A fun novel of the near future, in which America slips into hyperinflation and then economic collapse. It was written with real joyful sizzle of wide-eyed surprise and horror, with a strong vibe of this-could-never-happen, which is quite fun for a Zimbabwean, to whom it has already happened.
I have not Wikipedia-ed the author (who I know from the wonderful WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN) because I am a little worried about how much time she spends on Twitter reading about questionable topics like Replacement Theory (snore). That said, there were lots of fun parts of this book. I really enjoyed imagining a world in which the young work low-level jobs (the rest taken by robots) and pay 90% tax so the old can live lives of luxury. That feels uncomfortable close to likely to me.
There is lots of juicy writing here. Try this couple, who are well-off but love to bargain hunt:
Which is how they ended up in a pretty drab apartment in Florida: it was a steal. Caught up in money-as-a-game, they mistook their raffle tickets for the prize. Because the only thing that bargain hunting ‘won’ was more money.
Or this, about looking after grandparents:
After all, old people have a horrible habit of kicking it right after you ducked seeing them at the last minute with an excuse that sounded fishy, or on the heels of a regrettable encounter in which you let slip an acrid aside. To be dutiful without fail is like taking out emotional insurance.
Or this, about someone regretting her choices before the collapse:
But assumptions about her angelic nature were off-base. After she’d scraped from one poorly paid, often part-time position to another, whatever wide-eyed altruism had motivated her moronic double major in American Studies and Environmental Policy at Barnard had been beaten out of her almost entirely.
I love that phrase – ‘moronic double major.’ This book is full of the author proving to us how wrong we all are and how stupid. I really enjoyed picturing her banging away at her keyboard. Every page absolutely pulses with the rage of the well-fed. It made me LOL.