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A review by tasmanian_bibliophile
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
2.0
‘Don’t look back, just keep moving forward.’
A few years before the novel opens, Matthew Prior quit his day job as a financial reporter in order to set up a web site offering financial advice in verse. Alas, poetfolio.com was not a success and returning to the newspaper business wasn’t an option either. The economy has tanked, and here’s middle-aged Matt with no job, no real job prospects and about to lose the family home.
Yes, the American dream has turned into a nightmare for Matt, and he doesn’t just have financial problems. He shares his home with his senile father, his wife Lisa who has a failed entrepreneurial venture of her own, and might be having an affair, and their two sons.
This novel is the story of Matt’s quest to save his marriage, his dreams and possibly his sanity. A trip to the local 7-eleven to buy milk gives Matt a brainstorm which rapidly turns into a headache. Fiscal panic can lead to some poor life choices.
On one level, as a satire of middle-class aspirational living, this novel is funny. On another level, it was irritating: I found that I didn’t care for Matt Prior for most of the novel and found it hard to accept that he could compound poor decision-making with even worse decision-making. However, I think that the story works because so many of us can relate to at least part of the world Matt Prior inhabits.
‘The edge is so close to where we live.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
A few years before the novel opens, Matthew Prior quit his day job as a financial reporter in order to set up a web site offering financial advice in verse. Alas, poetfolio.com was not a success and returning to the newspaper business wasn’t an option either. The economy has tanked, and here’s middle-aged Matt with no job, no real job prospects and about to lose the family home.
Yes, the American dream has turned into a nightmare for Matt, and he doesn’t just have financial problems. He shares his home with his senile father, his wife Lisa who has a failed entrepreneurial venture of her own, and might be having an affair, and their two sons.
This novel is the story of Matt’s quest to save his marriage, his dreams and possibly his sanity. A trip to the local 7-eleven to buy milk gives Matt a brainstorm which rapidly turns into a headache. Fiscal panic can lead to some poor life choices.
On one level, as a satire of middle-class aspirational living, this novel is funny. On another level, it was irritating: I found that I didn’t care for Matt Prior for most of the novel and found it hard to accept that he could compound poor decision-making with even worse decision-making. However, I think that the story works because so many of us can relate to at least part of the world Matt Prior inhabits.
‘The edge is so close to where we live.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith