Product Description

A first novel, by an Australian short-story writer, about what happens to people in a world of downsizing, outsourcing and privatizing. How did a university graduate - an honest, compassionate man - find himself at the age of 38 with an attractive and intelligent wife, a child, and three dollars?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #224873 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Customer Reviews

Terrific !!!
What a marvellous piece of poetry this novel is! Essentially an account of one man's mercurial relationships and increasingly tortured existence in an unpredictable social and economic climate, the vein of humour running through the novel keeps the reader from abandoning all hope. Perlman constructs the narrative with such a wonderful prose style it is simply impossible to put the book down. This is a debut novel of astonishing penmanship! Bleak in its subject matter, it somehow manages to captivate and stimulate in impressive fashion. Intensely thought-provoking, i was hooked from the opening page and (i'm not ashamed to say) found myself literally sobbing by the end of the penultimate chapter. An extraordinary piece of literature - highly recommended!

Fantastic - a stunning debut novel
I can't recommend this book enough. I loved it from start to finish. It was gripping, entertaining and gloriously human. We follow the life and loves of an ordinary man doing ordinary things. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts things turn out horribly wrong. Yet this isn't due to a 'comedy of errors' or mishaps. A few chance encounters along the way, but nothing remotely unbelievable (a far cry from the majority of new books and films). That is the beauty of this book - it's gritty realism, it is a tirade against a society that can let a hard-working honest man reach the age of 38 with only 3 dollars to their name. Capitalism with a human face? Hardly. This is a book about the decay of universalism and the rise of the cult of the individual. Yet this isn't just an excuse to get political - it is also an exquisitely written book, with compelling characters and is a riveting read.

Worth the late nights in bed that it seduced me into.
It is hard to pin down how to begin to write about a book that was so satisfying at so many different levels. Also in my 30's, like Eddie, with a family I adore and educated but poor and in debt, I found myself transfering my own existential angst in all its emotional attire onto Eddie and his life. The socio-political sentiments massaged my own ideology in somewhat the same way that Palahniuk's "Fight Club" sparred with them. I was captivated by poetic writing style in which Perlman describes Eddie's attraction to the 3 generations of females in his life. I can't wait to read his next book.