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Numb: A Novel Paperback – Bargain Price, August 3, 2010
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“There are captivating moments and passages.... [Numb] has a lot of heart.” (Publishers Weekly )
“Ferrell’s eye-catching debut is a mordant take on contemporary culture.... Artfully barbed entertainment.” (Kirkus Reviews )
“Ferrell’s eye-catching debut is a mordant take on contemporary culture.... Artfully barbed entertainment.” (Kirkus Reviews )
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By
Elizabeth A. White
on October 1, 2010
Format: Paperback
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When a bloodied stranger with no memory of who he is or how he got there wanders into Mr. Tilly's Circus in south Texas, the only thing the battered and confused man can think to tell the curious workers who surround him is, "I'm numb." Though he means it literally, that proclamation also comes to be his name.
Numb's ability to absorb physical punishment without feeling the resulting pain makes for a highly successful circus act, one that finds him pounding nails through his hands and feet, making creative use of a staple gun, and acting as a human dart board for members of the crowd.
Yet it's only when he finds himself thrust into a wrestling match with a lion that Numb finally realizes his future is going nowhere, in large part because he doesn't know his past. And so, along with best friend and fellow circus performer Mal, Numb heads to New York City in search of his identity.
Once in New York Numb's life changes dramatically, as what had previously made him a freak and outcast in the circus garners him popularity and fame in the big city. Be it doing television commercials, magazine cover photo shoots, or even appearing on Letterman, Numb's problems appear to be over. And that's when author Ferrell pulls a brilliant slight of hand, taking what initially appeared to be on the surface a straightforward "Hey, look at the freak!" story and downshifting into a much more serious gear.
Through his interactions with those he meets in NYC (his agent, who may or may not have Numb's best interests at heart; an ambitious, and slightly psychotic, model he meets on a photo shoot; the beautiful - and blind - artist who appears to be the only one to "see" him for who he truly is) Numb comes to understand the necessity of pain; its role as the counterpoint to pleasure.Read more ›
Numb's ability to absorb physical punishment without feeling the resulting pain makes for a highly successful circus act, one that finds him pounding nails through his hands and feet, making creative use of a staple gun, and acting as a human dart board for members of the crowd.
Yet it's only when he finds himself thrust into a wrestling match with a lion that Numb finally realizes his future is going nowhere, in large part because he doesn't know his past. And so, along with best friend and fellow circus performer Mal, Numb heads to New York City in search of his identity.
Once in New York Numb's life changes dramatically, as what had previously made him a freak and outcast in the circus garners him popularity and fame in the big city. Be it doing television commercials, magazine cover photo shoots, or even appearing on Letterman, Numb's problems appear to be over. And that's when author Ferrell pulls a brilliant slight of hand, taking what initially appeared to be on the surface a straightforward "Hey, look at the freak!" story and downshifting into a much more serious gear.
Through his interactions with those he meets in NYC (his agent, who may or may not have Numb's best interests at heart; an ambitious, and slightly psychotic, model he meets on a photo shoot; the beautiful - and blind - artist who appears to be the only one to "see" him for who he truly is) Numb comes to understand the necessity of pain; its role as the counterpoint to pleasure.Read more ›
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By
J Dennis McGuire
on September 7, 2013
Format: Paperback
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I found finishing this book to be painful. The main character is a narcissistic dishrag, doing anything suggested to him, regardless of danger or consequence to himself or others. He seemed to have no goals or motivations and was totally unlikeable.
The other characters were similarly shallow and were poorly defined. What I thought was going to be a major plot point - his amnesia - meandered endlessly to nowhere. I have no idea what the book's ending was meant to communicate.
Having said all this, the author definitely seems to be a skilled writer, generating environmental descriptions that resonated and concise dialog. If he produces something with subject matter beyond endless angst and self-absorption, I'll gladly give it a chance.
The other characters were similarly shallow and were poorly defined. What I thought was going to be a major plot point - his amnesia - meandered endlessly to nowhere. I have no idea what the book's ending was meant to communicate.
