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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
I feel like I went through a whole host of emotions while reading this book. I was angry at Julia and ready to blame her for the demise of her and Evan's relationship. But then I would read more about how Evan was neglecting her and I would feel terribly for her. I would get angry at Evan for spending all of his spare time with his coworkers and being self involved thinking he caused the breakup. But then I read about his job and the overwhelming sense of dread I had knowing he was being used by his boss and felt horrible for him.
All of this is to say that in the end both of them made mistakes and were at fault for how their relationship turned out. They acted like humans. More so, they acted like humans who had recently graduated from college and were trying to figure their lives out. Figuring your life out is hard no matter what but it makes things a whole lot harder when you or others place expectations on how your life should be. Julia and Evan felt the effects of that in the worst possible way and definitely did not handle anything appropriately. But again, they are young and figuring it all out and that is ok.
As an aside, it was interesting to read a book that focused on two young adults learning how to navigate adulthood in 2008 as I too graduated from college that year and had horrible job options thanks to the financial crisis. I definitely empathized with that feeling of "is this really what being an adult is like" and "holy crap what do I do now?!?!"
All of this is to say that in the end both of them made mistakes and were at fault for how their relationship turned out. They acted like humans. More so, they acted like humans who had recently graduated from college and were trying to figure their lives out. Figuring your life out is hard no matter what but it makes things a whole lot harder when you or others place expectations on how your life should be. Julia and Evan felt the effects of that in the worst possible way and definitely did not handle anything appropriately. But again, they are young and figuring it all out and that is ok.
As an aside, it was interesting to read a book that focused on two young adults learning how to navigate adulthood in 2008 as I too graduated from college that year and had horrible job options thanks to the financial crisis. I definitely empathized with that feeling of "is this really what being an adult is like" and "holy crap what do I do now?!?!"
Thank You to Little Brown and Company for providing me with an advanced copy of Anna Pitoniak's novel, The Futures, in exchange for an honest review.
PLOT- Set during the financial crash of 2008, Anna Pitoniak's novel, The Futures, follows the lives of recent Yale graduates, Julia and Evan, as they move to New York City, and begin their careers. Evan is a sweet and honest man from a small town in Canada. After attending Yale University on a ice hockey scholarship, he is aggressively pursued, and offered a "too good to be true" job at a hedge fund. Although the situation seems far outside of his skill set, he gets swept away by the high income and perks, also seeing the job as a way of staying in the United States and being with Julia. Julia, comes from a wealthy family, who supports her as she flounders on her way to figuring out a post-university career. Can Julia and Evan's relationship survive outside of the protected walls of an Ivy League University? How will the financial crash shape their futures, both as individuals and as a couple?
LIKE - The Futures is timely, with the repercussions of the financial crash still affecting us today, and it was certainly an event that shaped the futures of those who graduated from college around 2008. Setting the book during this time added another level to the story, it made me wonder how much the timing factored into Julia and Evan's struggles? Would they really have fared better if they had been born five or ten years earlier? Are their problems unique to 2008-ish, or are their problems the same ones that many new college graduates face, regardless the decade? I suspect it's more the latter. I'm in my late thirties, and although I can't say I escaped 2008 unscathed, I certainly wasn't affected in the same way as Julia and Evan's generation, however I found their general problems to be completely relatable. This idea of generation vs. stage of life, kept me engaged in the story.
Pitoniak's framing of The Futures, reminded me of Jason Robert Brown's musical, The Last Five Years. The Futures doesn't go backwards/forwards in time like, The Last Five Years ( which is brilliant), but it does have a similarity with the way we see the two perspectives of Julia and Evan, as equal protagonists. Also similar, is how we see the same situation, like what happened at a party, from both perspectives in alternating chapters. Neither Evan or Julia are unreliable narrators, however as a reader, it's easy to jump on the side of the point of view that you read first. I liked how Pitoniak shook that up, allowing the reader to see the same situation from both sides. Most similar to, The Last Five Years, was the sad and reflective tone, as we see a relationship between two people with good intentions, head on a collision course.
DISLIKE - I felt an emotional distance in many of the scenes, more like I was being told how the characters felt, rather than experiencing their emotions. All of the elements of the story added up; solid protagonists, clear conflict, engaging plot, et...Pitoniak's writing was also very strong, except for emotions, it was like a wall was up and I wasn't getting a full experience.
RECOMMEND- Maybe. I'm not sure that I would recommend The Futures to many of my friends, however, I'd recommend it to their younger sisters, or to someone in their late teens/early twenties. I think it would be of interest to anyone who graduated college around the time of the financial crash. In general, I felt that The Futures was a story that skewed to a younger audience.
Like my review? Check out my blog!
PLOT- Set during the financial crash of 2008, Anna Pitoniak's novel, The Futures, follows the lives of recent Yale graduates, Julia and Evan, as they move to New York City, and begin their careers. Evan is a sweet and honest man from a small town in Canada. After attending Yale University on a ice hockey scholarship, he is aggressively pursued, and offered a "too good to be true" job at a hedge fund. Although the situation seems far outside of his skill set, he gets swept away by the high income and perks, also seeing the job as a way of staying in the United States and being with Julia. Julia, comes from a wealthy family, who supports her as she flounders on her way to figuring out a post-university career. Can Julia and Evan's relationship survive outside of the protected walls of an Ivy League University? How will the financial crash shape their futures, both as individuals and as a couple?
LIKE - The Futures is timely, with the repercussions of the financial crash still affecting us today, and it was certainly an event that shaped the futures of those who graduated from college around 2008. Setting the book during this time added another level to the story, it made me wonder how much the timing factored into Julia and Evan's struggles? Would they really have fared better if they had been born five or ten years earlier? Are their problems unique to 2008-ish, or are their problems the same ones that many new college graduates face, regardless the decade? I suspect it's more the latter. I'm in my late thirties, and although I can't say I escaped 2008 unscathed, I certainly wasn't affected in the same way as Julia and Evan's generation, however I found their general problems to be completely relatable. This idea of generation vs. stage of life, kept me engaged in the story.
Pitoniak's framing of The Futures, reminded me of Jason Robert Brown's musical, The Last Five Years. The Futures doesn't go backwards/forwards in time like, The Last Five Years ( which is brilliant), but it does have a similarity with the way we see the two perspectives of Julia and Evan, as equal protagonists. Also similar, is how we see the same situation, like what happened at a party, from both perspectives in alternating chapters. Neither Evan or Julia are unreliable narrators, however as a reader, it's easy to jump on the side of the point of view that you read first. I liked how Pitoniak shook that up, allowing the reader to see the same situation from both sides. Most similar to, The Last Five Years, was the sad and reflective tone, as we see a relationship between two people with good intentions, head on a collision course.
DISLIKE - I felt an emotional distance in many of the scenes, more like I was being told how the characters felt, rather than experiencing their emotions. All of the elements of the story added up; solid protagonists, clear conflict, engaging plot, et...Pitoniak's writing was also very strong, except for emotions, it was like a wall was up and I wasn't getting a full experience.
RECOMMEND- Maybe. I'm not sure that I would recommend The Futures to many of my friends, however, I'd recommend it to their younger sisters, or to someone in their late teens/early twenties. I think it would be of interest to anyone who graduated college around the time of the financial crash. In general, I felt that The Futures was a story that skewed to a younger audience.
Like my review? Check out my blog!
Parts of this book were so relatable, especially the panic of sudden adulthood and feeling like everyone else has everything figured out except for you. However both Evan and Julia really started grating on my nerves with her entitlement and woe is me BS and his tunnel vision and ignorance. The speed of the story and the writing was good, but you don't feel at all bad for either characters when it all falls apart.
High level plot points:
*Evan starts basically living at work and ignoring Julia while working on his company's big secret deal with his boss.
*Julia finally gets a job at a foundation started by a very wealthy husband and wife who are friends of her family. She makes a frenemy at the office and it turns out the frenemy is having an affair with husband.
*Julia starts having an affair with an old classmate who is not a reporter while Evan and her relationship starts to fall apart because of his apathy and her general misery of not knowing what to do with her life.
*Evan learns that the huge deal he's been working on is super illegal and it turns out he might be the scapegoat for his boss who was not just being a kindly mentor.
*Evan tells Julia everything and she tells him to handle it. And in a spectacularly asshole move drunkenly and emotionally spews everything to her financial reporter fuck buddy behind Evan's back because she's a mess who also got fired from her assistant job. (I can't remember his name, just that he's the worst)
*The Worst (seriously, can't remember his name so that's he'll be called now) of course writes up a scathing expose that hits the newspapers and stops answering any of Julia's calls or texts.
*Also turns out that The Worst had sexually assaulted Julia back when they were in college so this betrayal is just big grainy salt on that wound that she buried and pretended wasn't festering.
*Evan figures out that the front page news is all thanks to Julia and they break up. She moves back home and learns that she was fired not because of budgetary issues, but because her boss thought she was the one having he affair with the foundation founder! It's fine, the frenemy gets fired too, basically anyone that was ever an assistant slept with him and when the wife found out she cleaned house.
*Evan also loses his job because no one can trust him and he can never work on a deal at that company again without fear of the FCC so he gets a huge severance package and goes back to his first love of hockey at a camp.
