Risk

by C.K. Stead

Recently divorced New Zealander Sam Nola returns to London, where he spent two years in his early twenties. It is early 2003, and on both sides of the Atlantic the case for military intervention in Iraq is being made – or fabricated.

But life for Sam has never been better: a grown-up, half-French daughter from a long ago affair has recently got in touch, and he has walked into a lucrative role in the booming banking sector. It is only when he learns of the deaths of two friends within a week that intrigue begins to intrude on his contentment, that life begins to feel a little more precarious.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Christian Karlson Stead is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism.

One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.

Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.

C. K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write full-time. He received a CBE in 1985 and was admitted into the highest honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007.

Reviews

[Pascale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull and aimless. In the space of less than 300 pages, C.K. walks us through 9/11, the Bosnian war, the Iraq war, the London Underground bombings and the financial meltdown of 2008 for good measure. The central character, Sam, is a New Zealander who has recently relocated to London after a mid-life crisis and a divorce. Miraculously, he discovers that he has a lovely grow-up daughter from a love affair back in his student days. But the book is just as over-stuffed with characters as it is crowded with world events. Page after page is filled with details about Sam's colleagues, friends and relatives who come in and out of view with no apparent reason. Of plot as such, there is none. Sam nearly sleeps with actress Elvira, and then backs off. Sam has a serious relationship with Ruth, whose aged husband is about to die, but that doesn't prevent him from sleeping with his colleague Maureen on a business trip to New York. Sam half adumbrates that the banking system is going to collapse sooner rather than later, but doesn't act on his hunch. Eventually Sam loses his job, becomes a grand-father, and is reunited with his Croatian cousin and former fling Maja, who had written him a suicide note some years before, all within the space of 24 hours. Is he going to ditch Ruth in favor of Maja? I can't imagine how anybody would care.

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

NOTE: I RECEIVED THIS BOOK FOR FREE THROUGH GOODREADS FIRST READS IN EXCHANGE FOR A HONEST REVIEW.

Well, it took me 60 pages to start enjoying the book but I have read half of the book and I can't read anymore. Normally with a book I want to keep reading or I can remember what I have read. This book I can't do that and I have to read the last page so I can try and remember what is going on in the book. I couldn't connect with the characters either and I just found the book either too detailed or not catchy enough.
Another thing I didn't like about the book was that it had french words in it at some points, yet I had no idea what the words meant as there was no meaning in brackets or at the bottom of the page.

In saying that, I will try and give this book another go next year (2013) at some stage and see if I can finish it.

[Madli Jõks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siin oli palju elemente, mis tavaliselt teevad raamatu mulle väga meeldivaks: tegevus erinevates Euroopa linnades, galerii justkui möödaminnes kohatud tegelasi, lähiajaloosündmuste sidumine tegevuskäiku. Aga no see raamat lihtsalt ei lasnud mind endale ligi ja mul oli kogu lugemise aja tunne, nagu ma loeks juhuslikke lõike mingist võõrast tekstist, mille kohta mul puudub kontekst.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, I am not the target audience at all (some of the views expressed are a bit male pale and stale), but I liked the poetry and it was a bit different than I normally read so I found that interesting

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but it did really just meander through a few years of Sam's life, without too much meaning.

[Christine Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy CK Stead. The writing is playful and the characters are believable, and the scenarios are always contemporary.

[Amanda Fe · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is going too slow, so in some parts, i feel boring but overall it's not bad and still worth to be read!

