The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

8.2/10 dropps

It is 2008. The market is crashing and local newspaper reporter Matthew Prior quits his job to begin an internet startup company called poetfolio.com. The idea for Prior’s website is to offer stock tips in creative verse, henceforth making money management more common practice and enjoyable for potential investors. Two years later, poetfolio is a massive failure and Prior stands outside a 7/11 with the knowledge that in six days he and his family will lose their house to the bank. Some kids outside casually pass him a pipe loaded with marijuana, a drug Prior has not imbibed since college. Within twenty-four hours, he focuses on a new career path. Middle-aged, white collar Matthew Prior withdraws every cent he has and becomes a drug dealer.

The Financial Lives of the Poets functions as a satire of today’s financial crisis. Walter chooses to relay the story from the first person perspective, and because Prior tells the story, chapters will often begin with humorous sonnets, limericks and haikus. One chapter is conveyed entirely in the format of a screenplay. Beyond the humor inherent in the tale, Walter’s greatest achievement with Poets is creating an immensely empathetic but incredibly flawed character. Prior wants nothing more than to provide for his family, but his tragic flaw is his foolish and cowardly nature. Every character in the book despises him to some degree for his incompetence, including Prior himself, but the reader nevertheless appreciates his situation. The novel’s protagonist wants only to provide for his family, but he can’t prevent his world from crumbling around him.

Despite its satirical nature, the book never takes itself too seriously. Jess Walter clearly intends the novel to function as a light commentary of the nation’s current economic state of affairs, but the commentary serves more to accent Matthew Prior’s sardonic narration then to bolster the novel. The Financial Lives of the Poets is a fun, light read with something for everyone, regardless of whether the reader does or does not smoke pot and follow stock reports.

-John Jamieson