Having said all this, the author definitely seems to be a skilled writer, generating environmental descriptions that resonated and concise dialog. If he produces something with subject matter beyond endless angst and self-absorption, I'll gladly give it a chance.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By
Mav Skye
on August 25, 2010
Format: Paperback
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Sean Ferrell grabs you by the collar and forces you to feel the physical, psychological, and emotional pain that Numb is unable or unwilling to feel. He jars you with the bizarre, distracts you with pretty women, and while you're looking the other way, pounds nails into your heart. Unlike Numb, you feel each swing of the hammer. It's like Palahniuk meets Steinbeck in a lion cage. They sit, have coffee, and play chicken with a pairing knife. You are wondering who is going to lose a finger and if the other will sew it back on. The read is refreshing and real, and I can honestly say I can't wait for his next book.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By
Anonymous
on August 17, 2010
Format: Paperback
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I couldn't put it down and even weeks after reading it, I still can't get Numb, Hiko, Emilia, and Mal out of my head. Numb's voice is just so addicting, witty, and poetic. Brilliant book. Highly recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By
Amazon Customer
on January 2, 2012
Format: Paperback
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The beauty of this book is in the prose. Mr. Ferrell tackled a difficult task, writing a first person narrative of a man who is unable to feel physical pain, and gave us a book that a reader feels with every word. Numb, the title character, is a troubled soul and while his flesh is incapable of feeling both his soul and psyche ache with alarming clarity. A great read and worthy of your time and money.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By
webshred
on August 31, 2010
Format: Paperback
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A dark but brilliant novel about the necessity of pain.
Numb, the main character, has no family, no friends, no memory of his past before he appeared bloody and bedraggled outside a circus. Most bizarre of all, he feels no pain. People can drive nails through his hands, shoot staples into his skin, a lion can even stab its claws into him--he feels nothing.
It's tempting to see this as a prolonged metaphor for the modern condition--Camus taken one step beyond nausea to numbness. But Ferrell is too good an author for that.
The point of Numb's condition isn't how immune he (or society as a whole) is to pain. It's how much he loses by not feeling what everyone else feels. Ferrell shows us how integral pain and want are to each other. We can't know what we want if the things that hurt us and the things that help us seem one and the same. And if we can't know what we want, we can't feel love, can't even recognize it when it comes.
That means Numb is always at the mercy of everyone else's desires: the circus, his friend Mal, a surprisingly honest but driven talent agent who turns him into a major celebrity, several women. He manages to find lovers and abusers, friends and enemies, but he can't tell one from the other. Even when he makes the right choice, he doesn't know it, because he can't feel what his decision has done for him.
This is a painful novel, sometimes a little more graphic than the average reader might like. But Ferrell more than makes up for it with his spare, darkly comic style, his brilliant insights into what numbness takes away from us, and the very real compassion he shows for a character who, ultimately, wishes he could feel what most of us want to avoid.
Numb, the main character, has no family, no friends, no memory of his past before he appeared bloody and bedraggled outside a circus. Most bizarre of all, he feels no pain. People can drive nails through his hands, shoot staples into his skin, a lion can even stab its claws into him--he feels nothing.
It's tempting to see this as a prolonged metaphor for the modern condition--Camus taken one step beyond nausea to numbness. But Ferrell is too good an author for that.
The point of Numb's condition isn't how immune he (or society as a whole) is to pain. It's how much he loses by not feeling what everyone else feels. Ferrell shows us how integral pain and want are to each other. We can't know what we want if the things that hurt us and the things that help us seem one and the same. And if we can't know what we want, we can't feel love, can't even recognize it when it comes.
That means Numb is always at the mercy of everyone else's desires: the circus, his friend Mal, a surprisingly honest but driven talent agent who turns him into a major celebrity, several women. He manages to find lovers and abusers, friends and enemies, but he can't tell one from the other. Even when he makes the right choice, he doesn't know it, because he can't feel what his decision has done for him.
This is a painful novel, sometimes a little more graphic than the average reader might like. But Ferrell more than makes up for it with his spare, darkly comic style, his brilliant insights into what numbness takes away from us, and the very real compassion he shows for a character who, ultimately, wishes he could feel what most of us want to avoid.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
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