For many years, Tim Farnsworth has lived the normal life of a successful lawyer in New York, working all the hours he can as he works his way up the corporate ladder. True, he doesn't see as much of his wife Jane as he'd like, and his relationship with his teenaged daughter Becka - who is going through an awkward dreadlock phase - could be better, but on the whole, his life is fairly straightforward.
Mysterious Walking Affliction
Until, that is, Tim is struck down with a mysterious affliction - he simply cannot stop walking. The illness goes in phases - he can go months or even years between bouts - but when it strikes, he gets up and has no choice but to follow his legs wherever they want to take him. In a New York of increasingly extreme weather - freezing winters, scorchingly hot summers - Tim's life is put at risk every time he starts walking, and before too long he has lost some toes to frostbite and has found himself in some very risky situations when he finally collapses through exhaustion.
To make matters worse, there is no diagnosis for Tim's condition. He has consulted every doctor he can find, but no-one can find anything physically wrong with him and Tim is unwilling to believe that his problems are caused purely by his mind. As his work and home life increasingly suffer, it becomes clear that drastic action is needed if Tim is ever to resume his normal life, and that he alone can get to the bottom of what ails him.
Change of Style for Joshua Ferris
The Unnamed is quite a departure from Ferris' debut novel Then We Came To The End, a satirically comic story of office life and politics that received much critical acclaim upon its publication in 2007. The Unnamed is a simple premise, but one that raises huge questions about the frailty of the human form and its powerlessness in the face of greater forces, as Tim is continually forced to walk away from everything and everyone that he holds dear.
The novel does lose its way a little towards the end, as once Tim is released from the framework of any semblance of a normal life the plot does begin to meander and wander in much the same way as its protagonist. However, this is essentially an unbelievable tale that works purely because the characters at its heart are ones with whom the reader can empathise, producing a sad and thoughtful novel on what it really means to be human.
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris is published in paperback in the UK by Penguin (2011), ISBN 978-0-141-03724-0.
Elizabeth Gregory - Liz graduated from Manchester University with a BA (Hons) in English Language & Literature, and also holds an MA in Literature from the ...
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