The terrible privacy of Maxwell Sim
By: Jonathan Coe
Edition: 1st U.S. ed.
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9780307594815
Subjects: Fiction; Interpersonal relations; Losers; Divorced men; Middle-aged men; Automobile travel; Self-actualization (Psychology); Failure (Psychology)
Description: Maxwell Sim feels he has no meaningful connection to anyone in his life. Trying to get out of this rut, Max quits his job as a customer service employee at a local department store. He accepts a job to drive a Prius full of toothbrushes to the remote Shetland Islands as part of a misguided promotional campaign for a dental hygiene company with the slogan, "We reach furthest." Things don't go as planned and Max makes some impromptu stops to a few of the important people in his life. These are cruelly enlightening and intensely awkward. Max eventually finds himself falling in love with the soothing voice of the GPS system ("Emma"). Max begins to wonder if he lacks the ability to establish actual relationships.
Notes: "Originally published in Great Britain by Viking Penguin Books Ltd., London, in 2010"--T.p. verso.