26
Oct
2010
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
I was quite disappointed when I discovered that this book is titled The Financial Lives of the Poets (emphasis mine, obvs) rather than just The Financial Lives of Poets. So that’s my first objection.
My second objection is that I found it boring and depressing until about 200 pages in.
And then it was still depressing, but at least not so boring.
The narrator, Matthew is unemployed, and his house is about to get the ol’ foreclosure in about four days. He made a really stupid mistake a while back, quitting his newspaper job and starting a website called Poetfolio, where he gave stock advice in poetic form.
This was so unbelievable to me, I could not understand how the rest of the book could be so very very realistic, to the point of being boring.
Meanwhile his wife is (probably) cheating on him with her old high school boyfriend, whose family owns a lumber store.
Anyways, Matthew goes out for milk one night and meets some stoners, gets stoned, and gives them a ride to a party.
And man, that BC bud is good shit.
So good, that he gets a new idea, when talking to some friends the next day. He’s going to liquidate any assets he has and become a dealer. To his middle class friends.
And still, this is all boring. Matthew (or Jess Walter, the writer) often starts chapters off with Matthew’s poems. And they’re really really really terrible. I started skipping over all of them except the haikus.
But then the local cops catch his scent, and for some reason, it was suddenly interesting to me. I actually really liked Matthew’s reactions at that point.
And, ok, I did like the stoners. I thought that they were funny.
Perhaps it’s because I have begun watching Weeds, and that show can be over the top (marrying a DEA agent? getting pregnant by a Mexican drug lord at 42?) that I found this boring. They are the same premise after all–middle class parent deals drugs to maintain lifestyle.
But that’s probably just coincidence. It’s a hot subject right now, you know. Case in point, I have another ARC on my shelf right now called Stash.
Yo FTC! I received a copy of this book from the publisher in conjunction with the TLC book tour. For more information, please visit TLC’s The Financial Lives of the Poets page.
Buy The Financial Lives of the Poets on Amazon
If you like this book/author, you might like:
(my reviews in blue)
Stash by David Matthew Klein
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes by Terry Southern
Chief Blackbear by Matt Kilrain
Twelve by Nick McDonell
Budding Prospects by TC Boyle
The November Criminals by Sam Munson
King Suckerman by George Pelacanos
Wonderboys by Michael Chabon
Other works by Jess Walter
The Zero
Land of the Blind
Citizen Vince
Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family
Over Tumbled Graves
I’m with you … I can’t imagine for the life of me how the idea of financial advice in poetry form would be a good idea. In fact, it sounds like something cooked up while using drugs. A very kind blogger said she would send me her copy so I can check this out. I hope I don’t find it as a boring as you did!
I think I liked it a bit more than you did, but I was still rather disappointed with it due to some personal pet peeves (primarily with believability).
Don’t you hate when awesome television shows ruin a reading experience? I can’t read crime after watching The Wire. Not that I could ever read crime, and not that you can really compare crime fic to The Wire.
But you get my point (I hope).
Wow. This whole time I too have managed not to see the “the” in front of poets.
I have to review this book soon. It’s been sitting on my TBR shelf for a while.