I know we already talked about this when I covered BLACK BAG, but I just love BLACK BAG too much. So I went out and bought the only other book by this author, THE TRANSITION. It’s not as good as BLACK BAG, but nothing is as good as BLACK BAG, so it’s still fantastic. I also just like saying BLACK BAG.
It tells about a couple in their early thirties who are offered a chance to avoid jail if they enter an ‘education program.’ Their crime was to get into some credit card debt, and the program involves them living with some boomers who are going to teach them how to be responsible adults. As if what makes young people get into debt is a lack of personal responsibility; as if that’s what boomers have! LOL ALREADY.
Here’s one of the boomers: “A few years ago my generation kicked the ladder away behind us,” said Stu. “This is our chance to teach you to free-climb.”
The program is a lot of making them go to bed early and do exercise and accept the importance of budgeting. The plot is not that important; what’s important is the fun of the world. E.g., the young husband’s career – he has an MA in the Metaphysical Poets (Boomer: “You’ve made some rotten life decisions, but we don’t blame you for that at all.”). He now writes essays for university students too lazy to write them for themselves, and here’s the summary: “It was dishonourable work, but he was getting paid for doing what he loved in a competitive economy, and how many people really got to use their degrees in the real world?”
LOL!
The author is a poet, mostly, and you can tell. Try this description of his best credit card: “one beautiful, transparent credit card which shimmered like a puddle of petrol and had a limit of £11,000 . . . his most copious line of credit, the rat queen of his nest of cards.”
Only thing I didn’t like, is there there’s some pretty questionable raging against capitalism. E.g.: “if there are ten people in a race, ninety percent of them don’t win. You only ever make a profit because someone else is making a loss – ” This is just objectively not how markets work. Anyway, more of a poet than an economist, and that’s okay. I don’t think I could stand it if he was great at everything. I wonder if he will win the Booker? It’s announced on Monday. My money’s on LET US FEED THE KING, a dream-like story with an unnamed narrator, I haven’t read it but I’m sure it’s dreadful, ie., exactly the sort of thing the Booker rewards.