A review by _pickle_
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

4.0

A funny, easy read. It's funny how books we read often have unintended thematic links. There are clear paralllels between this book and Tremain's The Road Home which I finished the other day. Both involve men doing their best to survive, trying to make a better world for themselves and their families. Both are flawed, both make awful decisions, but both are human.

I didn't think I'd like Walter's modern winking prose, but it grew on me. It was often quite funny, although I admit to skipping the longer poems. It's a book of it's era, of lost financial hopes and dreams, but I think it has qualities that will allow to to remain enjoyable years later.

But the title, oh the title. It stinks.