time.
Brilliant... I think.
May 20, 2013
Time travel stories live or die by their adherence to internal rules. This book never establishes how time travel functions, so anything can and does happen, and it is enormously unsatisfying. Also, moritorium on using the phrase "entered her" as a euphamism for sex. You can do it (tee hee!), at most, once per book.
March 7, 2013
A very interesting premise ruined by sloppy narration that gets boring with every other page. I didn't particularly want to finish it. The book is based on the grandfather paradox but the plot doesn't make it intriguing in the least bit. Too many copies of the hero, who is a self-proclaimed selfish, careless whiner, occupy every page and if that doesn't get annoying in a while this fact certainly will lead you to it -one or other of these copies keep ordering another to do something, copy X rudely demands to know why he should do the same and copy Y either replies 'You'll find out' or 'Just do it'.
The book was completely lost on me half way and I just lumbered to the end, much like the Narrator copy does.(His name is never revealed. There, I just gave him one!)- without any clue as to why things around him happen the way they do. Wish I could go back in time and un-read this book.
The book was completely lost on me half way and I just lumbered to the end, much like the Narrator copy does.(His name is never revealed. There, I just gave him one!)- without any clue as to why things around him happen the way they do. Wish I could go back in time and un-read this book.
July 13, 2015
The Man in the Empty Suit follows an unnamed time traveller as he attends his 39th birthday at the Boltzman Hotel. While your mind is probably imagining a lavish party with friends and loved ones, you’d be mistaken. The only people in attendance happen to be multiple versions of the protagonist who all travel to this date and location every year - the year 2071.
Things are going swimmingly until a future version of the narrator is murdered. The present narrator isn’t sure who’s behind the dirty deed but is almost certain it has to be himself, albeit either a past or future version of himself. Author Sean Ferrell asks the question: how can you solve a crime when you’re the victim, the suspect, and the detective?
I really had to work at this book to get to the end. That isn't a knock at the quality nor the author’s ability to structure a narrative, it was just a difficult read. With The Man in the Empty Suit, I couldn't tell you the amount of times I had to tell myself to stick with it; to stay with the author because everything will eventually fall into place. The truth is, I've always struggled with non-linear storytelling and with this novel, reading it was like trying to force open my skull and cram information into my brain that didn't immediately make sense, kind of like your body rejecting a recently transplanted organ.
And things do eventually settle down. After the murder, when the narrator decides to kill time before his next birthday (and death-day) bash, he bums around the ruins of 2071 New York City, waiting for his chance to confront his would be assassin. While the sordid state of the Big Apple is never explained, I kind of like it when authors do that sort of thing - “here’s the end of the world, good luck guessing how it happened!” I enjoyed that section of the story over the chaotic beginning - here, the characters and setting have room to breathe and grow.
This was an interesting read to say the least seeing as I do love me a good time travel yarn.
Things are going swimmingly until a future version of the narrator is murdered. The present narrator isn’t sure who’s behind the dirty deed but is almost certain it has to be himself, albeit either a past or future version of himself. Author Sean Ferrell asks the question: how can you solve a crime when you’re the victim, the suspect, and the detective?
I really had to work at this book to get to the end. That isn't a knock at the quality nor the author’s ability to structure a narrative, it was just a difficult read. With The Man in the Empty Suit, I couldn't tell you the amount of times I had to tell myself to stick with it; to stay with the author because everything will eventually fall into place. The truth is, I've always struggled with non-linear storytelling and with this novel, reading it was like trying to force open my skull and cram information into my brain that didn't immediately make sense, kind of like your body rejecting a recently transplanted organ.
And things do eventually settle down. After the murder, when the narrator decides to kill time before his next birthday (and death-day) bash, he bums around the ruins of 2071 New York City, waiting for his chance to confront his would be assassin. While the sordid state of the Big Apple is never explained, I kind of like it when authors do that sort of thing - “here’s the end of the world, good luck guessing how it happened!” I enjoyed that section of the story over the chaotic beginning - here, the characters and setting have room to breathe and grow.
This was an interesting read to say the least seeing as I do love me a good time travel yarn.
February 26, 2013
I really wanted to love this book, but I didn't. It had ingredients that I normally delight in: time travel, mind-bending paradox, creepy/weird semi-abandoned future city. What a cool premise: a man invents a time travel vehicle, and leaps forward a century to throw a party for himself. Every year, he goes to the party, so the place is packed with versions of him of all different ages. But what happens when he ? How can he stop the chain of events from unfolding again? And can he influence his other-aged selves to change their courses of action without impacting his own existence?
Cool stuff, as far as I'm concerned, but I thought this book suffered from uneven pacing. The story seemed to pause for details that didn't go anywhere, characters who were interesting but so mysterious as to be beyond emotional reach, and storytelling convoluted enough that I stopped trying to keep track of the character's many iterations and their motivations and alliances. By the time I was three quarters of the way through the book, I had mostly lost interest and just wanted to get to the end. I was hoping for something at the conclusion to make me utter a Keanu-like "woah," but that never materialized. It all ended in a shrug for me. Man in the Empty Suit has its moments, but it didn't add up to something I can really recommend.
Cool stuff, as far as I'm concerned, but I thought this book suffered from uneven pacing. The story seemed to pause for details that didn't go anywhere, characters who were interesting but so mysterious as to be beyond emotional reach, and storytelling convoluted enough that I stopped trying to keep track of the character's many iterations and their motivations and alliances. By the time I was three quarters of the way through the book, I had mostly lost interest and just wanted to get to the end. I was hoping for something at the conclusion to make me utter a Keanu-like "woah," but that never materialized. It all ended in a shrug for me. Man in the Empty Suit has its moments, but it didn't add up to something I can really recommend.
March 3, 2013
This story is based on the interesting premise of a time traveler gathered at a convention of himself at all ages, and it presents the possibility of being interesting--but it's not. The protagonist has the emotional appeal of a robot and despite the fact that there are literally hundreds of versions of himself, we know nothing about him. We don't know his interests, his philosophy, his beliefs, or his likes or dislikes. We never find out why he decided to set up this party in the first place, and we never know except for one brief aside what he does the other 364 days of his years. We never even find out his name.
I got about halfway through and wondered desperately how there was still half a book left, and then apparently the author felt the same way because suddenly we were in a what was essentially new story about the protagonist's dalliances with the female character, where, again, we never really learn very much about her.
I am a very visual person and generally have a very vivid picture of the characters and setting when I'm reading a book, but I had no idea what any of these characters looked like. We found out Lily had tattoos but not what they looked like until the very end of the book and even then I don't actually think I could explain what they look like; I'd be hard-pressed to tell you any distinguishing details about either of these characters. The narrative was focused only on actions, and what was apparently the protagonist's desperately important goal. However, it was never clear why he cared so much about Lily, in fact, it was never clear why it mattered to him to do any of the things he did in the hotel; all the characters had informed motivation but we never learned what it was. The only appropriate response to the end of this book is a bemused shrug. One of the cover blurbs calls it funny and it's not even that I didn't like or get the jokes--I really don't even know which parts they could possibly think were humorous.
Finally, this book wins the prize for most emotionless sex scenes ever written. That's right, multiple scenes, all terrible duplicates of each other.
I got about halfway through and wondered desperately how there was still half a book left, and then apparently the author felt the same way because suddenly we were in a what was essentially new story about the protagonist's dalliances with the female character, where, again, we never really learn very much about her.
I am a very visual person and generally have a very vivid picture of the characters and setting when I'm reading a book, but I had no idea what any of these characters looked like. We found out Lily had tattoos but not what they looked like until the very end of the book and even then I don't actually think I could explain what they look like; I'd be hard-pressed to tell you any distinguishing details about either of these characters. The narrative was focused only on actions, and what was apparently the protagonist's desperately important goal. However, it was never clear why he cared so much about Lily, in fact, it was never clear why it mattered to him to do any of the things he did in the hotel; all the characters had informed motivation but we never learned what it was. The only appropriate response to the end of this book is a bemused shrug. One of the cover blurbs calls it funny and it's not even that I didn't like or get the jokes--I really don't even know which parts they could possibly think were humorous.
