This book made me actually gasp from amazement several times and has reminded me what I love about literature once again after a long period colored mostly by disappointment with current fiction. Joshua Ferris has done what so many authors today have tried, and have failed, to do: he has taken questions as old and as heavy as time itself and has both tried to answer them and tried to make those attempted answers especially relevant to a current zeitgeist. This book is definitely going on my list of all-time favorites. I loved it.