[Tash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for Confessions From Romaholics

To see review at Confessions


Even though the blog’s main focus is romance and YA, today I want to share my review of something I enjoy but I don’t get to read that often, as romance YA are my first two loves.
I love a good, general fiction book and I won this book in a First Read giveaway on Goodreads.
After a number of years absence, Sam Nola returns to London after his divorce in New Zealand and decides to get away from it all. In London he revisits places where he spent a couple of years when he was younger, when he had graduated from university with his friend Charles. Charles had remained in London but Sam went back and married. However, the end of his marriage has caused him to revaluate his life and returns to England.
Fast forward to the present moment, it’s the year 2003 and Sam is in London where he discovers that he has a half French daughter named Letty. They try to get to England, which is the prologue of this book from France and is explained later in the book. It starts as a piece of fiction exploring the events of the war that resulted in the 2001 attacks. The author weaves this in as Sam goes on his daily life from trying to find a job, to meeting his daughter and meeting potential love interests. The book is split into sections to signify the different parts of the period that the book is set in, 2003 to the start of financial crisis (2008).
The first part is about the Iraq war that plays a major part in some of his friend’s lives and is discussed amongst the parties he attends. The author tries to balance this by providing both sides and as the book is more mystery than political. The second part of the story is about the 2005 attacks wherein a friend of his is injured. A few of his friends in the book are interested in literature and his friend from work who is injured has an interest in writing poetry but has met limited success like Sam which is a focus point of their relationship. At this point of the journey, Sam is happily settled into his life in London and this affects him as things are about to change he can’t predict.
The next significant event which the blurb hints to is the main focus of the second half of the book: the death of two friends, one a work colleague, the other a distant family member who he had lost touch with after meeting her number of years ago. Their deaths leave him with questions and an envelope and we follow him on this journey as he tries to unravel this whilst a financial crisis is slowly sneaking upon him at work.
If you want a fiction piece of work that flows spans a number of years and provides a bit of mystery as well as romance, then this is for you. I couldn’t put this book down and though the book won’t be for everyone. I enjoyed as it had the perfect balance of genres I love as I have secret obsession for books that have elements of mystery to them.

[Frumenty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a wish-fulfillment novel, with an odd twist. Sometimes a character is created to be a vehicle for the vicarious fulfilment of fantasies, and I think Sam Nola is just such a character. He is a likeable New Zealand lawyer and erstwhile aspiring author, recently divorced and making a new start in London in 2003. These are "interesting times" in London: bull markets, invasion of Iraq justified with trumped-up evidence of WMDs, bombs on public transport, and the Global Financial Crisis. Sam has landed a job as a share-trader and he is getting rich very quickly; he learns that he has a very congenial French daughter from a long-ago love affair in London, who very quickly fills the void left by the sons he left behind in New Zealand, gives him a taste of French rural life when they holiday together (that particular fantasy really appealed to me), and, very conveniently, is soon on the spot in London to continue her medical studies; he has some successes with the ladies; he becomes the lover of the wife of a an elderly and dying tycoon, the sister of a friend by whose sudden death he has come into the secret of a legacy which, when the GFC arrives, grows explosively; and, when the financial crunch comes for his employer, he just happens to be ready to step off the carousel anyway to return to his old vocation of writer. If that ain't wish fulfilment, I don't know what is!
The title "Risk" suggests that this is a novel about risk, financial obviously, but presumably also as a metaphor for personal risk. The idea isn't developed, or I'm a very obtuse reader.
What is so odd about the novel? The ending is odd. Out of the blue comes the one woman in Sam's life who could (perhaps) draw him away from his golden future with the heiress. Maybe this is the "risk" that the book is about? Is Stead presenting Sam with a choice to take back the woman from his past, foregoing a safe and rosy future? It's not even clear what Sam feels about her now, while the affection between Sam and his heiress is quite real and obvious.
My verdict: a very enjoyable novel about events which are still fresh in the memories of most of us, but with a pretentious title and a slightly bizarre twist at the end.

[Dunja *a chain reader* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upravo ovih dana Christian Karlson Stead (C. K. Stead) navršava 83 godine. On je jedan od najprevođenijih novozelandskih pisaca, a čak šest njegovih romana je prevedeno na hrvatski jezik. Ono što je svakako zanimljiv je da C. K. Stead radnju dva svoja književna djela smješta u Hrvatsku. Prvi puta je to napravio u kratkoj priči Last Season’s Man (u hrvatskom prijevodu Čovjek prošloga doba ) koja je 2010. godine osvojila nagradu Sunday Timesa za najbolju kratku priču. Drugi put C. K. Stead se u svojoj prozi vraća u Hrvatsku upravo u ovom, svom posljednjem romanu Rizik .

Radnja romana Rizik prati Sama Nolu, pravnika u srednjim četrdesetim godinama koji nakon rastave napušta Novi Zeland iodlazi raditi u Veliku Britaniju za međunarodnu banku. Osim rastave, promjene posla i kontinenta, Samu se život mijenja jersaznaje da iz mladenačke veze ima kćer koja je sad u ranim dvadesetima. Uz život Sama Nole roman na marginama, prati i živote Samovih prijatelja s kojima se on druži u Londonu. C. K. Stead radnju romana počinje u 2003. godini, u vrijeme ekonomskog zaleta, ali i pripreme Sjedinjenih Američkih Država i Velike Britanije za rat u Iraku. Priču završava 2008. godine na početku velike ekonomske krize koja traje sve do danas.

Cjelovita recenzija je dostupna na Čitaj me

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another novel that interpellates the 2008 financial crisis from the POV of a protagonist in the banking world, reminding me of Paul Murray's latest, the Big Short, some books by John Lanchester, etc-- if ever there was a need to "get that book out there, stat" posture to publishing, this book probably suffered in my estimation by feeling belated. It's also a little odd that the main character recognizes the crisis coming, in a semi-heroic way, without any real sense of why he'd see what so many other people missed.

I'm not entirely critical of this book-- its pace and writing is decidedly equivocal, almost stately, the reflections of a mature middle aged man. There are funny places and turns in the life of NZ divorcee Sam as he finds his unknown daughter, finds his feet, and beds, it seems, every unmarried woman he sees and some of the marrieds as well. It's a good life.... The book also includes a poet character, who is intriguing for being more ragged than Sam but whose poetry also doesn't suck-- I don't know that I'd enjoy a book of it, but that's more to do with the style, slightly nursery rhymey, than its quality.

It's a strange little book-- maybe another book by Stead would connect with me more directly, because I can feel good things going on in this one, but the focus didn't quite work for me.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My expectations of this novel were totally off the mark - the blurb on the back talks of the death of two friends, and I assumed they must be connected in some way and that our hero would be off on the trail of a murderer. Nothing of the sort! The two deaths are totally unconnected.

This is the gentle tale of a New Zealand-born lawyer learning to live a new life after his divorce, but along the way we get a well-developed picture of life in London at the time of the Iraq war, and the ins and outs of the banking system pre-GFC.

I really enjoyed it until about halfway through, when it dawned on me that nothing much had happened yet. To be fair, I hadn't noticed that fact, because the writing and the characters kept me so engaged. However I was still reading in expectation that something intriguing would happen - and it never did. Even so, I never contemplated skimming through the rest - the writing was too good.

I have to say I was disappointed in the ending, which left us wondering which woman Sam would choose. However I will certainly read more by this author.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book as a first-reads giveaway. Risk is the story of a Kiwi man, Sam, living in London and his various relationships--with lovers, colleagues, family, and a recently-discovered daughter. They're in an intellectual circle, and it's set in the 00's, around the time of 9/11, London bombings, terrorism, etc, although these events mostly set the backdrop for the conversations and life events taking place. While I liked the characters in the book, it took me awhile to get into it. The characters are all part of Sam's life, and on occasion, intertwine with each other. I was waiting for something big to happen but for me, it just wasn't there. About halfway through the book there was a death that I thought would lead to more action and excitement, but it just didn't happen. In saying that, I did enjoy Stead's writing style, and I feel that many people would absolutely love this book, but perhaps it just wasn't for me!

[Joanne Farley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

This book is primarily a story about people, their lives and their love against a backdrop of world events the Iraq war and the banking crash of 2007/2008.

Sam recently divorced from his wife picks up and leaves his home in New Zealand for England where he runs into new and old friends and someone that he didn't even know existed. What he finds is a life of much joy and love.

The story moves through London, Berlin, France and the US. Stead does such a great job of describing these places you can almost imagine yourself there with Sam. What struck me most was the humor in the novel there were a few times I laughed out loud.

The book is at times sad at times happy as we follow Sam through this new part of his life.
I found this book to be a slow start but once I got into the story it was an easy and extremely worthwhile read.

[Catherine Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Economic but evocative prose enables CK Stead to pack an awful lot into this book - September 11, the banking boom and bust, the London bombings, marriage, divorce, affairs, unexpected children, death natural and unnatural, numerous countries around the world (I think of Risk, the board game), poetry and (just possibly) the Devil. Whether or not you like the protagonist, Sam Nola (almost an anagram of Man Alone), his story is a page-turner. CK Stead says he doesn't like to have a moral - but perhaps it is that there is always hope, always a second chance, and that the personal connections of our lives matter, even when the backdrop of world events is bleak, and we make mistakes that we regret.

[Glennys · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a recommendation to our Book club from our local library. It has also been a free book given away through Goodreads First reads. I found the story line difficult to follow, there was no depth to characters so it was hard to connect with anybody in the book. I only read half the book and couldn't finish it. It was written against the background of 9/11 and other historical events. I could find no connection to the story line and the historical aspect of the novel. There are a lot of lines from poems which have been added in but again there was no relevance to the story. To be honest it felt as if the author was simply trying to fill the book by throwing in poetry and such.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mr stead may well be new Zealand's man of words but I found this book too verbose

Descriptions far too precise that meant the readers imagination had nothing left to play with . It started shudderingly and almost like the plane described in take off jarringly , as an ex banker I thought I would enjoy this book but seriously struggled to read more than a few pages a day . Personally I won't go out of my way to read another novel of his

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A smoothly written personal story, set in the pre-Recession banking frenzy in London with deviations to continental Europe. Gives a good insider's view on the recklessness of the financial world (and a feeble feeling of responsibility of the protagonist). But apart from the obvious, the book really doesn't get anywhere.

[Jake Goretzki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm. Hard to feel much empathy for the bankers in this piece (the last C.K. Stead I read was about harassed trade unionists). Can anyone feel moved by the small setbacks and delights of an international lawyer? Tough one.

It's a little brochure-like with its London settings and the Iraq and 7/7 references... which felt a little perfunctory. Engaging enough, but pretty forgettable.

[Sheila Pritchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it. He's a good writer of course so even though the content wouldn't have attracted me initially it held my attention and I particularly liked the main character and the twists and turns of his life. It was also interesting to read this a few years after 9/11 and the financial crash. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! An enigmatic ending...

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is this rated so low? This is a slow book, but a very interesting. I'm not particularly economically-minded, but I loved the look at the selfishness of the banking sector in the pre-recession, post 9/11 world. It is not a roller-coaster ride, but a book that is worth a holiday read.

[Indigoaalane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Omamoodi raamat. Köitev, aga ega tegelikult suurt midagi ei juhtu.
Huvitava nüansi annab suhtumine USA Iraagi aktsiooni ja panganduskrahhidesse. Me, Eestis, oleme elanud ikka hoopis teises meediaruumis.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked this book - not nearly as good as some of his others though.

[Mandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

So dull I couldn't read past p130. Nothing at all had happened. Skipped to the end. Still not much.

[Cath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good plot. Could see it as a film. Stead's writing is pedantic as usual.

[Neal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Obscure Storyline and french words made my stomach uncomfortable.

[Bakshish gill · Rating 2 out of 5]

boring and dull.

[Samuel Crawford · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whew.

Otiose. Not meritorious. Characters of modest interest confronting problems of limited complexity and producing outcomes of minimal importance. Don't bother.