Finally, this book wins the prize for most emotionless sex scenes ever written. That's right, multiple scenes, all terrible duplicates of each other.
February 6, 2013
My brain feels something like this after reading this novel: full of explosions. The Paradox Problem has always been an issue when a good author takes on time travel. Sean Ferrell not only takes on the Paradox Problem, but throws it in your face. The book has a little bit of a Doctor Who in Pompeii feel to it.
A time traveler, whose first name is never given (correct? Unless I missed it somewhere) decides, when he's 19, that every year on his birthday, he is going to travel to 100 years after the date of his birth and get drunk with all past and future versions of himself. Everything changes on his 39th birthday when he is The Suit, that year, he finds the Body. The Body appears to be 6 months to a year older than he is. How could this be? There are Elders in attendance of the party, and Youngsters that are far younger than the Inventor. On top of all this, there is a mysterious woman who has been invited by some version of himself and he's never noticed her before. What has happened!? Can he possibly save the Body's life and the life of this woman?!
Wait, What? Yes, it really is just that confusing and terrifyingly awesome and wonderful. I'm writing this review and still trying to figure out exactly what happened in this novel. Any book I can finish and then immediately decide it deserves a re-read because everything loops into everything else earns some serious points in my book.
There are rules that the versions of himself are supposed to follow at the party, to prevent Paradoxes. Of course, he doesn't always follow these rules, because you can only watch yourself break your nose so many times before you try to stop it. Every choice The Suit makes that doesn't follow the expected timeline of the Elders, untethers more and more of them, freeing them to make their own choices and to change their own lives. As is put succinctly quite a few times, "Fuck the rules." The more I think about it, the more I'm deciding that "Fuck the rules," is really the point of the novel. Rules are made to be broken, and we can only truly be free when we follow our hearts and own ideals, rather than listening to how other people expect things to go.
My favorite quote of the novel is the last few sentences, and I'll share them with you, because I really don't believe it gives anything of the plot away.
"The future vibrated with uncertainty. I had failed. I had ignorance. I had hope."
I do think this requires a re-read in 6 months, after I've mulled it over for a while. I need to let my brain soak in it before I start again. I think I'll take even more away from it, the second time around.
In summary: Wait, what?! Oh! Sweet! Awesome.
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I received this book for free from the publisher, via NetGalley. This review was originally posted at RATS.
January 5, 2013
The Man in the Empty Suit is book that is so extraordinary that I am having trouble finding the right words to describe it. I was blown away by this book. Cool and awesome just don't cover it, and amazing doesn't either. Unique is clearly part of it, but doesn't do it either, imaginative is part, but not all. You know, I could string adjectives here for days and not really put together how I feel about this book. Reading was a truly unique experience for me. It was a new type of book – a type of book one hasn't read yet, you know, if you have read The City in the City by China Mieville, you understand what I mean; a novel experience that one has never encountered before in their lifetime of reading. This book gave that to me. To say that it was awesome, demeans that experience – degrades it beyond what it was. So, here I go with the adjectives, - it was fabulous, incredible, simply amazing, unique, it rocked, I loved it, I cried at the end, it was incredibly satisfying, I didn't want it to end, I loved the main character – all of him (and there are many, you will understand later about that), I simply adored this book. I adored everything about this book – the plot, the overarching theme, the pacing, the characterization, the imagery, the ending was awesome, the dialogue. Everything!
Everything about this novel was perfect. I couldn't find a flaw – but then, I didn't want to. I was having too much fun solving mysteries with the main character in his different selves. How I loved, going through the different clues as he went from one year to the next; changing identities. This is a book to be treasured; a book to be bought in a first edition and first printing, and put on that special shelf, up with those other special books, one keeps and reads over and over again. You could give this one out to friends as a gift – as it teaches life lessons in a refreshing and honest fashion. It also has my favorite writing style favored by Hecht, Ross, and Dahlquist – Yes! The cadence. It is here in every sentence, which means that reading this book out loud would enhance the experience for everyone concerned. His wordplay is so good that the sounds and syllables spring from the sentences quite amiably as he pops each sound out to produce the meter that he needs to bring that ring of cadence to each word while at the same time mining meaning so deep that it is impossible to not feel it in your bones. Did I say that I loved this book?
THE PLOT: The year is 2071, in subjective time. In fact there are two types of time: subjective and objective – because our boy, the main character, has learned how to time travel. In the whole book, you never know what his name is, he refers to himself at different ages by labels: Screwdriver, Seventy, The BarBrats, The Drunk, The Suit, Sober, Yellow, The Inventor, The Nose, The Youngsters, The Elders and The Pilaf Brothers. Each year, they all get together for their 100th respective birthday. Each of himself, from that respective year, goes to a hotel in Manhattan, and they take it over in 2071. Most of Manhattan is deserted. They all meet up and throw a big party, with catered food, lots of alcohol, and films of their time travels. They even play old records and dance. The Elders know what happens at each party because they have already lived through them before, while the Youngsters just get sloppy drunk and have a good time. When we join the novel, it is the year for our protagonist to be The Suit and he is 39 years old. It is the year that he is well dressed, and dapper. He has been waiting for this year for literally years while he has been a youngster. He makes a grand entrance, looks totally in control, and he couldn't wait to grow up to be The Suit. Now, the time is here. He has rules that he lives by, things like never know the future, never go above the third floor of the hotel, only come to the party when it is your birthday – never earlier, or later. These rules are all listed in the front of the book, I believe there are about fifteen of them. They live by these rules, and yet, he meets himself out in front of the hotel, and the self that he meets is only six months older than himself. Why is he breaking his own rules? His other self, which he nicknames Sober, tells him to follow himself to the penthouse, which, of course, breaks another rule, but he does so, out of curiosity, because, Sober says, he has something to show him up there. So, he follows himself all the way up, in the elevator. The penthouse, is actually in pretty good shape. The reason for the rule, The Suit thought, was that the hotel was deteriorating, and was not safe at the higher levels. This was obviously not true. Sober then tells The Suit, that he will be back in just a few minutes, and disappears. The Suit hears the alarm on the exit door to the stairs, as well as the elevator start. He also hears something malfunction with the elevator. He begins to worry – something is obviously wrong. When he gets down from the thirty fourth floor - he finds that Sober is dead in the elevator – he has been shot through the head. The Elders tell him that he has one year to find out what happens or he will be dead next year. What he doesn't tell them is that is him, six months from now. Who killed Sober? One of him did. Why would he do it? It didn't make sense that he would kill himself in an elevator. Later on in the book, there are more guns, chases through the hotel, parrots that parrot phrases, a beautiful femme fatale, the scar is true, more blood on his hands, gathering guns, additional mysteries, messages on the wall, travel back in time, a film of himself, telling himself things about himself, untethering, the rules go out the window, the inventor gets an earful, The Drunk is not drunk, a memory squid, playing Phil's princess, the parrot faces west, she likes the new you better, Seventy has the whole thing planned, next year's birthday party, meeting yourself with parrots, true freedom to be untethered and so much more. What will The Suit do? He has to investigate the murder of Sober or he won't live six months. How do the Elders still live, if Sober is dead? Why aren't they dead too? These mysteries and more The Suit must unravel, as he grows up and becomes someone else next year. Who will he be? The Nose? The Drunk? Screwdriver? You never can tell. The plot was so corkscrewed, you didn't know until the very last second of the book, what was going to happen. There were a lot of surprises. He ended up surprising himself quite often. For plot, I give this novel a 10/10. It was tightly executed, wonderfully twisted, and the ending was magnificent.
