The Financial Lives of Poets

Image courtesy of Harper Perennial

The Financial Lives of Poets
Jess Walter
2009

The Summary
"A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion:  a website devoted to financial journalism in the form of blank verse.  When his big idea - and his wife's eBay resale business - ends with a whimper (and a garage full of unwanted figurines), they borrow and borrow, whistling past the graveyard of their uncertain dreams.

"One morning, Matt wakes up to find himself jobless, hobbled by debt, spying on his wife's online flirtation, and six days away from losing his home.  Is this really how things were supposed to end up for me, he wonders:  staying up all night worried, driving to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night to get milk for his boys, and fall in with two local degenerates after they offer him a hit of high-grade marijuana?

"Or, he thinks, could this be the solution to all my problems?

"Following Matt in his weeklong quest to save his marriage, his sanity, and his dreams, The Financial Lives of Poets is a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach he edge of ruin - and how we can begin t make our way back."

The Good
The Financial Lives of Poets was not what I expected.  It's about poets and money and financial distress, as I expected; however, it's light-hearted and heavy by turns, combining a scathing wit and humor with astute insights into the emotional and financial lives of Americans, not just poets.

I found the novel unique, inventive, and thought-provoking if only a little perturbing.  The narrator is excellent:  concerned parent meets desperate, irreverent observer.  Matt Prior is intelligent, articulate and highly cynical, and I enjoyed reading his story, his thoughts as he made his way through life and struggles to right his financial status.

Although his story is not always satisfying, although I was not always satisfied by how things turned out, I really enjoyed reading Jess Walter's novel.  Matt Prior, for all his wild flaws, for all his problems, is truly an endearing narrator.

The Bad
I enjoyed reading The Financial Lives of Poets.  I like Matt Prior, but I found I became fed up with the narrator on more than one occasion.  Sometimes, I just wanted to reach into the book ad shake the narrator, shouting:  "Seriously?  You're going make that decision?"

Because I know it won't end well.

The Ugly
Absolute financial ruin is not a pretty sight, and it doesn't really make for a pretty story.  It makes a desperate man out of a (typically) grounded, thoughtful individual.  If you heap on paranoia about an extramarital affair and generous exposure to weed, you basically get The Financial Lives of Poets.

Let's just say I wouldn't recommend it for light afternoon reading.