"My dreams tend to be either so obscure as to seem random, or so obviously connected to my unconsciousness that it's embarrassing - as if even my hidden depths lack depth"

***

"So you're like a businessman and a writer?"
"I covered business for the newspaper for eighteen years"
"And you write what, poems and shit?"
"… mostly shit…."

***

"The financial lives of the poet" is a wonderful book that covers so many different aspects of modern family life and the pressure put by society nowadays, that every person will recognise at least one part of it. All at once funny, sad, worrying, painfully familiar, hilarious and completely mad; this book is about love and jealousy, about money and professional dreams, about family life and taking care of ones parents, about drugs and crime, about right and wrong and about so much more.

We meet protagonist Matt, a journalist covering business news, once happily married to Lisa, father of two wonderful boys who are being sent to private school, owner of the dream-house in a nice neighbourhood as well as a $35.000 car, with the according debts attached, when his best days are obviously behind him. Having lost his job, he decided to start his own journalist- enterprise, "poetfolio.com" . Or as Matt puts it "I shall now quit my job and endanger my family's future to follow my youthful dream of writing stock news and tips in pedestrian, amateurish verse". Needless to say this idea was not the start of a booming business, yet of a fast growing pile of debts and missed payments, to the point where Matt and his family risk loosing their house, and the rest of their luxurious lives…

This seems to be the starting point and setting for a series of unhappy events in Matt's life: his wife Lisa is mad at him for not providing any money for her shopping sprees and to send the boys to private school and seeks comfort with her long time boyfriend from high school. Matt's dad is demented and brightens up their lives repeating the same thing over and over again. The job hunting is quite going as well as expected either.

In a desperate attempt to save his house, his family and everything he holds dear, Matt resorts to something drastic to raise money quickly; a decision that will get him into more trouble than he ever imagined.


Even though some of the story twists are kind of far fetched and way out there, this really is a good book. Lots of humour and very realistic situations and dialogues. I loved how he took revenge on Lisa's old boyfriend (something that is "not done", but everyone at least thinks about), how he takes care of his dad, etc. In between we can read some "financial poems" which are actually quite funny.

Job well done by Jess Walter!