THE CHARACTERIZATION: There were very few people in the novel, but a lot of the protagonist, himself. He was represented from the age of six through the age of at least seventy. That is sixty four people who all have slightly differing personalities for each year that they are alive. Mr. Ferrell did an amazing job altering each protagonist's personality to fit him. From childhood through old age we get to see one man represented year by year. He may be running around like a child, or tapping his cane to the music, but there were definitely traits that were consistent between the differing protagonists. They were all selfish, The Inventor of the time machine, the eighteen year old boy, who made everything possible, was a very unhappy and conflicted personality, this really did not change much over the years, the protagonist had problems with self loathing and self esteem. It was clear from the outset that this was true for most of the protagonists that we meet in detail. Ferrell's characterization of not only the protagonist, but Phil, a character who lived close to the hotel, and bought actors to play his family, who had disappeared, yet was weighed down with grief over his familial loss. One of the actors that played his daughter Sara, comes to the hotel on the night of the birthday party. She is the femme fatale. Her name is Lilly. Her characterization was brilliant. She was like a social sponge – waiting for someone other than her to give her a name and a role to play so that she could be a caretaker. Later, she wanted to reverse roles and be taken care of, but still wanted her role to be defined by an outside source. It was a brilliant characterization. The other family members Mana and Joshua play the Mother and the Son respectively. Their characterization is wonderful, as Mana is a classical, money grubbing actress, that just wants to take advantage of a crazy old man who is struck down by grief, but who has money, and Joshua, is rebellious, but starving, so he needs the money as well, but finds it hard to play the role that he should play in real life. He becomes argumentative, sending Phil into states of depression and crying jags that make Phil order his acting family to go home . Phil is supposed to be his real Father. Joshua's attitude toward him is rather sad, as his Father really needs him and could use the love and support badly. Joshua could use the love and support as well from Phil, but won't allow himself that luxury, as he believes that he needs no one. It is his age combined with the fact that Phil is broken, I believe that makes him feel this way. Ferrell does a wonderful job of characterization in Joshua and Mana, two ancillary characters that have little to do with the main plot, but are a side story in itself. For Characterization, I give this novel, a 10/10.
THE IMAGERY: Along with the cadence and the wordsmithing, Ferrell has gotten the imagery down to a science. He has a wonderful way of describing the surrounding environment and people within it in ways that you can see it fantastically well. The old hotel where they have the birthday party each year as well as the abandoned building across the street where Phil lives and other places in New York City which are described all come to life at the hands of Mr. Ferrell as he takes the different lives of his protagonist across the city to find out what happened to Sober and to make sure that he gets what he wants at the next birthday party. It is amazing how, with the wordsmithing, he can bring things to life. As an example - when he was describing Grand Central Station; they were painting over the ceiling, as they believed that the beautiful painting of the zodiac that had been there for so many years was incorrect – so they decided to paint over it and do it again correctly. They started by painting it black. Many people were on scaffolding with paint brushes in their hands, painting the ceiling black – covering that wonderful artwork, while others brought in cartloads of books and sorted them. Underneath the painters was the four-faced clock that is so familiar to everyone. The time on each face had been set separately. It seemed that it actually matched two different watches that our protagonist kept. He wondered if he set it himself in a different life. He became one of the book haulers and sorters- Hauling the books into Grand Central, underneath the scaffolding of the painters, to the sorting area. He would set each book in an empty place, When he was done, he would go back for more books with the smell of paint in his nose. While I can't even come close to the brilliance of Ferrell, his imagery of Grand Central Station will stay with me long past the reading date of the book. The imagery of the book is something that I will think about over and over again, as it was completely immersive and cinematic. You could see the scenes in your head as you read the book. Yes, he is that good. For imagery, I give this novel a 10/10.
THE GORE SCORE: While this novel did have a number of murders in it, a number of broken noses, a number of hematomas, people did fall down, get hit in the head with revolvers, and other random violence, there was no gratuitous violence, there was no reveling in gore. It was actually very clean. From a violence stand point, is was actually quite mild. I give it a Gore Score of 3/10.
THE DIALOGUE: Mainly the protagonist was talking himself at differing ages, so Ferrell had to tweak the dialogue to reflect the protagonist's speech to reflect that age. This he did so very well, that is was actually quite funny at times. There is quite a bit of humor in the book, provided by the Youngsters who tell jokes, do prat falls and such, and crack each other up with stupid dialogue. It reflects their age. The Bar Brats are a classic example of that. Three of himself in their early twenties who tended bar at this birthday and were rather drunk – they would parrot other people's speech but changing very slightly, making into something they thought was funny. In the case of The Suit, who said, “Bar spill”, which they changed to “Bar spiel”, and laughed uproariously, repeating it over and over again, just as early, drunk twenty, somethings do. The Suit, who, was 39 years old, found this stupid, and shook his head at them, dismissing the stupid joke. Ferrell, did an outstanding job with the dialogue – representing not only the protagonist at the sixty four ages in his life, but also all the other characters in the novel, who clearly spoke uniquely and represented individuals that could be picked out by their speech patterns. For Dialogue, I give this novel a 10/10.
THE PACING: Do you remember when you were a small child and your mother was in a hurry, she would take your hand and start to drag you through wherever you were, at whatever top speed that your little legs could run. She couldn't physically drag you, because that would look bad, but it was close. I remember a few times like that. Well this novel is like that – it takes you by the hand and pulls and doesn't let you go until the very last word on the last page – and only then does it let go. At that point, you are okay with being let go. You don't want to be let go during the journey that you are on, when you are reading the book. I read it in a single sitting. I had to. I couldn't stop reading. I missed making dinner. It is too good to stop. Very few books are like that. This one is. There are no slow spots. No dragging. No places where it speeds up. The pacing is so consistently fast, as it pulls you along at high speed, it is almost mechanical, in its well-executed fashion. For Pacing, I give the novel a 10/10.
THE ENDING: All I can say is Magnificent! I never guessed. How could I? What an ending! Mr. Ferrell you blew me away with this ending. Yes, I did cry at the end, but it was amazing. How satisfying! How wondrous! How completely fabulous was that ending? I can tell you, it was the best. I'm still smiling over the ending now, while writing this review. Mr. Ferrell, you are a genius at endings. Thank you for ending your book as you did. Not a cliffhanger, not a series, just a wondrous ending that satisfied my senses and made my heart sing. It made me happy to read your book. I just can't say that about many books, but yours did. Thank you. For the Ending, I give this novel a 10/10.
THE UPSHOT: Well, I've got to say, that before I read this work, I didn't believe that I'd ever encounter a perfect novel in my life. I just didn't think they existed. There would always be flaws, always be defects in novels. That's just the way things go. Nobody is perfect either. No book is perfect – until I read The Man in the Empty Suit, which made a liar out of me. Now look what I have gone and done. I have given the novel a perfect review. I realized the book resonated so deeply with me, so strongly within me that I actually loved this work. There are few novels in this category. I do have a special shelf with first edition, first printings signed by the authors of works that are in this category. The shelf is small. There are few works that belong there. Some you will recognize, like Dante's Inferno – which is not signed, of course, and I do not have a first edition, but my copy is very old. It is leather bound and hand lettered, and it is the first edition that was translated into English. This book is going up on that shelf, right next to Dante, and the others that I love the most. I did not want to nit pick this novel, as it was so magnificent a work that it deserves the best review that anyone can give it. BRAVO! Sean Ferrell You have accomplished something meaningful – a novel that is wondrous, beautifully written as well as being a page-turner. Your characters are fully three dimensional, individual, human and amazingly flawed, but also loveable. This book is a gem, and should be on the shelf of every human being who can read English as a first or second language. I recommend it to EVERYONE. If you like mysteries, if you like adventure, if you like science fiction, if you like people, if you like happy endings, you will LOVE this NOVEL. The score for this novel is 60/60. A first for me. I will probably never again, give this score to any other book, but as they say, never say never. Thank you Sean Ferrell. I enjoyed your book immensely. Please write more. This book will be published on February 05, 2013.
Everything about this novel was perfect. I couldn't find a flaw – but then, I didn't want to. I was having too much fun solving mysteries with the main character in his different selves. How I loved, going through the different clues as he went from one year to the next; changing identities. This is a book to be treasured; a book to be bought in a first edition and first printing, and put on that special shelf, up with those other special books, one keeps and reads over and over again. You could give this one out to friends as a gift – as it teaches life lessons in a refreshing and honest fashion. It also has my favorite writing style favored by Hecht, Ross, and Dahlquist – Yes! The cadence. It is here in every sentence, which means that reading this book out loud would enhance the experience for everyone concerned. His wordplay is so good that the sounds and syllables spring from the sentences quite amiably as he pops each sound out to produce the meter that he needs to bring that ring of cadence to each word while at the same time mining meaning so deep that it is impossible to not feel it in your bones. Did I say that I loved this book?
