Redhead by the Side of the Road

What a quick and quirky novel! I enjoyed every chapter. I loved the main character Micah Mortimer, aka the Tech Hermit. Maybe it's because I've worked in high tech and I've known guys, lots of guys, like Micah. The introverted, too smart, too organized geeks who really are good at their jobs, but barely fit into society.

Why can't the world be well-ordered? Why can't girlfriends tell you exactly what they want? Or maybe that's Micah problem. He's given up on being himself and is waiting for someone else to tell him who he should be.

Each of his computer-illiterate customers has a unique story that they can't wait to tell him. He's so polite and so often mistaken for interested. Instead he tries to tell his customers what he thinks they want to hear. Does the dating service-addicted lady know that she's probably making the same mistake over and over? Does his cancer-ridden tenant know she's never getting well? Micah's overly honest when it comes to writing invoices for his clients, not wanting to charge them for what he couldn't do for them. But they usually pay him gladly, when their computers “act up.”

Of course, Micah, just turning 40, in one day is faced with two crises. His girlfriend is being evicted and needs a place to stay while his old college sweetheart's son looks him up to ask if Micah is his father. Micah manages to blunder through both situations in an endearing way, just trying to be perfectly what everyone else wants.

Yes, there's a tiny epiphany at the end for Micah, but really, it's his day-to-day life that's fascinating with his exchanges with the God of Traffic, the dreams Micah has but doesn't understand, and the fireplug on the corner that he mistakes every day for a child.

I wish Micah lived near me.