Why Are You So Sad? (Signed First Edition)

Jason Porter

ISBN 10: 0142180580 / ISBN 13: 9780142180587

Published by Plume, New York, 2014

About this Item

NEW YORK: Plume (2014). First edition, first printing, with full number line down to 1. Softbound, a trade paperback original. Brand new. Very Fine. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on the first page, next to his photograph, where he has drawn a cartoon circle from his mouth and a pithy quotation, aka, THINGS GET BETTER! His excellent debut novel. A humorous inscription. (Not signed to anyone, just his name and the cartoon caption.).

Seller Inventory # 05-2012-11

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Why Are You So Sad? (Signed First Edition)
• Publisher: Plume, New York
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0142180580
• ISBN 13: 9780142180587
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

"Jason Porter could find a place on the shelf beside Richard Brautigan, George Saunders, and David Sedaris. This is a quick, odd, wonderful book, one that pinned me back on my heels and made me laugh."
–Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

Have we all sunken into a species-wide bout of clinical depression?
 
Porter’s uproarious, intelligent debut centers on Raymond Champs, an illustrator of assembly manuals for a home furnishings corporation, who is charged with a huge task: To determine whether or not the world needs saving. It comes to him in the midst of a losing battle with insomnia — everybody he knows, and maybe everybody on the planet, is suffering from severe clinical depression. He’s nearly certain something has gone wrong. A virus perhaps. It’s in the water, or it’s in the mosquitoes, or maybe in the ranch flavored snack foods. And what if we are all too sad and dispirited to do anything about it? Obsessed as he becomes, Raymond composes an anonymous survey to submit to his unsuspecting coworkers — “Are you who you want to be?”, “Do you believe in life after death?”, “Is today better than yesterday?” — because what Raymond needs is data. He needs to know if it can be proven. It’s a big responsibility. People might not believe him. People, like his wife and his boss, might think he is losing his mind. But only because they are also losing their minds. Or are they?

Reminiscent of Gary Shteyngart, George Saunders, Douglas Coupland and Jennifer Egan, Porter’s debut is an acutely perceptive and sharply funny meditation on what makes people tick.

About the Author

Jason Porter was born and raised in southeastern Michigan. A known gemini, he is, or has been, an English teacher, customer support representative, landlord, traveling musician, and the overnight editor for Yahoo! News and the New York Times. Currently he writes fiction. Why Are You So Sad? is his first novel.