I was nervous going into this book, because Laura of 52Books had compared it to Nicole Krauss’s Man Walks Into a Room, which I hated. While I admit that the two do have some similarities (a man has a condition that no one else can relate to), Joshua Ferris’s novel is so much more interesting and captivating.

The book is about a successful lawyer named Tim Farnsworth who lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, and teenage daughter, Becka. Inexplicably, and without warning, he finds himself without control of his body, being forced against his will to walk for miles and miles without stopping, headed toward no particular destination. Just as suddenly, he’ll regain control and succumb to exhaustion, usually falling asleep right where he ends up. Sometimes “it” goes into remission and he’ll be fine for a few years, but when it comes back, he has no idea how long he’ll have to suffer. None of the doctors have any clue what causes his affliction, and every potential remedy (i.e. treadmills, handcuffs) fails to provide any relief.

I don’t want to give away too much else, because while it’s more focused on the characters and their motivations than any plot (aside from the passage of time), there is a lot of depth in the book that deserves to be explored from a fresh perspective. I will say that there were some things that felt unresolved. For instance, at one point, Tim notices a bunch of bees flying into his window several floors above the city, and later that day discovers thousands of them dead in a park. What was with that? It was never brought up again, and it seemed like it was going to be something important. (There was a similar incident with some birds, too.) Overall it was a good read, though, and so much better than what I expected.