THE PLOT: The year is 2071, in subjective time. In fact there are two types of time: subjective and objective – because our boy, the main character, has learned how to time travel. In the whole book, you never know what his name is, he refers to himself at different ages by labels: Screwdriver, Seventy, The BarBrats, The Drunk, The Suit, Sober, Yellow, The Inventor, The Nose, The Youngsters, The Elders and The Pilaf Brothers. Each year, they all get together for their 100th respective birthday. Each of himself, from that respective year, goes to a hotel in Manhattan, and they take it over in 2071. Most of Manhattan is deserted. They all meet up and throw a big party, with catered food, lots of alcohol, and films of their time travels. They even play old records and dance. The Elders know what happens at each party because they have already lived through them before, while the Youngsters just get sloppy drunk and have a good time. When we join the novel, it is the year for our protagonist to be The Suit and he is 39 years old. It is the year that he is well dressed, and dapper. He has been waiting for this year for literally years while he has been a youngster. He makes a grand entrance, looks totally in control, and he couldn't wait to grow up to be The Suit. Now, the time is here. He has rules that he lives by, things like never know the future, never go above the third floor of the hotel, only come to the party when it is your birthday – never earlier, or later. These rules are all listed in the front of the book, I believe there are about fifteen of them. They live by these rules, and yet, he meets himself out in front of the hotel, and the self that he meets is only six months older than himself. Why is he breaking his own rules? His other self, which he nicknames Sober, tells him to follow himself to the penthouse, which, of course, breaks another rule, but he does so, out of curiosity, because, Sober says, he has something to show him up there. So, he follows himself all the way up, in the elevator. The penthouse, is actually in pretty good shape. The reason for the rule, The Suit thought, was that the hotel was deteriorating, and was not safe at the higher levels. This was obviously not true. Sober then tells The Suit, that he will be back in just a few minutes, and disappears. The Suit hears the alarm on the exit door to the stairs, as well as the elevator start. He also hears something malfunction with the elevator. He begins to worry – something is obviously wrong. When he gets down from the thirty fourth floor - he finds that Sober is dead in the elevator – he has been shot through the head. The Elders tell him that he has one year to find out what happens or he will be dead next year. What he doesn't tell them is that is him, six months from now. Who killed Sober? One of him did. Why would he do it? It didn't make sense that he would kill himself in an elevator. Later on in the book, there are more guns, chases through the hotel, parrots that parrot phrases, a beautiful femme fatale, the scar is true, more blood on his hands, gathering guns, additional mysteries, messages on the wall, travel back in time, a film of himself, telling himself things about himself, untethering, the rules go out the window, the inventor gets an earful, The Drunk is not drunk, a memory squid, playing Phil's princess, the parrot faces west, she likes the new you better, Seventy has the whole thing planned, next year's birthday party, meeting yourself with parrots, true freedom to be untethered and so much more. What will The Suit do? He has to investigate the murder of Sober or he won't live six months. How do the Elders still live, if Sober is dead? Why aren't they dead too? These mysteries and more The Suit must unravel, as he grows up and becomes someone else next year. Who will he be? The Nose? The Drunk? Screwdriver? You never can tell. The plot was so corkscrewed, you didn't know until the very last second of the book, what was going to happen. There were a lot of surprises. He ended up surprising himself quite often. For plot, I give this novel a 10/10. It was tightly executed, wonderfully twisted, and the ending was magnificent.
THE CHARACTERIZATION: There were very few people in the novel, but a lot of the protagonist, himself. He was represented from the age of six through the age of at least seventy. That is sixty four people who all have slightly differing personalities for each year that they are alive. Mr. Ferrell did an amazing job altering each protagonist's personality to fit him. From childhood through old age we get to see one man represented year by year. He may be running around like a child, or tapping his cane to the music, but there were definitely traits that were consistent between the differing protagonists. They were all selfish, The Inventor of the time machine, the eighteen year old boy, who made everything possible, was a very unhappy and conflicted personality, this really did not change much over the years, the protagonist had problems with self loathing and self esteem. It was clear from the outset that this was true for most of the protagonists that we meet in detail. Ferrell's characterization of not only the protagonist, but Phil, a character who lived close to the hotel, and bought actors to play his family, who had disappeared, yet was weighed down with grief over his familial loss. One of the actors that played his daughter Sara, comes to the hotel on the night of the birthday party. She is the femme fatale. Her name is Lilly. Her characterization was brilliant. She was like a social sponge – waiting for someone other than her to give her a name and a role to play so that she could be a caretaker. Later, she wanted to reverse roles and be taken care of, but still wanted her role to be defined by an outside source. It was a brilliant characterization. The other family members Mana and Joshua play the Mother and the Son respectively. Their characterization is wonderful, as Mana is a classical, money grubbing actress, that just wants to take advantage of a crazy old man who is struck down by grief, but who has money, and Joshua, is rebellious, but starving, so he needs the money as well, but finds it hard to play the role that he should play in real life. He becomes argumentative, sending Phil into states of depression and crying jags that make Phil order his acting family to go home . Phil is supposed to be his real Father. Joshua's attitude toward him is rather sad, as his Father really needs him and could use the love and support badly. Joshua could use the love and support as well from Phil, but won't allow himself that luxury, as he believes that he needs no one. It is his age combined with the fact that Phil is broken, I believe that makes him feel this way. Ferrell does a wonderful job of characterization in Joshua and Mana, two ancillary characters that have little to do with the main plot, but are a side story in itself. For Characterization, I give this novel, a 10/10.
THE IMAGERY: Along with the cadence and the wordsmithing, Ferrell has gotten the imagery down to a science. He has a wonderful way of describing the surrounding environment and people within it in ways that you can see it fantastically well. The old hotel where they have the birthday party each year as well as the abandoned building across the street where Phil lives and other places in New York City which are described all come to life at the hands of Mr. Ferrell as he takes the different lives of his protagonist across the city to find out what happened to Sober and to make sure that he gets what he wants at the next birthday party. It is amazing how, with the wordsmithing, he can bring things to life. As an example - when he was describing Grand Central Station; they were painting over the ceiling, as they believed that the beautiful painting of the zodiac that had been there for so many years was incorrect – so they decided to paint over it and do it again correctly. They started by painting it black. Many people were on scaffolding with paint brushes in their hands, painting the ceiling black – covering that wonderful artwork, while others brought in cartloads of books and sorted them. Underneath the painters was the four-faced clock that is so familiar to everyone. The time on each face had been set separately. It seemed that it actually matched two different watches that our protagonist kept. He wondered if he set it himself in a different life. He became one of the book haulers and sorters- Hauling the books into Grand Central, underneath the scaffolding of the painters, to the sorting area. He would set each book in an empty place, When he was done, he would go back for more books with the smell of paint in his nose. While I can't even come close to the brilliance of Ferrell, his imagery of Grand Central Station will stay with me long past the reading date of the book. The imagery of the book is something that I will think about over and over again, as it was completely immersive and cinematic. You could see the scenes in your head as you read the book. Yes, he is that good. For imagery, I give this novel a 10/10.
THE GORE SCORE: While this novel did have a number of murders in it, a number of broken noses, a number of hematomas, people did fall down, get hit in the head with revolvers, and other random violence, there was no gratuitous violence, there was no reveling in gore. It was actually very clean. From a violence stand point, is was actually quite mild. I give it a Gore Score of 3/10.
THE DIALOGUE: Mainly the protagonist was talking himself at differing ages, so Ferrell had to tweak the dialogue to reflect the protagonist's speech to reflect that age. This he did so very well, that is was actually quite funny at times. There is quite a bit of humor in the book, provided by the Youngsters who tell jokes, do prat falls and such, and crack each other up with stupid dialogue. It reflects their age. The Bar Brats are a classic example of that. Three of himself in their early twenties who tended bar at this birthday and were rather drunk – they would parrot other people's speech but changing very slightly, making into something they thought was funny. In the case of The Suit, who said, “Bar spill”, which they changed to “Bar spiel”, and laughed uproariously, repeating it over and over again, just as early, drunk twenty, somethings do. The Suit, who, was 39 years old, found this stupid, and shook his head at them, dismissing the stupid joke. Ferrell, did an outstanding job with the dialogue – representing not only the protagonist at the sixty four ages in his life, but also all the other characters in the novel, who clearly spoke uniquely and represented individuals that could be picked out by their speech patterns. For Dialogue, I give this novel a 10/10.
THE PACING: Do you remember when you were a small child and your mother was in a hurry, she would take your hand and start to drag you through wherever you were, at whatever top speed that your little legs could run. She couldn't physically drag you, because that would look bad, but it was close. I remember a few times like that. Well this novel is like that – it takes you by the hand and pulls and doesn't let you go until the very last word on the last page – and only then does it let go. At that point, you are okay with being let go. You don't want to be let go during the journey that you are on, when you are reading the book. I read it in a single sitting. I had to. I couldn't stop reading. I missed making dinner. It is too good to stop. Very few books are like that. This one is. There are no slow spots. No dragging. No places where it speeds up. The pacing is so consistently fast, as it pulls you along at high speed, it is almost mechanical, in its well-executed fashion. For Pacing, I give the novel a 10/10.
THE ENDING: All I can say is Magnificent! I never guessed. How could I? What an ending! Mr. Ferrell you blew me away with this ending. Yes, I did cry at the end, but it was amazing. How satisfying! How wondrous! How completely fabulous was that ending? I can tell you, it was the best. I'm still smiling over the ending now, while writing this review. Mr. Ferrell, you are a genius at endings. Thank you for ending your book as you did. Not a cliffhanger, not a series, just a wondrous ending that satisfied my senses and made my heart sing. It made me happy to read your book. I just can't say that about many books, but yours did. Thank you. For the Ending, I give this novel a 10/10.
THE UPSHOT: Well, I've got to say, that before I read this work, I didn't believe that I'd ever encounter a perfect novel in my life. I just didn't think they existed. There would always be flaws, always be defects in novels. That's just the way things go. Nobody is perfect either. No book is perfect – until I read The Man in the Empty Suit, which made a liar out of me. Now look what I have gone and done. I have given the novel a perfect review. I realized the book resonated so deeply with me, so strongly within me that I actually loved this work. There are few novels in this category. I do have a special shelf with first edition, first printings signed by the authors of works that are in this category. The shelf is small. There are few works that belong there. Some you will recognize, like Dante's Inferno – which is not signed, of course, and I do not have a first edition, but my copy is very old. It is leather bound and hand lettered, and it is the first edition that was translated into English. This book is going up on that shelf, right next to Dante, and the others that I love the most. I did not want to nit pick this novel, as it was so magnificent a work that it deserves the best review that anyone can give it. BRAVO! Sean Ferrell You have accomplished something meaningful – a novel that is wondrous, beautifully written as well as being a page-turner. Your characters are fully three dimensional, individual, human and amazingly flawed, but also loveable. This book is a gem, and should be on the shelf of every human being who can read English as a first or second language. I recommend it to EVERYONE. If you like mysteries, if you like adventure, if you like science fiction, if you like people, if you like happy endings, you will LOVE this NOVEL. The score for this novel is 60/60. A first for me. I will probably never again, give this score to any other book, but as they say, never say never. Thank you Sean Ferrell. I enjoyed your book immensely. Please write more. This book will be published on February 05, 2013.
February 12, 2017
I thought that perhaps I wasn't appreciating this time travel novel in the proper way and should try to read it while imbibing alcoholic libations like the main character seems to do so much of. And I was right; the weird was nearly sane with a bit of a foggy brain and kind of matched the atmosphere of the book. But, at the end of the day, I just didn't care for this novel. The main character is loathsome. He time travels year after year to get drunk at the same party where the only guest is various ages of himself. And then there's some weirdness in the middle where he meets a girl who gets paid to pretend to be other people. And then the end comes along with all its alternate timeline selves, and, frankly, I didn't give one fig by that point. Bleh. I'm glad to be done with this one. It just wasn't my cup of ... er ... whiskey.
March 1, 2013
Well this was a fun book.
That seems to come across disparagingly. Like watching a Michael Bay movie instead of going to see that smart, low budget indie. Maybe you wanna eat Cheezey Bacon-Ranch Zingers instead of the grilled salmon, I don't know...
I digress, but I assure you this book is much much better than eating deep fried bacon ranch cheese balls while watching Transformers.
The story is that of time traveling narrator who meets up with himself every year on his birthday. To celebrate his birthday, with himself. His future and past selves. He gets to see his young, immature drunk selves and his stodgy, wrinkled, future selves. All at the same party. And that premise was enough to hook me. Who hasn't quietly wished they could go back in time to smack the shit out of their past selves, or whisper a secret, or set them along the 'right' path? But soon there is a murder and the man in the suit must try and solve the murder to avoid alternate, unseemly timelines and such.
That seems to come across disparagingly. Like watching a Michael Bay movie instead of going to see that smart, low budget indie. Maybe you wanna eat Cheezey Bacon-Ranch Zingers instead of the grilled salmon, I don't know...
I digress, but I assure you this book is much much better than eating deep fried bacon ranch cheese balls while watching Transformers.
The story is that of time traveling narrator who meets up with himself every year on his birthday. To celebrate his birthday, with himself. His future and past selves. He gets to see his young, immature drunk selves and his stodgy, wrinkled, future selves. All at the same party. And that premise was enough to hook me. Who hasn't quietly wished they could go back in time to smack the shit out of their past selves, or whisper a secret, or set them along the 'right' path? But soon there is a murder and the man in the suit must try and solve the murder to avoid alternate, unseemly timelines and such.
July 20, 2015
I spent a long time trying to think of the third piece of the formula that makes up this book. I had the first two parts: Paul Auster plus Raymond Chandler plus... who? Luckily someone else read the book and gave me the third part.
So this book is Paul Auster + Raymond Chandler + Philip K. Dick. It has Auster's sense of disorientation and detachment, Chandler's twists and turns that don't always make sense, and Dick's tendency to take sci-fi conventions and turn them on their head.
Telling you that should tell you whether this book is for you. I'd say the thing that's most likely to turn you off is the Auster elements, this is not a book where you have a strong emotional tie to a character or a precise idea of what's happening. You have to be able to surrender to the book's strangeness and confusion. In that way it also reminds me a lot of THE UNCONSOLED by Kazuo Ishiguro. That said, this one is a much easier read than that book. While it isn't "fun," the author is surely having fun with time travel.
And if time travel is your thing, this book is a must. I don't know that I've ever read or watched anything that more intricately examines the paradoxes of time travel.
For me this book is probably 3.5 stars because I do struggle with abstraction in books, but still a real mind-bender of a book and very admirable.
So this book is Paul Auster + Raymond Chandler + Philip K. Dick. It has Auster's sense of disorientation and detachment, Chandler's twists and turns that don't always make sense, and Dick's tendency to take sci-fi conventions and turn them on their head.
Telling you that should tell you whether this book is for you. I'd say the thing that's most likely to turn you off is the Auster elements, this is not a book where you have a strong emotional tie to a character or a precise idea of what's happening. You have to be able to surrender to the book's strangeness and confusion. In that way it also reminds me a lot of THE UNCONSOLED by Kazuo Ishiguro. That said, this one is a much easier read than that book. While it isn't "fun," the author is surely having fun with time travel.
And if time travel is your thing, this book is a must. I don't know that I've ever read or watched anything that more intricately examines the paradoxes of time travel.
For me this book is probably 3.5 stars because I do struggle with abstraction in books, but still a real mind-bender of a book and very admirable.
October 29, 2015
http://www.themaineedge.com/buzz/man-...
Ferrell has created a richly complicated world that explores the idea of time travel paradoxes in a fascinating way. His narrator is trapped between wanting to follow the script that has long been established and needing to make the changes required to save his own life. When these shifts occur – he calls it “untethering” – it creates uncertainty, which the narrator has never had to deal with since inventing the time machine. He’s never sure if what he’s doing is altering the script or following it in a way that he doesn’t yet comprehend.
