PRIVILEGED ELITES

by James Driscoll ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

In Driscoll’s novel, when an academic with close ties to an extravagantly wealthy dowager goes missing, his brother immerses himself in her opulent world to find him.

After a chance meeting, Vincent Kindel, a graduate student in English literature at Berkeley University, bonds with billionaire Alicia Comstock over their idealistic defense of endangered whales. She takes him under her wing and introduces him to the lavish lifestyle to which she has always been accustomed, becoming his mentor and benefactress. Vince is an openly gay man, so their relationship is mercifully unburdened of sexual tension or jealously. They join forces advocating for various causes together, including the abolition of academic tenure and fashionable postmodernism, described as a “ragbag of ideational gimmicks and bureaucratic widgets contrived to ease the academic left’s seizure of power” in the turgid overwriting unfortunately characteristic of this comedy of manners. Suddenly, Vince vanishes without a trace. Alicia is convinced he’s been kidnapped as a consequence of their partnership, so she alerts the FBI, hires private investigators, and solicits the help of Vince’s brother, Justin, an assistant professor of astrophysics at MIT. Justin soon discovers that the list of plausible suspects is quite long: It includes Edmund McBurn, the executive director of Alicia’s foundation, with whom her relations have soured; Wally Ridner, Vince’s flighty lover; and F. Narte Bickle, a renowned Chaucer scholar on Vince’s dissertation committee who loathes the missing man’s allegiance with the “plutocratic elite.” While looking for his brother, Justin begins a romance with Amelie Deschamps, Alicia’s grandniece and a Jung scholar, who speaks in highfalutin cliches (“I’m adrift, my perplexed soul seeking a safe harbor to anchor in.”)  

The author describes his own work as a “romantic-tragic-comic-satiric-epic in five acts,” a classification as untidy as it is impossible and indicative of the novel’s great ambition and lack of literary discipline. Driscoll is at his best composing lightsome comedy, using an approach that is intellectually thoughtful but refrains from taking itself too seriously. His aim, as the novel’s title suggests, is to skewer the upper class, those privileged with affluence or cultural standing. However, the author’s social commentary offers nothing new; in fact, his critique amounts to little more than a rehash of shopworn cliches and stereotypes. Moreover, the writing is as overheated as it is clumsy— here is a description of one English professor: “Famous for his flowery forwards larded with fawning flattery of any and every rising trend in literary criticism, his career had blazoned more diverse causes than his Biblical namesake’s coat had colors.” Some overripe passages can read as leaden and sloppy—consider Justin’s reaction to the opulence of Alicia’s home in San Francisco: “Like Ali Baba in the cave of forty thieves, Justin gasped [sic] amazement.” For all of Driscoll’s evident intelligence, the purple prose becomes a considerable obstacle to the reader’s enjoyment and patience. There are so many classic novels exposing the vanity of the socially and intellectually elite—readers should explore those before plunging into this inferior offering in the genre.

An overwritten and unoriginal sendup of the upper classes.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2024

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION