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A review by lyonnishizawa
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
2.0
I will forever remember July 2022 as the month I have been the most financially vulnerable out of my 21 years so far. I had my wallet stolen last month, and until about two weeks ago I had a grand total of 20 cents in my collective bank accounts. I was living off of emergency cash in a ziploc bag I gladly spotted in my well-traveled suitcase.
As a few reviews mention, this book hits too close to home to be funny. Job insecurity and quarter/mid-life crises are so widely talked about in fiction and elsewhere that you need to make a terrific spin out of it to still be interesting. I loved Beautiful Ruins, so I’m disappointed that Jess Walter didn’t vibe with me on this front.
In the afterword he mentions he got the seed of this novel from one of his readers confusing 7/11 for 9/11. I mean, that’s funny and everything, but it seemed like Walter made a big deal out of the Seven Eleven joke and made it his book’s entire personality. Seven Eleven is not nearly as funny or original for a book to revolve solely around it (and the junkies that huddle about it) and expect to have a great audience.
With that said, he had a few nice words to say. How the livelihoods of families are so heavily defined by their economic situations, but their dignity need not be. How close we are from the edge — but how the “edge” isn’t as unspeakable as it seems, and how you always have a chance to haul yourself up the ladder. It’s distinctly American, and I both appreciated and hated that.
As a few reviews mention, this book hits too close to home to be funny. Job insecurity and quarter/mid-life crises are so widely talked about in fiction and elsewhere that you need to make a terrific spin out of it to still be interesting. I loved Beautiful Ruins, so I’m disappointed that Jess Walter didn’t vibe with me on this front.
In the afterword he mentions he got the seed of this novel from one of his readers confusing 7/11 for 9/11. I mean, that’s funny and everything, but it seemed like Walter made a big deal out of the Seven Eleven joke and made it his book’s entire personality. Seven Eleven is not nearly as funny or original for a book to revolve solely around it (and the junkies that huddle about it) and expect to have a great audience.
With that said, he had a few nice words to say. How the livelihoods of families are so heavily defined by their economic situations, but their dignity need not be. How close we are from the edge — but how the “edge” isn’t as unspeakable as it seems, and how you always have a chance to haul yourself up the ladder. It’s distinctly American, and I both appreciated and hated that.