In 1920s New York, financier Andrew Bevel amasses a fortune through market manipulation while his wife, Mildred, retreats into a world of classical music and philanthropy. The novel constructs this history through four competing documents: a popular novel based on the couple’s life, Bevel’s unfinished autobiography, a memoir by his ghostwriter, and Mildred’s private journals. These accounts clash over the mechanics of the 1929 stock market crash and the true nature of Mildred’s intellectual influence on her husband’s financial decisions.
Readers interested in the intersection of American capitalism and historical narrative read this to analyze how wealth dictates the recording of history. It appeals to those who enjoy deconstructing unreliable narrators and investigating the erasure of women from economic records. The reader walks away with a perspective on how capital can buy the power to revise facts into mythology, leaving them to decide which version of the past serves the truth and which serves the legacy of the elite.
Deep, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2022
- ISBN
- 9780593420317
- Language
- EN
