The Financial Lives of the Poets

The Financial Lives of the Poets is the fifth novel by American writer Jess Walter. The novel is a comedic novel first published in 2009. The novel explores the global financial crisis, through the eyes of a business reporter turned poet.^[1]

Reception

Reception of the novel was generally positive.The New York Times was largely positive about the novel calling it successful at "captur[ing] the fiscal panic and frustration" and full of "blistering wisecracks".^[1] The Los Angeles Times called the novel "darkly funny, surprisingly tender [and] verse sprinkled", though the review highlights the characters in the novel as flawed and "bumbling" bringing their woes upon themselves.^[2]

The Washington Post was similarly positive, though focusing on how the humor and comedy critique the American economic system, as a "a scathing indictment of our country's character and the "ruined systems" we labor under."^[3] The Telegraph review was more mixed, describing the novel a "zeitgeist novel", humorously reflecting on the as a reflection on the economic depression, yet at the same time flawed: "For every moment of acute description [...] there are paragraphs of slumping, banal analysis".^[4]

References