The driving prose style of the story sweeps the reader along, rapidly shifting gears yet never losing steam. Ferrell has composed a brain-teasing labyrinth of a novel; he allows us to follow along as he deftly and meticulously traces a path to the end. There’s humor and pathos and genuine feeling, causing us to invest in not only his concept, but his character(s) as well.
“Man in the Empty Suit” is about time travel, yes, but it’s also about a man who inadvertently discovers the void in his own life. Is his entire existence foreordained or does he have the power to change it? And if he does, would those changes be for the better or worse? An exceptional read for any sci-fi fan who enjoys a challenge.
Ferrell has created a richly complicated world that explores the idea of time travel paradoxes in a fascinating way. His narrator is trapped between wanting to follow the script that has long been established and needing to make the changes required to save his own life. When these shifts occur – he calls it “untethering” – it creates uncertainty, which the narrator has never had to deal with since inventing the time machine. He’s never sure if what he’s doing is altering the script or following it in a way that he doesn’t yet comprehend.
The driving prose style of the story sweeps the reader along, rapidly shifting gears yet never losing steam. Ferrell has composed a brain-teasing labyrinth of a novel; he allows us to follow along as he deftly and meticulously traces a path to the end. There’s humor and pathos and genuine feeling, causing us to invest in not only his concept, but his character(s) as well.
“Man in the Empty Suit” is about time travel, yes, but it’s also about a man who inadvertently discovers the void in his own life. Is his entire existence foreordained or does he have the power to change it? And if he does, would those changes be for the better or worse? An exceptional read for any sci-fi fan who enjoys a challenge.
February 16, 2013
Sean Ferrell's Man in the Empty Suit takes the idea of time travel and possible paradoxes to a whole new level. His Time Traveler has a major dilemma. Every year he travels to an abandoned hotel in the New York City of 2071 to celebrate his birthday. It's an exclusive party--just for him....and his past and future time-traveling selves. Nothing really extraordinary ever happens until the year he turns 39. He's on his way to the grand ballroom to get a celebratory drink when he encounters his 40-year-old-self--after an odd interlude and a brief detour to the upper levels (somewhere he'd never ventured before), the 40-year-old rushes into the elevator, leaving the Time Traveler to the stairs. When he reaches the proper floor, he finds a bunch of the Elders gather round a dead body. His 40-year-old self has been shot and no one knows who did it. The Elders look to him to get to the bottom of the mystery. After all, if he can't stop the death from happening, then all his future selves will disappear. Things get steadily more crazy as the evening goes on--much younger selves (who have never attended the party before) start showing up and soon there seems to be threats from all sides. Then there's the unknown factor--a woman named Lily who comes the party....the first person besides himself who ever has. The Time Traveler finds himself working to save not only his own lives, but hers as well. It would help if he knew exactly what he should or shouldn't do over the course of the next year.....
This is a very interesting take on time travel and the paradoxes that are often associated with it. Ferrell doesn't just address the paradoxes--he gleefully produces them and inundates the story with them. There have been all kinds of theories about time travel paradox....including those that say that you can't go back in time (or I suppose forward) and meet your self. That you can't accidentally kill your grandfather or you'll blink out of existence. Ferrell takes on both of those premises....the Time Traveler doesn't just meet himself. He meets A LOT of himself. It's not his grandfather who gets killed...it's one year's version of himself. Ferrell uses the varying timelines created by these events to get the reader to think about our actions--how they affect us and how those actions affect others.
It's always interesting to read alternate reality stories. But those usually just show one version of what might have happened if certain events had taken place in an entirely different way (what if JFK or Lincoln hadn't been killed; what if Hitler had won the war; etc). This novel doesn't show what happens in one alternate reality...it manages to show what happens in multiple alternate realities all at the same time. This made the story just a little bit dense and hard to follow at times and even labeling different versions of the Traveler with identifying names ("Nose," "Suit," "Yellow," "Seventy," etc.) didn't always help. It's an extraordinarily interesting and ambitious storyline that needs just a little more clarity for this reader. Readers who like intricate puzzles will delight in trying to follow all the storylines and trying to determine which versions the Traveler should trust and which he shouldn't.
My other small quibble relates to various blurbs which made such a point of the humor in this story. I was hoping for a bit of the Douglas Adams touch to go along with the intricate time travel maze...and was disappointed. I didn't find the story particularly funny at all. It's intriguing and engaging. It makes you think. But I don't think it will make you laugh. Three and 3/4 stars for a pretty darn good read--almost four.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
This is a very interesting take on time travel and the paradoxes that are often associated with it. Ferrell doesn't just address the paradoxes--he gleefully produces them and inundates the story with them. There have been all kinds of theories about time travel paradox....including those that say that you can't go back in time (or I suppose forward) and meet your self. That you can't accidentally kill your grandfather or you'll blink out of existence. Ferrell takes on both of those premises....the Time Traveler doesn't just meet himself. He meets A LOT of himself. It's not his grandfather who gets killed...it's one year's version of himself. Ferrell uses the varying timelines created by these events to get the reader to think about our actions--how they affect us and how those actions affect others.
It's always interesting to read alternate reality stories. But those usually just show one version of what might have happened if certain events had taken place in an entirely different way (what if JFK or Lincoln hadn't been killed; what if Hitler had won the war; etc). This novel doesn't show what happens in one alternate reality...it manages to show what happens in multiple alternate realities all at the same time. This made the story just a little bit dense and hard to follow at times and even labeling different versions of the Traveler with identifying names ("Nose," "Suit," "Yellow," "Seventy," etc.) didn't always help. It's an extraordinarily interesting and ambitious storyline that needs just a little more clarity for this reader. Readers who like intricate puzzles will delight in trying to follow all the storylines and trying to determine which versions the Traveler should trust and which he shouldn't.
My other small quibble relates to various blurbs which made such a point of the humor in this story. I was hoping for a bit of the Douglas Adams touch to go along with the intricate time travel maze...and was disappointed. I didn't find the story particularly funny at all. It's intriguing and engaging. It makes you think. But I don't think it will make you laugh. Three and 3/4 stars for a pretty darn good read--almost four.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
January 4, 2014
Great start, muddled resolution. The plot features a time-traveler who returns to the same hotel every year of subjective personal time, in 2071, which would be his 100th birthday: The result is a time-traveler's convention where he's the only guest, rubbing shoulders with dozens of copies of himself. The plot hook is that one year, he encounters a corpse: His own, a version of him from six months in the future. So it becomes a murder mystery, with the narrator as the detective, the victim, and all the suspects. The first half of the book is close to brilliant, as he navigates the agendas of all his past and future selves: He's a selfish, impatient, arrogant attention-hog, and being around himself is perpetually irritating, as he harshly judges both what he once was and what he will become, while simultaneously understanding his past selves better than anyone else could, and seeing, with some frustration, how easily he can become what he doesn't like in his future selves. But the convention sequence eventually gets chaotic and overstretched, then gives way to a long sidebar that's harder to reconcile with his insular, self-made world; it's just enough information about what's going on in 2071 to raise a lot of questions about how close to our own this world is, since it seems more like something out of a fable than something that could happen in reality. And the rushed, poorly explained resolution reminded me far too much of Gregory Maguire's Wicked, with a complicated plot and protagonist being forced into a series of out-of-character choices in order to reconcile with what's come before. A fascinating idea, but it feels to me like it would have been better served if the murder mystery were a novella, and a separate terrific (but not very well integrated) section—about an actress who hires out as a surrogate friend or family member to people who are missing a specific person in their lives—as a short story.
October 10, 2012
This is one mind-bending, mind-blowing experience. I absolutely loved it. Being lost in a sea of me’s was fascinating, confusing, complex and funny. Every character is a older or younger version of the narrator as they attend a birthday party – for himself.
This is like trying to read Philip K Dick, where every turn of the page reveals another complexity in the miasma of I’s. this id the kind of book that I would love to read.
