On this blog, I try to review books the day that I finish them. Here, I want to record that gut reaction. It's what I think makes this blog different than, say, a review of a book that I'll write for American Way magazine, or do an interview with the author. But I waited 24 hours before even thinking to write about Andrew Sean Greer's The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells . I wanted to give myself some time to digest it. I even dreamt about it last night. The book opens with Greta Wells in New York City in 1985. Her brother, Felix, has recently died of AIDS. His partner is dying, too. Her boyfriend of 10 years had an affair with another woman, then left. She is in such a steep depression with nothing else working that her doctor recommends electroconvulsive therapy - what used to be called electroshock therapy. After she has her first treatment, she goes to bed and wakes up in her room in her apartment in New York City, but something is very different: the wallpaper