*Julia eventually comes back to NYC after months of hiding out at her parents and doing nothing, but wallow.
*She gets her shit together and she goes to see him and they get back together for round 2.
*The End*
High level plot points:
*Evan starts basically living at work and ignoring Julia while working on his company's big secret deal with his boss.
*Julia finally gets a job at a foundation started by a very wealthy husband and wife who are friends of her family. She makes a frenemy at the office and it turns out the frenemy is having an affair with husband.
*Julia starts having an affair with an old classmate who is not a reporter while Evan and her relationship starts to fall apart because of his apathy and her general misery of not knowing what to do with her life.
*Evan learns that the huge deal he's been working on is super illegal and it turns out he might be the scapegoat for his boss who was not just being a kindly mentor.
*Evan tells Julia everything and she tells him to handle it. And in a spectacularly asshole move drunkenly and emotionally spews everything to her financial reporter fuck buddy behind Evan's back because she's a mess who also got fired from her assistant job. (I can't remember his name, just that he's the worst)
*The Worst (seriously, can't remember his name so that's he'll be called now) of course writes up a scathing expose that hits the newspapers and stops answering any of Julia's calls or texts.
*Also turns out that The Worst had sexually assaulted Julia back when they were in college so this betrayal is just big grainy salt on that wound that she buried and pretended wasn't festering.
*Evan figures out that the front page news is all thanks to Julia and they break up. She moves back home and learns that she was fired not because of budgetary issues, but because her boss thought she was the one having he affair with the foundation founder! It's fine, the frenemy gets fired too, basically anyone that was ever an assistant slept with him and when the wife found out she cleaned house.
*Evan also loses his job because no one can trust him and he can never work on a deal at that company again without fear of the FCC so he gets a huge severance package and goes back to his first love of hockey at a camp.
*Julia eventually comes back to NYC after months of hiding out at her parents and doing nothing, but wallow.
*She gets her shit together and she goes to see him and they get back together for round 2.
*The End*
A story of two people in a relationship right after college as the economy collapsed a few years ago and the struggles with finding themselves and each other in that awkward time when you're an adult but don't quite know what to do as one. A little too many #firstworldproblems and #richwhitepeopleproblems but I liked the alternative perspectives and drastically different takes on the same situations and experiences (like the first season of The Affair).
2.5 stars, rounded down.
I debated between two or three stars, but since there were a few points during the book where I just wanted to put it down, I decided on two. I read Necessary People first and really liked it, so I wanted to see what else this author had written. Necessary People was much better than this.
I followed the story of Julia and Evan, but couldn't bring myself to like either one of them. They both are privileged, have no concerns about money or going out in New York City all the time. They make selfish decisions in the name of "finding themselves." Eh, I get it, but it's hard to like it.
I'm sure plenty of people can relate and I'm sure this story isn't a new one, but it just didn't resonate with me.
I debated between two or three stars, but since there were a few points during the book where I just wanted to put it down, I decided on two. I read Necessary People first and really liked it, so I wanted to see what else this author had written. Necessary People was much better than this.
I followed the story of Julia and Evan, but couldn't bring myself to like either one of them. They both are privileged, have no concerns about money or going out in New York City all the time. They make selfish decisions in the name of "finding themselves." Eh, I get it, but it's hard to like it.
I'm sure plenty of people can relate and I'm sure this story isn't a new one, but it just didn't resonate with me.
Diverse cast of characters:
No
So, so, so bad. As in, I feel bad putting it in the Goodwill bin because someone is going to pay $1 for this book and it will be money wasted.
Evan and Julia are college sweethearts who decide to take the next step and begin post-college life together in NYC. But while Evan is on a clear path in the world of finance, Julia is a bit more untethered. She finally gets a job as an assistant at a foundation owned by her parents’ friends, but only as a way to pay the bills. The Futures is Anna Pitoniak’s take on the highs and lows of coming-of-age in the contemporary world.
The rest of this review can be read at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2017/01/the-futures-a-novel/
The rest of this review can be read at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2017/01/the-futures-a-novel/
Here's what I really, really appreciated about this book: after we get through the Evan-has-a-high-paying-job origin story, this stops being a book that substitutes brand names for characterization, and I appreciate that.
I also appreciate that we're allowed and expected to think that Evan and Julia are both kind of awful. Thanks for that, book.
I also appreciate that we're allowed and expected to think that Evan and Julia are both kind of awful. Thanks for that, book.
this was painful to read, felt like a chore to get through and I didn’t care about any of the characters. It was obviously trying to tell a deep meaningful story about a young couple figuring out their lives after college but it didn’t strike the right note, the author missed it. it fell flat.