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A review by oedipa_maas
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
2.0
It's difficult, but not impossible, to write a first-person narrative wherein the protagonist is a total piece of shit and still have your readers sorta kinda (or maybe really) root for him/her.
This is not one of those books. It does not get the worst rating because there were several parts where I actually laughed out loud, but those times were the only saving graces of the whole thing. Not a single well-rounded female character (and all of them are immediately physically commented on but yet to no real effect on the narrative), the plot had a good premise but then fell on its face in the last fifth, the ending was garbage, and I don't think the main character changed at all.
I liked The Zero and may give Walter another chance sometime down the line, but not anytime soon.
This is not one of those books. It does not get the worst rating because there were several parts where I actually laughed out loud, but those times were the only saving graces of the whole thing. Not a single well-rounded female character (and all of them are immediately physically commented on but yet to no real effect on the narrative), the plot had a good premise but then fell on its face in the last fifth, the ending was garbage, and I don't think the main character changed at all.
I liked The Zero and may give Walter another chance sometime down the line, but not anytime soon.