Why Are You So Sad?

<b>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.<br>-Colum McCann author of <i>Let the Great World Spin</i></b> <p/><i>Have we all sunken into a species-wide bout of clinical depression?</i> <p/>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? <p/>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.