If you like your time travel paradoxes, multiple versions of the same character and a lovely leggy lady all mixed together in a big, rambling hotel, then is it definitely your book. I wished I could have had this thought first. The time travel and never really explained well and I seem to think it’s on purpose as it suits the style of the book. The paradoxes run rampant, but adds to the inexplicable nature of the novel.
When the story moves on to the leggy lady, I felt the story lost a little pace. But it is integral to the rest of the advanture as she is not what she seems.
But neither is this book really. It comes through as an in-depth study of a life and how to could change by the merest detail being different. LOVED it.
This is like trying to read Philip K Dick, where every turn of the page reveals another complexity in the miasma of I’s. this id the kind of book that I would love to read.
If you like your time travel paradoxes, multiple versions of the same character and a lovely leggy lady all mixed together in a big, rambling hotel, then is it definitely your book. I wished I could have had this thought first. The time travel and never really explained well and I seem to think it’s on purpose as it suits the style of the book. The paradoxes run rampant, but adds to the inexplicable nature of the novel.
When the story moves on to the leggy lady, I felt the story lost a little pace. But it is integral to the rest of the advanture as she is not what she seems.
But neither is this book really. It comes through as an in-depth study of a life and how to could change by the merest detail being different. LOVED it.
August 11, 2015
This time-travel novel twisted my brain and I had to stop a few times to contemplate the utter coolness of what was happening. I also wanted to throttle the main character (the version of him that we follow around--you'll know what I mean when you read it) a few times, but he feels like a real person so I suppose that's realistic. So interesting how (and this is not a spoiler; we learn this in the beginning) the main character creates a time machine but doesn't want to sell it or make money off of it in any way--maybe it isn't possible considering NYC is in ruins which makes me think the rest of the world may be in turmoil, too? That is never answered in the story and usually that would bother me immensely but there is plenty of emotional turmoil and plot complications in the story to focus on. I do wish the novel ended a bit differently but it didn't take away from my enjoyment.
March 5, 2013
Since the book's about time travel, you dutifully put on your thinking cap and hope for the best. Surprisingly, the best is exactly what you get. You are glued to the page. Feverish. The non-stop excitement doesn't let up until you're halfway through and by then you're fucked. Because the second half falls apart in lots of places (and by "falls apart" I mean "bores the shit out of you"), but at that point, there's no turning back. You're too invested in the outcome, so you slog through all that bloat anyway. Sure, you could skip to the end, but if you do that, the ending won't make any sense. So you press on, powerless against the desire to know how EVERYTHING WORKS OUT. Finally, you reach the end, which is kind of a huge anticlimax, and you wonder how smart it was to spend the whole damn day reading this silly book.
February 16, 2013
I'm a time travel freak so eagerly began reading the book. Hmmmm, if you are a stickler for a minimum amount of paradoxes, this is not the book for you. In fact, it's not really about time traveling, at least to my way of thinking. Thought-provoking? Definitely! What is the theme? There have been many terrific reviews so I do not want to repeat anything, but I would like to quote a line from Ferrell's book that is important, in its simplicity: "But right now you've got to move forward with your mind on who you'll be, not who you were." For those of us who tend to sometimes dwell in the past, this line makes a fine mantra for those mind-looping days that go nowhere. I think I'll finish off the weekend by downloading his first book...
August 30, 2025
DNF- The premise sounded good. It even caught my attention for a while. But 38% in on the audiobook and I feel like the wheels are spinning. Nothing really is happening to keep me in this book. I’m bored. Back to the library it goes.
February 13, 2013
The idea behind this book sounds great, the synopsis, when I sent it to two people, got an instant "I want to read that" response from both. Add my own desire to dive in and you've got a pretty convincing book jacket...
Unfortunately, the way the description paints the picture is rather different from the story. You go in expecting humour, expecting paradox and interesting time conflicts, and a damn good party - and things fail on all those counts and several others to boot.
There is an interesting sense of a future world, but none of it is explained satisfactorily. There's potential in the time travel, but any guessing games about what must happen because it already has or what needs to happen to make something else happen that needs to because it already did; the lifeblood of this sort of thing, is conveniently avoided by the concept of untethering - i.e. that the current "him" of the work does something to divorce himself from the other "Hims", rendering any actions he may or may not choose to pursue moot.
It's cerebral, to a point. Interesting, perhaps requiring a degree of cognitive capacity I was unprepared to invest. But By any measure, it's way overpriced for its size and even more so for its potential. Sorry, Sean.
Unfortunately, the way the description paints the picture is rather different from the story. You go in expecting humour, expecting paradox and interesting time conflicts, and a damn good party - and things fail on all those counts and several others to boot.
There is an interesting sense of a future world, but none of it is explained satisfactorily. There's potential in the time travel, but any guessing games about what must happen because it already has or what needs to happen to make something else happen that needs to because it already did; the lifeblood of this sort of thing, is conveniently avoided by the concept of untethering - i.e. that the current "him" of the work does something to divorce himself from the other "Hims", rendering any actions he may or may not choose to pursue moot.
It's cerebral, to a point. Interesting, perhaps requiring a degree of cognitive capacity I was unprepared to invest. But By any measure, it's way overpriced for its size and even more so for its potential. Sorry, Sean.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2013
This was a fairly unusual instance of a great cover hiding a dissapointing book. It could just be the way my brain is wired, but I'm not crazy about time travel paradoxes. Sure, it makes for fun movies like Terminator, but also for frustatingly convoluted reads like this one. While fairly well written, the story was just too warped and tortuous to be enjoyable and none of the characters (most of whom more accurately versions of the same one) were particularly engaging. The overall story was bleak and depressing and difficult (not worth the effort) to follow at times and the the ending was obviously meant to save it, but those few pages didn't really make up for 300 preceding them. The author is not without talent and obviously strove to create a very clever and original story here, but seems like for all that it lacked a heart or one of those things that make the book a joy and a pleasure to read.
August 31, 2012
With "Man in the Empty Suit," Ferrell makes a strong case to be the Kurt Vonnegut of his generation. "Man in the Empty Suit" is alternately funny, sad, and thought-provoking. A serious mindfuck. I wish I could travel back in time and write this book myself.
August 24, 2014
DNF
This made my head hurt and almost sent me off to The Home For The Perpetually Bewildered!
April 28, 2024
that totally screwed up my brain but i think i liked it??
January 21, 2021
“Self-loathing ran in both directions, I realized. I could hate both who I had been and who I would become. It was efficient.”
A murder mystery set at a time traveller’s party, where the victim and every suspect is him.
I liked the concept more than the actual experience of the book. But I think those that enjoy the character development more than plot might enjoy it more than I did.
A murder mystery set at a time traveller’s party, where the victim and every suspect is him.
I liked the concept more than the actual experience of the book. But I think those that enjoy the character development more than plot might enjoy it more than I did.
March 29, 2017
I was pretty disappointed in this book. The concept sounded so interesting and exciting but I couldn't wrap my mind around the logistics of the time travel and multiple versions of one person being 'tethered and untethered'. I liked the writing style though and I wasn't bored reading it, I was just waiting for that "ah-ha" moment where everything clicks and my mind is blown - and it never came.
June 26, 2013
The actual craft of the writing of this book was worthy of more stars, but the story drove me crazy with its inconsistent logic.
In this one, a frankly dull and annoying man seems to have been the first to invent time travel. Possibly as a result of his own nature, his travels to the past come across as dull and unbelievable, but the story centers on the future, where he has his annual birthday party. The same one every year, with all of his annual selves invited. For reasons never made clear, this party is in a future where New York is collapsing and partly abandoned, but with a weird and thriving scavenger culture that doesn't make a lick of sense, especially the subway and the library.
Time travel stories are often centered around the concept of paradox, and often fall apart as a result. In this case, the whole point of the story is a series of paradoxes, but the author never gets around to asking key questions that are familiar to any fan of science fiction:
1) Are these paradoxes causing actual branches in reality, and
2) If so, does it MATTER how the paradox is resolved?
If the answer to the first one is yes, and the writer can't provide an answer to the second question, there is very little point to the story.
