Sideways Glance

The lies we tell ourselves become the habits that govern our lives.

As this novel's computer technician narrator moves through his day-from clients' homes to the airport, from his psychologist's office to a dinner party, from a noisy bar to watching a meteor shower on the beach-the reader is right there alongside him, eavesdropping on an inner rambling that never allows for a moment of peace.

Listening to his everyday gripes and learning of his ambivalence toward the people in his life, readers see that his witty ongoing commentary is only an attempt to silence a barrage of unpleasant memories, of open wounds that he attempts to both ignore and understand, obsessively ruminating over failed dates, sabotaged love affairs, and the ghost of a long-term relationship that refuses to go away.

The narrator is ceaselessly torn between what's expected of him (as a man of a certain age in a hyperactive society) and what he really wants for himself. Between maintaining healthy relationships and becoming a hypocrite. Between pretending that life is easy and accepting that he is only human.

As entertaining as it is honest, Sideways Glance is a verbal rollercoaster ride that ultimately asks the question: Is fooling ourselves really as guilt-free as we make it out to be?