The Future for Curious People
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this novel, computers can show people their romantic future, but two strangers can't see true love when it's right in front of them.
A young librarian named Evelyn is obsessed with a new technology. She can't stop visiting the office of Dr. Chin, an "envisioninst," because she needs to know that she'll meet someone and be happy one day. Godfrey, another client, ends up at Dr. Chin's only because his fiancée insisted they know their fate before taking the plunge. But when Godfrey meets Evelyn in the waiting room, true love may be right in front of them, but they are too preoccupied—and too burdened by their pasts—to recognize it.
This smart, fresh love story, with its quirky twists and turns, ponders life's big questions—about happiness, fate, and our very existence—as it follows Evelyn and Godfrey's quest for the elusive answers.
Praise for The Future for Curious People
"A whip-smart novel about the obsession of love and the love of obsession." —Aaron Gwyn, author of Wynne's War
"Comic and Exuberant . . . A fine and tender tale for anyone who has tried to let go of the past and envision the future while falling in love." —Rhonda Riley, author of The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet Sherl's fiction debut, this comic novel is an intriguing but sometimes frustrating look at the difficulties of finding a soulmate. In a slightly alternative contemporary Baltimore, a thriving industry exists for "envisionists," who administer drug cocktails to clients and clamp virtual reality helmets on their heads, thereby allowing them a glimpse of their possible futures. Godfrey Burkes proposes marriage to his domineering girlfriend, Madge, but she wants to see an envisionist before accepting. Meanwhile, Evelyn Shriner, who has a volunteer job recording classics for the blind at which she changes the books' endings to be more uplifting, is breaking up with her musician boyfriend, Adrian. After Godfrey and Evelyn meet cute in an envisionist's office, it becomes immediately clear to the reader, if not to them, that their future lies with each other. Readers may find themselves getting ahead of the characters too often. Sherl offers some beautiful moments, both in the visions and in exchanges between Godfrey and Evelyn. Unfortunately, the light-hearted tone of his writing tends to come across as more smug and self-impressed than comic.
