From the visionary author of Light Boxes, a mind-bending office
comedy, and a touching modern love story set against the backdrop of an
ever-increasingly disorienting America. Being home all the time is
depressing, so I tell my boss "I'm ready for anything" in the strongest
conference call voice in the world while driving my hand into a
family-sized bag of tortilla chips. Without a future, no Alice, I'm
ready for an adventure. Meet Vincent. After his divorce from Alice he's
lost his way, and is mindlessly working for the State, counting down the
days till retirement. When his boss tells him to participate in a
program that promises not only to increase productivity, but show him
his "ideal life" he thinks: what's the harm? Others have seen new marked
improvements in productivity and personal happiness. Willing to try
anything to move away from the heartbreak of Alice, Vincent reluctantly
complies. But what the program shows him, is that his ideal life is
simply Alice. She's back. Is she real? A clone? A hologram? Despite the
lingering questions, Vincent eases back into love and begins to live his
life again with Alice, that is, until the real Alice returns. A novel
about work, love, and how to live in the present moment, Vincent and
Alice and Alice flings us through a shockingly funny and tender-hearted
world just a few degrees different from our own, one that introduces us
to a wild cast of characters, including the enigmatic CEO of PER, Dorian
Blood, a mysterious under-cover cop, and the acid-tongued Elderly, a man
living in his car who may be the only one who understands how to live in
reality.
