I AM NO ONE  

by Patrick Flanery

______________________

I was introduced to this lovely book last week and now, I feel I must introduce it to you lovely creatures.  Here are the specifics of I am No One.  

Jeremy O'Keefe, a middle-aged Professor of History, returns to his native New York after a decade teaching at Oxford, hoping to reconnect with his daughter and rebuild the life he left behind. He settles into a rhythm of long evenings spent alone after a day teaching students he barely knows. Then a strange encounter with a young man who presumes an acquaintance he cannot remember and a series of disconcerting events leave him with a growing conviction that he is being watched. The pale young man keeps appearing, a haunting figure lingers outside his apartment at night, and mysterious packages begin to arrive. As his grip on reality seems to shift and turn, Jeremy struggles to know whether he can believe what he is experiencing, or whether his mind is in the grip of an irrational obsession. I Am No One explores the tenuous link between fear and paranoia in our post-Snowden lives: a world of surveillance and self-censorship, where privacy no longer exists and our freedoms are inexorably eroded.

 love Patrick Flanery's use of the English language, not producing "word soup" but expertly placing some beautiful words in at just the right time makes his writing style flow quite smoothly and makes his observations and ideas something that sticks in your mind even after the book is over.  I love that the mystery began only a few pages into the story.  There wasn't a long description of the character's life, the writer didn't get lost in the descriptions like so many people do.  Mr. Flanery knows when to draw the line on describing something in beautiful detail without going overboard on them leaving his readers rolling their eyes and putting the book down.  The only thing that kept me thinking it would be better was if some of the tangents weren't so precise, especially in the beginning when he is talking about the films.  This will only capture a small audience, as not everyone has seen, and even less analyzed, those films.  If the comparisons were more vague, it might have been a smoother transition back into the thought, but as it is, it seems a bit of a harsh transition...of course, it seems I should have expected some analytical comments about film as he earned his B.F.A in film and worked in the film industry before moving to the U.K.

Overall I thought it was a great read and I am interested in reading more of his books.  I am a huge lover of words ( yes, I know how that sounds..) and he uses beautiful words, but uses them sparingly and perfectly.  I would LOVE for you beauties read this book and leave your own comments on this post and let me know what YOU thought of this book.  But of course, you have to go out and buy it first..or stay in and buy it..however you choose to order and read it..so..go forth and purchase!

_________________________________________________________________________________


So, you may be wondering...who is this Flanery dude..well, my blogglings, I give you the brilliant Patrick Flanery:

Patrick Flanery is an American writer based in London. His first novel, Absolution, was published in 2012; it won the Spear's/Laurent Perrier Best First Book Award and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the Author's Club Best First Novel Award, and the Prix du Premier Roman Étranger in France; it was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Desmond Elliott Prize. It has been translated into eleven languages. His second novel, Fallen Land, was published in 2013. His third novel,I Am No One, is published in 2016.

Patrick has written for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, the Guardian, the Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Daily Telegraph. He has held writing fellowships at the Santa Maddalena Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Reading.

I received this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for my honest opinion.  Thank you Blogging for Books and Thank you Random House and Patrick Flanery for getting it out here for us to read.