Why Liv? Synopsis Livingstone Mordicai Ackerman—Liv, to his friends—leads an enviable life. The twenty-something works a corporate job in Manhattan, has doctor-in-training girlfriend, and maintains a wide social circle. He personifies success. Yet all is not as it seems. Liv’s job is a tedious, soul-gutting slog replete with toxic office politics and his girlfriend a vacuous, image-conscious snob. His pathologically narcissistic parents, meanwhile, are constant irritants. Add to this a febrile political climate dominated by a reactionary group, the Patriot Posse. Its angry members, menaced by humiliation, real and imagined, converge on major cities coast-to-coast, including New York. More ominous still, their leader, a mendacious radio personality with outlandish hair and catchy campaign slogan to “Make America Great Again,” is a presidential candidate—and he’s winning! How does one maintain a sense of dignity and worth in such a cynical environment devoid of humanity and hope? One cannot, which is why Liv, overwhelmed by the falseness and vacuity of the zeitgeist, quits his job, dumps his girlfriend, and heads for Spain, where he hopes to answer the existential question from which the novel gets its title. Nearly 70 years ago, JD Salinger’s Cather in the Rye captured the ennui and angst of a post-war generation. Like Holden Caulfield, Liv craves authenticity in a phony age. Like his literary predecessor, he is searching for meaning in a sea of cynicism. And he finds it in Why Liv?, an updated Catcher for the 21st century, in the most unlikely of places. The book’s structure contains two parts. The first, “Dusk,” takes place in New York’s rarified circles of society’s so-called winners. Yet it is a spiritually hollow place. And it is always overcast and rainy. The second, “Dawn,” is set in majestic Barcelona. The language spoken in this new setting oftentimes is inscrutable to Liv and the local culture, though attractive, is alien. Yet it is sunny and alluring—and redemptive. Told with humor, charm, and wit, Why Liv? attempts to explain why modern work is so devoid of purpose and why reactionary politics is so alluring in America. But most of all, it humbly attempts to offer a reason to persevere in these difficult times.