Friday, July 21, 2017

'The Bee Loud Glade' by Steve Himmer

Meet Finch. He's a corporate drone who works on blogs about a product called 'Second Nature' - a type of plant life for customers where you don't have to care for them, water them or do anything to them, just have them as decoration; and yes, they're plastic. Pretty, but not much use. The customer can add flowers, wilting leaves and other such things to the plant as seasons change and enjoy the plants to the full extent without the mess of an actual house plant - but it will never die. Finch also manages a collection of blogs about other imaginary lives supporting Second Nature.

However, life isn't exactly right. He's in a small corner of the office where he's kept to himself and found that he'd been mostly ignored - or so he thinks. And it doesn't really come as a surprise to him when he's fired.

He goes home, and his world stops. He stops. He just lets everything go; and stops paying his bills, stops caring for himself and eventually gets himself evicted - but he doesn't do anything about himself until late one night, just before his internet is cut off, offering him the perfect job... and all he has to do is say 'yes' - and so he replies with that word, then goes to sleep.
The very next day, his life changes completely. A driver shows up at his door and he's driven away the city, away from the house an away from everything he's known for so long to a mansion on top of a mountain where he meets Mr. Crane, the man who owned the company he was fired from. This man wanted him for something very specific; and knew he'd be the right man for the job... oh, and could he start immediately? By the way, the pay is incredible! All Finch has to do is live in Mr. Crane's garden as a hermit for seven years. There are some conditions - of course - but they're not all that major. Does Finch take the job? 

This is a great book from a writer I hadn't heard of until I won it in a competition. But once I through the first few pages, I just couldn't put it down. This book is an amazing and thought-provoking walk through the garden of somebody's thought processes as they observe the world in a totally different way. Set in the present day, with technology all around, it's interesting to see how Finch reacts to going from having everything, then nothing. I don't think I'll let go of this book from my collections any time soon.

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