Synopses & Reviews
Meet Matt Prior. He's about to lose his job, his wife, his house, maybe his mind. Unless...
In the winning and utterly original novels Citizen Vince and The Zero, Jess Walter ("a ridiculously talented writer" —New York Times) painted an America all his own: a land of real, flawed, and deeply human characters coping with the anxieties of their times. Now, in his warmest, funniest, and best novel yet, Walter offers a story as real as our own lives: a tale of overstretched accounts, misbegotten schemes, and domestic dreams deferred.
A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion: a Web site 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 with 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 falling 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 the Poets is a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach the edge of ruin — and how we can begin to make our way back.
Review
"Walter...could not be more topical in [his] depiction of a leveraged to-the-hilt culture run amok, and wiseass Matt makes for a distinctly flawed Everyman running out of chances." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"A surprisingly heartwarming portrait of a good man trying to find his way back home." Bookslist
Review
"Prior is a zany, foul-mouthed Willy Loman in search of a stimulus package, and readers looking for some humor with their layoff notices will certainly relate." Library Journal
Synopsis
From National Book Award-finalist Walter comes a hysterically funny — and painfully timely — new novel of one man's attempt to save his family from economic disaster by putting his entrepreneurial leanings toward a life of petty crime.
Synopsis
The Financial Lives of the Poets is a comic and heartfelt novel from National Book Award nominee Jess Walter, author of Citizen Vince and The Zero, about how we get to the edge of ruin—and how we begin to make our way back. Walter tells the story of Matt Prior, whos losing his job, his wife, his house, and his mind—until, all of a sudden, he discovers a way that he might just possibly be able to save it all . . . and have a pretty damn great time doing it.
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About the Author
Jess Walter not only won the prestigious Edgar Award for his novel Citizen Vince — as an acclaimed investigative reporter, he presented the compelling true story of Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family. His latest foray into fiction, The Zero, has earned him a National Book Award nomination.