A multilayered and consistently engaging rags-to-riches story.
In Fisher and Orey’s historical novel, a successful entrepreneur sees his professional and personal life torn apart.
As the story opens in 1974, readers meet Scott Newman, a high roller with a posh Fifth Avenue office and an enormous bank account. As he looks out on his world, he considers it to be heaven on Earth, and a far cry from his former, blue-collar life. He remembers how his father, a low-paid route salesman for a local bread company worked himself into an early grave; Scott decides early on that he doesn’t want a life like that for himself. Instead, he eventually builds a light bulb telemarketing company, Argon Industries, into a powerhouse that makes him very wealthy. Then, one day, FBI agents burst into his trading rooms, accusing him and his partner, Doug Kaufman, of criminal activity. As the raid and its aftermath unfold, the narrative follows Scott’s memories of founding the company with Doug and meeting a wide array of challenges, from building their business expertise to dealing with thuggish extortionists. This flashback narrative spans decades, and when it loops back to the present, readers find Scott fuming with rage over his heavy-handed treatment at the hands of the FBI—and this stress lands him in the hospital. His challenge is to find a way to survive his setbacks and return to success, but the obstacles seem insurmountable as the government closes in.
Fisher and Orey’s novel opens with a rather familiar setup, but the book’s extensive flashbacks, detailing Scott and Doug’s past, will grab readers’ interest. The stories of their rise to corporate dominance are told with considerable slang and energy and get across the forward momentum of two guys trying to scratch and hustle their way to financial success: “Today it’s only a crazy dream,” Scott says about possibly opening a jewelry store, “but tomorrow I’ll begin working to make this reality.” The supporting characters in Scott’s life are as well fleshed out as the rest of his backstory; the present-day storyline, though, features by-the-numbers portrayals of federal agents, which the authors see fit to portray as almost uniformly snide, sneering, and whip-cracking—the type of antagonists who can be relied upon to say,Godfather-style, “this isn’t personal.” Fisher and Orey compensate by developing the chemistry between Scott and Doug, which is compelling at every stage of their association. The authors smartly anchor the book’s final act in the present rather than the past, bringing the action to a climax with some dramatic courtroom scenes in which Scott must fight for his life against charges of fraud and money laundering—even after it seems as if he’s been betrayed by his nearest and dearest. The work would have benefited from a stronger copy edit, and some elements of the story itself might raise eyebrows among less ardent capitalists—Scott may be charismatic, but no reader would want to do business with him. Ultimately, though, the novel’s sheer narrative energy carries the day.
A multilayered and consistently engaging rags-to-riches story.Pub Date: June 24, 2021
ISBN: 979-8524589842
Page Count: 394
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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