Author RJ McCarthy
The Matchmaker
The Matchmaker: A Fairy Tale for a Technological Age
In a modern reimagining of the timeless enchantment of love, The Matchmaker: A Fairy Tale for a Technological Age, the matchmaker is Drexel, a drone equipped not only with sensors and cameras, but an artificial intelligence (AI) unit as well. Through an accelerating AI learning curve, Drexel senses emotional profile similarities between two lonely adults, Drexel’s inventor, Tony Tiernan, an Irish-American IT engineer, and Efi Itaki, a Greek-American accountant.
At forty, Efi’s independence is constantly tested by the cloying pull of her judgmental parents to their family restaurant. An early divorce left her chary of commitment despite the loneliness she lives with. Her friendship with Eleni Xidos, cynical toward men, hardly helps matters. The fiftyish Tiernan’s existence is framed by his exploratory work with drones. Yet for all the satisfaction he derives from his creative outlet, the lack of meaningful female companionship leaves a hole in his life.
The catalyst in their struggles to find and trust in loving companionship is Drexel. It’s the drone that strives to see them through the tests life throws at them, none more than the challenge posed by a modern ogre, the neighborhood bully, Rollie Dineen, who attempts to destroy Drexel. In the end, will the couple, particularly Efi with her trust issues, be able to weather the inevitable tests or will they succumb to the idea the effort is not worth the risk?