Okay, here's how it works, and why I say that:
Suppose a driver who normally drives very carefully on the way to work has an important meeting, a major deal maker or breaker. Due to minor delays, he didn't have time for his normal breakfast, and grabbed something to eat on the way. His breakfast sandwich slips out of his hand at just the wrong time while he's driving, he's distracted, and rear-ends a car that was stopped at a crosswalk. The other car is pushed forward, hitting a mother and child. With me so far?
So, years later, the same man finds the inventor of a time machine, and uses it to go back and warn himself not to eat in the car. So, he's not distracted and doesn't rear-end the car into the two people.
The paradox, of course, comes from the fact that without the accident, he wouldn't go back to warn himself not to cause the accident. So, is the accident real or not? From the viewpoint of "guilty" driver, yes. From the viewpoint of "innocent" driver, no.
So, within Man in the Empty Suit, multiply that by about 50, and that's how complicated the paradoxes are, with various versions of the same man interacting with various puzzles and mysteries, in the middle of a literal life-and-death set of paradoxes.
The writing was so intriguing that I couldn't put it down. The actual plot was so annoying that I wanted to throw it at the author, but luckily he wasn't in the vicinity. The reason why I was so annoyed with the plot is that it seemed like the resolution could have happened at almost ANY point in the story, and it was only the forced thick-headedness of the central character which prevented him from seeing this and acting accordingly. He seemed determined to create a fatalistic disaster. Then, there was the motivation issue for the older versions of himself. I could understand them being afraid that altering their past would make them go "poof," but it should have been clear to them by the start of the story that that's not how it works. They already had clear evidence that paradoxes didn't wipe out histories invalidated by the paradox. So, why act like they did? Apparently, because the author didn't want the reader to start thinking ahead, and figure out the ending.
And yet, even with these problems, I truly feel that the writing in the book made it worth reading. If you want to read a book of well-crafted prose that may be utterly frustrating as a story, this is for you. If you like the magical realism of Latin American or Russian authors, then by all means pick this up and give it a try.
In this one, a frankly dull and annoying man seems to have been the first to invent time travel. Possibly as a result of his own nature, his travels to the past come across as dull and unbelievable, but the story centers on the future, where he has his annual birthday party. The same one every year, with all of his annual selves invited. For reasons never made clear, this party is in a future where New York is collapsing and partly abandoned, but with a weird and thriving scavenger culture that doesn't make a lick of sense, especially the subway and the library.
Time travel stories are often centered around the concept of paradox, and often fall apart as a result. In this case, the whole point of the story is a series of paradoxes, but the author never gets around to asking key questions that are familiar to any fan of science fiction:
1) Are these paradoxes causing actual branches in reality, and
2) If so, does it MATTER how the paradox is resolved?
If the answer to the first one is yes, and the writer can't provide an answer to the second question, there is very little point to the story.
Okay, here's how it works, and why I say that:
Suppose a driver who normally drives very carefully on the way to work has an important meeting, a major deal maker or breaker. Due to minor delays, he didn't have time for his normal breakfast, and grabbed something to eat on the way. His breakfast sandwich slips out of his hand at just the wrong time while he's driving, he's distracted, and rear-ends a car that was stopped at a crosswalk. The other car is pushed forward, hitting a mother and child. With me so far?
So, years later, the same man finds the inventor of a time machine, and uses it to go back and warn himself not to eat in the car. So, he's not distracted and doesn't rear-end the car into the two people.
The paradox, of course, comes from the fact that without the accident, he wouldn't go back to warn himself not to cause the accident. So, is the accident real or not? From the viewpoint of "guilty" driver, yes. From the viewpoint of "innocent" driver, no.
So, within Man in the Empty Suit, multiply that by about 50, and that's how complicated the paradoxes are, with various versions of the same man interacting with various puzzles and mysteries, in the middle of a literal life-and-death set of paradoxes.
The writing was so intriguing that I couldn't put it down. The actual plot was so annoying that I wanted to throw it at the author, but luckily he wasn't in the vicinity. The reason why I was so annoyed with the plot is that it seemed like the resolution could have happened at almost ANY point in the story, and it was only the forced thick-headedness of the central character which prevented him from seeing this and acting accordingly. He seemed determined to create a fatalistic disaster. Then, there was the motivation issue for the older versions of himself. I could understand them being afraid that altering their past would make them go "poof," but it should have been clear to them by the start of the story that that's not how it works. They already had clear evidence that paradoxes didn't wipe out histories invalidated by the paradox. So, why act like they did? Apparently, because the author didn't want the reader to start thinking ahead, and figure out the ending.
And yet, even with these problems, I truly feel that the writing in the book made it worth reading. If you want to read a book of well-crafted prose that may be utterly frustrating as a story, this is for you. If you like the magical realism of Latin American or Russian authors, then by all means pick this up and give it a try.
May 7, 2021
One of the most original premises I've read, but I'm not sure it delivered. Still, enjoyable and engrossing read.
February 3, 2016
This book is why I read outside my literary fiction comfort zones. A time-traveling, dystopian murder mystery with a main cast of one, this book basically blew my mind. I am sitting here, wondering about it all, unable to read anything else.
At first, the premise sounded way too good to be true; no one has ever (to my knowledge) written a novel like this before. When things started getting hairy- and there is no other word I would pick to describe the mess the narrator found himself, in his own life- it began to really bother the O.c.d. In me.... Such a convoluted, confusing, hairy mess!! And then the running..... So... Much... Running. I was exhausted just reading about it. But I digress:
Each year our narrator (who has no name) celebrates his birthday at a party in an abandoned hotel in a future New York where the only guests are past and future versions of himself. The book starts with his 39th birthday party, the year that a dead version of himself and a beautiful woman in a red dress appear at the party for the first time. What has been a fairly consistent experience for the past years, is suddenly untethered from the sequence of events he thought he knew. How are there versions of himself at the party older than the dead one? (PARADOX!!!). Where did this woman come from, and why has she never been here before? How do the younger versions of himself keep doing things he has never done before? There is a tear in the fabric of his own time, and only he can repair it. And then the narrator has to go back in time 6 months, to stop the unnecessary death of someone he loves a great deal (and this is where it gets really GOOD!!)
I know, it sounds like a terrible sci-fi movie. And I see how the book may seem like an unnecessarily complicated mind game. But the ways it asked me to reflect on being, identity, self-hood, reliance and interdependence made it more than simply a puzzle to be solved. I can not stop thinking about the ways these versions of self fit together and what it means for those of us in the real world to have past and future versions of ourselves that we are responsible for and to. Combined with how well Ferrell described the settings and the result is a book that is cinematic, in the best possible way.
I may need a parrot tattoo, now.....
Must read!!!
At first, the premise sounded way too good to be true; no one has ever (to my knowledge) written a novel like this before. When things started getting hairy- and there is no other word I would pick to describe the mess the narrator found himself, in his own life- it began to really bother the O.c.d. In me.... Such a convoluted, confusing, hairy mess!! And then the running..... So... Much... Running. I was exhausted just reading about it. But I digress:
Each year our narrator (who has no name) celebrates his birthday at a party in an abandoned hotel in a future New York where the only guests are past and future versions of himself. The book starts with his 39th birthday party, the year that a dead version of himself and a beautiful woman in a red dress appear at the party for the first time. What has been a fairly consistent experience for the past years, is suddenly untethered from the sequence of events he thought he knew. How are there versions of himself at the party older than the dead one? (PARADOX!!!). Where did this woman come from, and why has she never been here before? How do the younger versions of himself keep doing things he has never done before? There is a tear in the fabric of his own time, and only he can repair it. And then the narrator has to go back in time 6 months, to stop the unnecessary death of someone he loves a great deal (and this is where it gets really GOOD!!)
I know, it sounds like a terrible sci-fi movie. And I see how the book may seem like an unnecessarily complicated mind game. But the ways it asked me to reflect on being, identity, self-hood, reliance and interdependence made it more than simply a puzzle to be solved. I can not stop thinking about the ways these versions of self fit together and what it means for those of us in the real world to have past and future versions of ourselves that we are responsible for and to. Combined with how well Ferrell described the settings and the result is a book that is cinematic, in the best possible way.
I may need a parrot tattoo, now.....
Must read!!!
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