From Powells.com
Our favorite books of the year.
Synopses & Reviews
“When you strike a match, it burns brighter in the first nanosecond than it will ever burn again. That first incandescence. That instantaneous and brilliant flash. The year was 1980, and I was the match, and that was the year I struck into blinding flame.” New York City. The 1980s. Young men, princes all. Too much money. Too much freedom. They thought it would never end.
In The Fall of Princes, bestselling author Robert Goolrick brings to vivid life a world of excess and self-indulgence, where limousines waited for hours outside Manhattan’s newest trendy club or the latest dining hot spot. Where drugs were bountiful and not refused. Where no price was too high and flesh was always on offer. Where a quick trip to Europe or a weekend on the coast or a fabulous Hamptons beach house were just part of what was expected. When the money just kept coming, and coming, and coming... until it didn’t.
Looking back on a Wall Street career that began with great success and ended with a precipitous crash, Rooney tells the story of how he and a group of other young turks made it to the top in the financial world and then, one by one, took a fall. For some, it was tragic; for others, it was the simple but bruising act of yielding to a life of mediocrity. For Rooney, however, it became a lifelong struggle to maintain a sense of dignity and to cling to the illusion of the life he once led.
Stunning in its acute observations about great wealth and its absence, and deeply moving in its depiction of the ways in which these young men learn to cope with both extremes, The Fall of Princes takes readers on a journey that is both starkly revealing and dazzlingly entertaining, a true tour de force.
Review
“Compelling, wholly seductive...Goolrick’s stellar prose infuses this redemption story with a good deal of depth and despair, making it read like the literary version of The Wolf of Wall Street.” Booklist
Review
“Goolrick is a superb writer....He’s referred to his latest as both novel and autobiography; it carries both the artistic qualities of the former and the emotional truth of the latter....Goolrick is focused on the idea of loss and redemption, and shows the small ways by which we become human again.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“Goolrick is a superb writer....He's referred to his latest as both novel and autobiography; it carries both the artistic qualities of the former and the emotional truth of the latter...ranging from the tragicomic beats of Jay McInerney or Bret Easton Ellis to the repulsive behaviors in films like Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street....Goolrick is focused on the idea of loss and redemption, and shows the small ways by which we become human again.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“A heart — wrenching, beautiful, darkly comic, deeply necessary tale that stuns again and again with razor-sharp prose and glittering wit. Robert Goolrick is, without question, one of the greatest storytellers of our time.” Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife
Review
“The Fall of Princes is a dark, intoxicating morality tale of a bygone generation, a world of excess and decadence and the price paid by some — but by no means all — of those who partook in the bacchanal. Robert Goolrick deftly peels back the layers of the high life of high finance and, with his impeccable prose, focuses his unflinching eye on the grittiness beneath the sleek facade of nightclubs, fashion, and monied Manhattan extravagance. Beautifully crafted, seductive and provocative in tone, Goolrick’s novel is a powerful read: honest, true, and deeply affecting.” Garth Stein, author of A Sudden Light and The Art of Racing in the Rain
About the Author
In addition to his most recent novel, The Fall of Princes, Robert Goolrick is the author of three other books: The End of the World as We Know It, a memoir; his first novel, A Reliable Wife, with sales of more than 1 million copies; and his second novel, Heading Out to Wonderful. He lives in Virginia.