PATHWAY TO GLORY

In Schiavoni’s novel, a discontented New York City businessman becomes fixated on achieving financial independence quickly, which leads to his ruin.

In 1967,as Paul Stevens approaches 40 years of age, he’s disappointed with his lack of professional success, and he frets about adequately providing for his wife, Elaine, and two children. His career as an assistant corporate controller at Universal Glass Products has stalled, and he can see no path forward to advancement. Then serendipity strikes: He suddenly inherits $36,000 from a deceased aunt, and he foolishly decides to bet most of it on a stock tip he overhears while commuting to work. Schiavoni conveys his protagonist’s imprudent exuberance to his wife: “Honey, don’t give it a second thought if it’s money you’re worried about. We’re going to have a pot full of it!” Paul also receives a big promotion to vice president of finance, but he squanders the opportunity by concocting a convoluted and deeply implausible plot to execute a hostile takeover of his own company—one that involves employing a Mafia-connected safecracker. Schiavoni, to his considerable credit, intelligently portrays the exasperations of both middle-class life and the corporate world. But the slowness of the plot isn’t helped by the bland prose, which delivers a very heavy-handed message on the evils of greed. In fact, Paul eventually even encounters a priest who neatly summarizes the moral of this sententious parable, in part by noting, “It’s ironic that we tend to lose sight of our destiny at the very times we succeed in gaining our pleasure-seeking goals.” It is, of course, exceedingly difficult to write a novel with a message, as it has a tendency to consume the story; unfortunately, this is precisely what happens here.

An earnest but unremarkable drama hampered by blunt moralizing.