Numb
Numb, a man who feels no pain and has no memory of how he came to be this way, travels to New York City after a short stint in the circus to search for the answers to his past. But when word of his condition spreads--sparked by the attention he attracts from letting people nail his hands to bars for money--he quickly finds himself hounded on all sides by those who would use his unique ability in their own pursuits of fame and fortune. There's the best friend who doesn't quite know how to handle Numb's newfound celebrity, the savvy talent agent who may or may not have Numb's best interests in mind, the sadistic supermodel whose idea of a good time involves lion claws and can openers, and the blind girlfriend who might actually see something in Numb others don't. As Numb navigates this strange world, and as he continues to search for clues from his past, he is forced to confront one of life's toughest questions: Who am I?
Reviews:
From Publisher's Weekly, May 24, 2010:
Numb
Sean Ferrell, Harper Perennial, $13.99 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-194650-9
In Ferrell's offbeat debut, an amnesiac joins a Texas circus where his inability to feel pain makes him a big-top hit and earns him the name Numb. After a haunting experience wrestling a lion, Numb and his best friend, Mal, give up the circus for life in New York, where they live in a crappy hotel and make a living as a lowrent one-man freak show. When Numb lands a talent agent and begins to move up through the layers of celebrity, he leaves Mal behind for a cast of characters including a blind artist girlfriend and bad news model Emilia. But in Numb's world, nothing hurts much at all, so Mal comes back and predictably turns things upside down, despite the men's bond being difficult to comprehend. There are captivating moments and passages, but details like Numb's rise to recognized-on-the-street fame aren't sufficiently explained and require a hefty suspension of disbelief. Though some of the storytelling nuts and bolts are missing, the book has a lot of heart. (Aug.)
Kirkus, June 23, 2010:
"He's an accident-prone amnesiac, the lead, but his inability to feel pain brings him celebrity; Ferrell's eye-catching debut is a mordant take on contemporary culture."
New York Journal of Books, August 4, 2010:
"Daring... This is a highly enjoyable and intelligent read."
Andrew Shaffer, author, Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love:
"A quick, fun read, sort of like Chuck Palahniuk meets P.T. Barnum with a shot of Philip K. Dick. NUMB fits somewhere on the shelf between satire, science fiction, and literary fiction; recommended for fans of the aforementioned Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, Max Berry, Chad Kultgen, and Craig Clevenger."
"What a charming, quirky story this is. I loved Numb, both the story and the character."
