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Executive Times |
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2008 Book Reviews |
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Good
People by Marcus Sakey |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click
on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Greedy Some
readers of Marcus Sakey’s new novel, Good
People, will like Tom and Anna Reed, the protagonists, while others will
find them shallow. That may not matter because Sakey does a fine job in
setting the scene, the motivation and the characters, and lets the story
develop as a way of revealing aspects of our nature that we would prefer to
pretend do not exist. Tom and Anna’s greed leads them to place none of us
want to go. Here’s an excerpt, from the beginning of Chapter 2, pp. 25-26: Tom
Reed couldn’t sleep for
rain and acronyms. The rain wasn't real. It came
from the sound gizmo on Anna's night table. The noise wasn't actually much
like rain, more like a hum of static. She said it helped her sleep, and he
didn't mind, though it made him smile when she turned it on while real rain
fell. Rain from a machine to mask the sound of rain on the windowsill, the
same way they had thick curtains to block the daylight and an alarm clock
that simulated the sunrise. They'd laughed about it, years ago, how they'd
lost the battle against yuppiehood without firing a shot. But the rain wasn't really the
problem. It was the acronyms. TTC. HPT. IUI. D&C. IVF. ICSI. At first they'd seemed amusing,
if a little precious: TTC for trying to conceive, HPT for
home pregnancy test. Anna found a whole community online, thousands of women
sharing stories on fertility Web sites, posting their most intimate details
on message boards, analyzing basal body temperature and cervical mucus consistency
like oracles peering at tea leaves. The Web sites had made Anna feel better,
had provided something it seemed he couldn't. The first acronyms had come
from there. The later ones came from the
doctors, and they were neither amusing nor precious. They were cruel and
costly. Tom rolled on his side, careful not to disturb her. They used to
sleep spooned, the heat of her back nestling his chest, the smell of her
hair, the sense that their bodies snapped together like Legos. Sometimes it
seemed like a long time ago. IUI, intrauterine insemination. He tried to think about work,
about the specific, boring mundanity of it. He pictured his office, eight by
ten, drop ceiling, metal modular desk, the slim window through which the
mirrored side of the neighboring skyscraper bounced a view of his own back at
him. But that led to thoughts of the 9:30 status meeting he was going to
miss, of sighs and shaking heads. He tried to guess how many e-mails would be
waiting when he made it in. IVF, in vitro fertilization. The light that slipped past the
curtain glowed faint silver. The clock read 4:12. There weren't many reasons
to be awake at 4:12. In his twenties, sure: a Saturday night, he and Anna and
the old crew, candles burning, beer gone, Leonard Cohen on the stereo, a last
joint circling as people fell asleep against each other on garage-sale
furniture. In his twenties, 4:12 made sense. At
thirty-five, though, 4:12 was a moment to sleep through. There was only one
reason people his age tended to be awake at 4:12. TWW, two-week wait. Ending
today. Tom
and Anna are ordinary, and Good
People takes them to extraordinary places. Read it to find out where, why
and what happens. Steve
Hopkins, October 20, 2008 |
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Go to Executive Times Archives |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the November 2008 issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Good People.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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