The Financial Lives of the Poets

By: Jess Walter

Narrated by: Jess Walter

Meet Matt Prior. He's about to lose his job, his wife, his house, maybe his mind. Unless...

In the winning and utterly original novels Citizen Vince and The Zero, Jess Walter ("a ridiculously talented writer" - New York Times) painted an America all his own: a land of real, flawed, and deeply human characters coping with the anxieties of their times. Now, in his warmest, funniest, and best novel yet, Walter offers a story as real as our own lives: a tale of overstretched accounts, misbegotten schemes, and domestic dreams deferred.

A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion: a Web site devoted to financial journalism in the form of blank verse. When his big idea - and his wife's eBay resale business - ends with a whimper (and a garage full of unwanted figurines), they borrow and borrow, whistling past the graveyard of their uncertain dreams. One morning Matt wakes up to find himself jobless, hobbled with debt, spying on his wife's online flirtation, and six days away from losing his home. Is this really how things were supposed to end up for me, he wonders: staying up all night worried, driving to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night to get milk for his boys, and falling in with two local degenerates after they offer him a hit of high-grade marijuana? Or, he thinks, could this be the solution to all my problems? Following Matt in his weeklong quest to save his marriage, his sanity, and his dreams, The Financial Lives of the Poets is a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach the edge of ruin - and how we can begin to make our way back.

©2009 Jess Walter (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

The edge is so close to where we live.

I started The Financial Lives of the Poets because I loved Jess Walter's latest novel, Beautiful Ruins, so much. Matt Prior is in the middle of a mid-life crisis, which through his own choices, rapidly escalates to a mid-life catastrophe. He quits his job as a newspaper financial reporter to create poetfolio, a web site that combines investment advice and poetry. That goes over as well as a realistic person might predict, but it's also just the tip of the iceberg. Matt's wife is having a text/Facebook/in person affair with a guy from Lumberland after she has filled their garage with crap from eBay and failed to resell it, and his senile father has to move in after losing everything to a stripper. Matt is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and foreclosure, when he meets Skeet and Jamie one night at the local 7-11. They introduce him to designer marijuana, and Matt gets the brilliant idea to cash in his miniscule 401(k) and use the proceeds to buy and sell marijuana. This is how he will dig himself out of his financial chasm, but this plan also goes as well as a rational person might predict.

Matt is an interesting protagonist, very well-written by Walter. One of the most interesting things about him is that he seems to be quite aware of the financial, emotional, and bureaucratic messes that he (and our society) have made, yet he goes on making increasingly desperate decisions. Walter doesn't write Matt as hapless, so we cheer for his indomitability while shaking our heads at his incompetence. Ordinarily a character like this might irritate me, but Jess Walter's amazing writing made this a pleasure to read. Matt does learn a lesson that we should all take notice of: "The edge is so close to where we live."

Hilarious and touching

What other book might you compare The Financial Lives of the Poets to and why?

It definitely fits into what you might call the "middle-aged suburban comic nightmare" genre of fiction on the lines of Franzen's "The Corrections," Chabon's "Wonder Boys" or Clarke's "An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England." What makes this stand out in the field is that the story is small and controlled (none of the sprawl that often makes books like these wander too far), and absolutely every element pays off in larger meaning. (The fact that the first chapter takes place at a 7-11 becomes a parodic model for references to 9/11 later, and it works smartly.) In short, there is warm intelligence and compassion for ever character on every page, while at the same time Walter creates a tremendously important document about the human costs of the 2008 recession, and of the modern world in general. Just amazing, and well worth the visit. He had me at chapter one.

What does Jess Walter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He has the delivery EXACTLY, as you might expect, so that even parenthetical comments sound perfectly parenthetical and don't stop the forward flow of a sentence. Best of all, and most important, is that he delivers all the jokes perfectly: not only in their timing, but in the voice of the appropriate characters. He's got a good ear for humanity, and it shows in his telling.

Utterly astonishing

My first experience of this author. Mind well and fully blown by the brilliance of both book and narration.

Beautifully Written; Huge Downer

I'd be hard-pressed to find a more poetically written contemporary novel. That said, it incredibly depressing, even with its reprieves.

Liked it – didn’t Love it

I started with Jess Walter with “Beautiful Ruins” and decided to listen to ANYTHING he wrote. I have to say this is nothing like Beautiful Ruins – which took him 7 years (?) to write.

This story is reminiscent of youthful thoughts of getting out of a financial disaster with ‘easy’ money with a dash of danger (aka: excitement). Looking back I would say it was mildly juvenile.

I didn’t lose interest but I was definitely tossed back and forth from the 70’s to the present - how to make it in difficult situations. I don’t know how to recommend this book. It is bleak but not. It has its moments of humor, which would have been more humorous if the situations were not so bleak. Inevitability is another word that comes to mind. I will listen to anything else Jess Walter write. I doubt I will listen to this one again.

Great Book

Writing is intelligent and witty. Enjoyed every minute of this reading. More than just a good story--anyone feeling the pinch of today's economy will relate to the protagonist's plight.

Sex, Drugs and L.O.L.

Jess Walter knows how to tell a story. This 7-day adventure is a stream-of-consciousness tale about a modern, post GFC (global financial crisis) family. It is fast paced and
1. funny
2. sad
3. philosophical
4. insightful
5. funny
6. provocative
7. funny

When it comes to narration, some authors make great narrators of their own work (Bill Bryson) and some do not (Dave Berry). Jess Walter nails it. His performance is transparent, which allowed me to hear the story, not the narrator.

When the story ended, I found myself wanting to follow the main character, his family and the variety of wacky characters even further.

Loved it

Jess walker is a fabulous author, but who knew he is also a brilliant narrator? Such a talented guy. I plan to read everything he has written. His short stories are also fabulous.

All of the surprises ring true.

This dark and witty story is as much a Coming of Age novel of our troubled, flawed Society as it is of its 42-year-old protagonist. Perfectly read by the author.

What a romp!

I have never read anything by Jess Walters and so was truly taken by surprise by the sheer intelligence of this guy! The metaphors, the rich, snappy banter of his writing is a treat after some of the bad sitcom-like books I sometimes download by mistake. The story is straightforward and also very touching amid all of this verbal acrobatics. Loved it.