Title: Man in the Empty Suit
Publication Year: 2013
Plot: 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 twelve-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.
We reached the end of semester! We had planned for 10 books but only got to 9 (you never know what hiccups will occur when running a book club inside a state penitentiary). But we made it, and we ended on a high note. Our final book was Sean Ferrell’s Man in the Empty Suit.
The readers loved the book. They talked a lot about how cool the plot is: having dinner parties with your future self. Nobody minded that Ferrell didn’t dive deep into the mechanics and science of time travel. They felt that would have bogged down the action and humor of the novel. And while they were tickled by the notion of fratrenizing with one’s future self, they wish there was more of it! They recognize that the novel had to get to the conclusion, but they would have liked some more casual interactions.
Readers said the book was fun to follow. Yes, it was trippy and you had to pay attention, but they were having fun while reading. There were also some ideas that resonated with them. One was, “be kind to your future self.” In this novel, you can read about the ramifications of your actionsin the now and how the impact the future. If we could meet ourselves in the future, would that change what we do? Would we eat better? Would we exercise more? Would we take care of our relationships? Alcoholism also plays a role with the main character. The readers wondered if the author had struggled with it as well.
There was a lot of stairs in this novel, which hearkened back to Annihilation. We wondered if there might be some sort of symbolism and significance with the stairs. But we came up empty-handed. We also talked a lot about the “acting” prostitutes that were hired. In the novel, there’s a character who will act a role that someone wants or needs. An estranged daughter, a wife, whatever they’d like. We talked about how people pay for alternative realities like this and what they can gain. Closure? A feeling of being loved? There are a lot of reasons one might do this.
After our discussion, we previewed the books that we will read next semester. Yes, we will be back, starting in January 2024. I’ll be in touch with details and how you can help our readers get books. Thanks for following along. We hope you’re reading something good.
Until next time,
E.
If you’d like to read Man in the Empty Suit, please check out the following links: