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Three Dollars
Eddie is an honest, compassionate man who finds himself, at the age of thirty-eight, with a wife, a child, and three dollars. How did he get that way He is a university graduate. He married an attractive intelligent woman, his lover from university days. He is a good husband, father and son. At any other time the world would smile on him. But this is the nineties, and the world values other things. Angry, yet full of unexpected humour, Three Dollars chronicles a modern breach in the social contract, and the legacy of Thatcherism and Reaganomics and its effect on people and relationships. It is about a man's attempt to retain his humanity, his family and his sense of humour in grim and pitiless times; about what happens to people in our brave new world of downsizing, outsourcing and privatising.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Elliot Perlman
20 books332 followersElliot Perlman is an Australian author and barrister. He has written two novels and one short story collection. His work "condemns the economic rationalism that destroys the humanity of ordinary people when they are confronted with unemployment and poverty". This is not surprising in a writer who admires Raymond Carver and Graham Greene because they "write with quite a strong moral centre and a strong sense of compassion". However, he says that "Part of my task is to entertain readers. I don't want it to be propaganda at all. I don't think that for something to be political fiction it has to offer an alternative, I think just a social critique is enough". He describes himself, in fact, as being interested in "the essence of humanity" and argued that exploring this often means touching on political issues.
Perlman often uses music, and song lyrics, in his work to convey an idea or mood, or to give a sense of who a character is. However, he recognises that this "is a bit of a risk because the less familiar the reader is with the song, the smaller the pay off.
Perlman often uses music, and song lyrics, in his work to convey an idea or mood, or to give a sense of who a character is. However, he recognises that this "is a bit of a risk because the less familiar the reader is with the song, the smaller the pay off.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 110 reviews
February 2, 2012
‘Ever feel’, the blurb on the back blurbeth, ‘like the only thing trickling down is sewage?’
Oh Yes, I do! Verily I do.
‘Any body who has felt the small, grey ordinary feeling which lies in ambush some mornings and tries to keep you from getting out of bed will enjoy Three Dollars’
Why yes, I’ve felt it, every morning in fact, and not just because London is foggy and grey in winter. Too true, uh hum.
‘Dolour is never far away and Perlman’s rage, rancour, even, is unmistakeable’
Well hallelujah, this be the book for me. A middle aged man wakes up one day with just three dollars in his pocket with his life down the pan. There is innuendo also about the failed social contract, depression, and the legacy of Reagonomics to boot.
Finally, I can feel better by reading about some miserable sod my age who’s been an even bigger failure at negotiating a capraesque life victory. As they say, everyone needs a smaller flea to pick on. I think I just found mine.
............
But No. NO and NO. I’ve been had: there is a legal term for that disingenuous blurb: false advertising: and it carries serious penalties. Whats the matter with Elliot Perlmann, he’s a barrister: he ought to know better.
First off, there is no rancour and rage: why should there be: said middle aged man, Eddie, is living the life of Riley with his beautiful wife and daughter: she is a professor at some university, he is a chemical engineer working for the government: they’ve been together for over twenty years and spend all day philosophising about the state of the economy, green issues, art, cinema, Keynesian economics vs. Libertarian laissez faire policies, some more on moral rectitude when it comes to life principles, and so on and on and on. Now, this simply cannot be true. I am going to check this guy out briefly on wiki...aha, as I suspected: just like a self righteous pontificating catholic priest dispensing advice on conjugals, Perlman happens not to be married . Still, has the man never ventured out in society, eaten out at restaurants: seen and observed those happily married for thirty years plus couples? Do they sit there critiquing the culture of greed in the late 80s as personified by Gekko? Hell, no they do not. They sit quietly and silently, albeit it contentently, eating their blanc mange and coulis, being at their most verbal at ‘ pass the salt phase’, which is now decidedly past, although I have heard some request it even so, just as a conversation piece.
Not that some major decompression doesn’t go down in Three Dollars: but Perlman is hell-bent on making sure his readers never gain the moral high ground. For instance, there is a bit of grey feeling spreading about: but it belongs firmly to Eddie’s wife Tanya, who succumbs to that old malady of middle age: ennui, and basically starts rolling about in bed in a ‘oh look at me woest me’ mode, whilst Eddie does everything in his power, bends over backwards, to make her feel better. Along with a small army composed of her best friend, mother , daughter, and pet caboose, all working in tandem and tiptoe around her. Well, maybe not the caboose, but still....what the hell is this? I am a middle aged woman (I’m pretty sure I am, but who knows, with people living past their sell by date these days) I have ennui, but am I allowed roll around in bed all day whilst a solicitous metro sexual empathetic man feeds me grapes and ambrosia? And a faithful army of sycophants bends with the remover when I tell them to remove? Can I , jeepers. I mean I’d like to. I could use a man just like that: in fact two. Possibly three. No, ok, lets not be too greedy. Two please. And a therapist on the side . Actually, whatever for? Why should I pay good money to have some balding Quasimodo nod all knowing at me? Can I not pay some less qualified but more aesthetically pleasing specimen to do just the same? After I finish this review I might look into dial-a-boy-toy.com
In all this miasma of feel-good-do-good-hug-a-tree tomfoolery, there is one unbelievable scene where Eddie, whose wife has just lost her job, and who appreciates that foreclosure is not a word from the sexual lexicon, basically self ejects from his job in some Pelican Brief super-ethic-hero fit over some potential environmental disaster he can’t stomach, and ends up unemployed along with weepy-myopic Tanya. But t hats OK, because, in the denouement of it all (by all I mean a generic phrase, as nothing much happens in this book really), she gushes all gooey like that ‘we’ll be OK, honey’.
Well, she might be OK, but I feel betrayed. I was supposed to bask in someone elses misery tonight, not listen to some happy clappy sugar coated right on spiel about a couple still talking on the eve of their pearl anniversary. As if.
Oh Yes, I do! Verily I do.
‘Any body who has felt the small, grey ordinary feeling which lies in ambush some mornings and tries to keep you from getting out of bed will enjoy Three Dollars’
Why yes, I’ve felt it, every morning in fact, and not just because London is foggy and grey in winter. Too true, uh hum.
‘Dolour is never far away and Perlman’s rage, rancour, even, is unmistakeable’
Well hallelujah, this be the book for me. A middle aged man wakes up one day with just three dollars in his pocket with his life down the pan. There is innuendo also about the failed social contract, depression, and the legacy of Reagonomics to boot.
Finally, I can feel better by reading about some miserable sod my age who’s been an even bigger failure at negotiating a capraesque life victory. As they say, everyone needs a smaller flea to pick on. I think I just found mine.
............
But No. NO and NO. I’ve been had: there is a legal term for that disingenuous blurb: false advertising: and it carries serious penalties. Whats the matter with Elliot Perlmann, he’s a barrister: he ought to know better.
First off, there is no rancour and rage: why should there be: said middle aged man, Eddie, is living the life of Riley with his beautiful wife and daughter: she is a professor at some university, he is a chemical engineer working for the government: they’ve been together for over twenty years and spend all day philosophising about the state of the economy, green issues, art, cinema, Keynesian economics vs. Libertarian laissez faire policies, some more on moral rectitude when it comes to life principles, and so on and on and on. Now, this simply cannot be true. I am going to check this guy out briefly on wiki...aha, as I suspected: just like a self righteous pontificating catholic priest dispensing advice on conjugals, Perlman happens not to be married . Still, has the man never ventured out in society, eaten out at restaurants: seen and observed those happily married for thirty years plus couples? Do they sit there critiquing the culture of greed in the late 80s as personified by Gekko? Hell, no they do not. They sit quietly and silently, albeit it contentently, eating their blanc mange and coulis, being at their most verbal at ‘ pass the salt phase’, which is now decidedly past, although I have heard some request it even so, just as a conversation piece.
Not that some major decompression doesn’t go down in Three Dollars: but Perlman is hell-bent on making sure his readers never gain the moral high ground. For instance, there is a bit of grey feeling spreading about: but it belongs firmly to Eddie’s wife Tanya, who succumbs to that old malady of middle age: ennui, and basically starts rolling about in bed in a ‘oh look at me woest me’ mode, whilst Eddie does everything in his power, bends over backwards, to make her feel better. Along with a small army composed of her best friend, mother , daughter, and pet caboose, all working in tandem and tiptoe around her. Well, maybe not the caboose, but still....what the hell is this? I am a middle aged woman (I’m pretty sure I am, but who knows, with people living past their sell by date these days) I have ennui, but am I allowed roll around in bed all day whilst a solicitous metro sexual empathetic man feeds me grapes and ambrosia? And a faithful army of sycophants bends with the remover when I tell them to remove? Can I , jeepers. I mean I’d like to. I could use a man just like that: in fact two. Possibly three. No, ok, lets not be too greedy. Two please. And a therapist on the side . Actually, whatever for? Why should I pay good money to have some balding Quasimodo nod all knowing at me? Can I not pay some less qualified but more aesthetically pleasing specimen to do just the same? After I finish this review I might look into dial-a-boy-toy.com
In all this miasma of feel-good-do-good-hug-a-tree tomfoolery, there is one unbelievable scene where Eddie, whose wife has just lost her job, and who appreciates that foreclosure is not a word from the sexual lexicon, basically self ejects from his job in some Pelican Brief super-ethic-hero fit over some potential environmental disaster he can’t stomach, and ends up unemployed along with weepy-myopic Tanya. But t hats OK, because, in the denouement of it all (by all I mean a generic phrase, as nothing much happens in this book really), she gushes all gooey like that ‘we’ll be OK, honey’.
Well, she might be OK, but I feel betrayed. I was supposed to bask in someone elses misery tonight, not listen to some happy clappy sugar coated right on spiel about a couple still talking on the eve of their pearl anniversary. As if.
June 8, 2007
Terribly mundane. I'm a sucker for personal struggle, or a an occasional plot twist at the very least. This protagonist is completely uninteresting. There was a brief nostalgic tug on my heartstrings when Eddie recounts the beginning of his relationship with high school sweetheart Tanya, as anyone could relate for a few sweet moments until reality pukes in their mouth a little. Forgive me, is that harsh?
If I had any interest in following the lives on higher education "intellectuals" who have delusions of being unpretentious I'd call up my college friends and ask them to start a blog for my exclusive entertainment. Props to Eddie's enthusiasm for Ian Curtis and his ability to actually remember how much money he has in his pocket a decade ago, but that just doesn't carry the rest of this lackluster piece of fiction.
If I had any interest in following the lives on higher education "intellectuals" who have delusions of being unpretentious I'd call up my college friends and ask them to start a blog for my exclusive entertainment. Props to Eddie's enthusiasm for Ian Curtis and his ability to actually remember how much money he has in his pocket a decade ago, but that just doesn't carry the rest of this lackluster piece of fiction.
December 30, 2013
"Three dollars" doesn't sound like much, but Elliot Perlman's new novel is priceless. Already a bestseller in his native Australia, this is Perlman's first book, and with an initial public offering like this, it looks like the beginning of a considerable literary fortune.
Eddie Harnovey, the ironic narrator of this charming story, has a keen eye for patterns in his life - personal and economic - and most of them aren't good. "Every nine and a half years I see Amanda," he begins. "Most recently was today. I had three dollars."
In a voice encumbered with self-doubt and enlivened with wit, Eddie traces his life and his finances through these periodic encounters from childhood to middle age.
He first met Amanda in grade school. She had the long blond hair "of a model in a shampoo commercial ... with a gleam enough to reflect whatever an admirer might want to see in it." Her parents were rocketing into the upper class and quickly put an end to playtime with common little Eddie, but she remained imprinted on his mind as the quintessential girl.
Meanwhile, Eddie's cuckolded uncle moves into his bedroom to die of despair. Pretending to be asleep, the little boy listens every night as his uncle bemoans the treachery of women and business.
Impressed by the success of Amanda's father and scarred by warnings of his uncle, Eddie pursues what he hopes will be a financially secure career in chemical engineering. His real interest, however, becomes a "romantic headstrong gypsy-girl" named Tanya, who's "guided by the light of the tyranny of the new."
"You can dress in black, waving your arms around at parties for only so long," he admits, but he's desperate to impress this cerebral artist. "I took to wearing eyeliner at certain parties in the hope that it would make people suspect that I was bisexual and interesting."
It's a shaky relationship - interrupted by Eddie's fantasies about ideal Amanda and Tanya's dalliance with more sophisticated men - but eventually they settle down and live a model middle-class life. Eddie gets a dull job with the Federal Department of Environment, and Tanya works as an adjunct professor.
Around them, however, the new world order is conspiring to make middle-class life far more precarious. It's a faint smell at first, but slowly the acrid aroma of financial anxiety spreads. Eddie's father finds himself let go a few years before retirement. Budget cuts phase out Tanya's job. And Eddie finds himself asked to write a mission statement that's really a prelude to slashing his position. ("I don't even know what an emission statement is," he protests.)
Everywhere, it seems, the rule of the free marketplace threatens to dissolve relationships and responsibilities between people, replacing them with the benefits of cheaper products. With admirable subtlety, Perlman satirizes a world in which suburban paradise and homelessness are just a single missed payment apart.
Eddie can't help but notice that new market efficiencies are always touted by extravagantly paid executives who produce nothing. His inane session with the corporate career counselor is so funny it could cheer up even the newly unemployed.
Through it all, despite his own anxieties and doubts, Eddie's reflex to help and encourage others never flags. His wife, his friends, an alcoholic on the street, all are benefactors of this humble, funny man. In the end, it's this natural compassion that proves his greatest investment. Sitting in the dark living room with his wife and daughter as the sun rises, Eddie knows what's really valuable in his life. And dollars have nothing to do with it.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0610/p1...
Eddie Harnovey, the ironic narrator of this charming story, has a keen eye for patterns in his life - personal and economic - and most of them aren't good. "Every nine and a half years I see Amanda," he begins. "Most recently was today. I had three dollars."
In a voice encumbered with self-doubt and enlivened with wit, Eddie traces his life and his finances through these periodic encounters from childhood to middle age.
He first met Amanda in grade school. She had the long blond hair "of a model in a shampoo commercial ... with a gleam enough to reflect whatever an admirer might want to see in it." Her parents were rocketing into the upper class and quickly put an end to playtime with common little Eddie, but she remained imprinted on his mind as the quintessential girl.
Meanwhile, Eddie's cuckolded uncle moves into his bedroom to die of despair. Pretending to be asleep, the little boy listens every night as his uncle bemoans the treachery of women and business.
Impressed by the success of Amanda's father and scarred by warnings of his uncle, Eddie pursues what he hopes will be a financially secure career in chemical engineering. His real interest, however, becomes a "romantic headstrong gypsy-girl" named Tanya, who's "guided by the light of the tyranny of the new."
"You can dress in black, waving your arms around at parties for only so long," he admits, but he's desperate to impress this cerebral artist. "I took to wearing eyeliner at certain parties in the hope that it would make people suspect that I was bisexual and interesting."
It's a shaky relationship - interrupted by Eddie's fantasies about ideal Amanda and Tanya's dalliance with more sophisticated men - but eventually they settle down and live a model middle-class life. Eddie gets a dull job with the Federal Department of Environment, and Tanya works as an adjunct professor.
Around them, however, the new world order is conspiring to make middle-class life far more precarious. It's a faint smell at first, but slowly the acrid aroma of financial anxiety spreads. Eddie's father finds himself let go a few years before retirement. Budget cuts phase out Tanya's job. And Eddie finds himself asked to write a mission statement that's really a prelude to slashing his position. ("I don't even know what an emission statement is," he protests.)
Everywhere, it seems, the rule of the free marketplace threatens to dissolve relationships and responsibilities between people, replacing them with the benefits of cheaper products. With admirable subtlety, Perlman satirizes a world in which suburban paradise and homelessness are just a single missed payment apart.
Eddie can't help but notice that new market efficiencies are always touted by extravagantly paid executives who produce nothing. His inane session with the corporate career counselor is so funny it could cheer up even the newly unemployed.
Through it all, despite his own anxieties and doubts, Eddie's reflex to help and encourage others never flags. His wife, his friends, an alcoholic on the street, all are benefactors of this humble, funny man. In the end, it's this natural compassion that proves his greatest investment. Sitting in the dark living room with his wife and daughter as the sun rises, Eddie knows what's really valuable in his life. And dollars have nothing to do with it.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0610/p1...
April 26, 2023
3.5 stars. An engaging novel set in Melbourne, Australia during the 1990s. Eddie Harnovey is 38, a government employed chemical engineer. He is married to Tanya, an academic with a young daughter named Abby. Tanya becomes depressed after losing her teaching job. They have good friends on Paul and Kate. Paul is a successful banker. Paul and Kate have no children.
Eddie is tasked with writing an environmental impact report on a mining expansion venture. Coincidentally the property is owned by the father of an old school friend, Amanda. Eddie’s report recommendations cause issues with his management team. Management rewrite Eddie’s report. Should Eddie accept his management’s directions? At this time with Tanya out of work, Eddie and Tanya cannot pay their monthly mortgage payments.
The novel has good plot momentum and Eddie is a good natured man who helps random people in difficulties. Tanya seems fairly self centered and her character is not fully developed. Paul is an opinionated, generally thoughtless man who is focused on becoming rich and cannot fully understand why his wife Kate would like to be more than a housewife. The plot is held together by a number of coincidences!
This book was shortlisted for the 1998 Miles Franklin award.
Eddie is tasked with writing an environmental impact report on a mining expansion venture. Coincidentally the property is owned by the father of an old school friend, Amanda. Eddie’s report recommendations cause issues with his management team. Management rewrite Eddie’s report. Should Eddie accept his management’s directions? At this time with Tanya out of work, Eddie and Tanya cannot pay their monthly mortgage payments.
The novel has good plot momentum and Eddie is a good natured man who helps random people in difficulties. Tanya seems fairly self centered and her character is not fully developed. Paul is an opinionated, generally thoughtless man who is focused on becoming rich and cannot fully understand why his wife Kate would like to be more than a housewife. The plot is held together by a number of coincidences!
This book was shortlisted for the 1998 Miles Franklin award.
August 15, 2007
I read this book almost 10 years ago in its original Australian edition, which won The Age "Book of the Year" award. It's the type of book that leaves a lasting impression, and it remains one of my favourite books.
The following synopsis from the Pan Macmillan Australia Picador website is a good introduction to Three Dollars:
"At once humorous and dramatic, Three Dollars is about Eddie, an honest, compassionate man who finds himself, at the age of 38, with a wife, a child and three dollars.
...
"Three Dollars chronicles the present breach of the social contract and its effect on a home near you. It is a brilliantly deft portrait of a man attempting to retain his humanity, his family and his sense of humour in grim and pitiless times: times of downsizing, outsourcing and privatising. It is about the legacy of Thatcherism and its effects on people and their relationships.
"It is about us – now."
I probably wouldn't have read Three Dollars, except that I happened to pick it out from a Christmas "lucky dip" given to editing staff by the publishing company I was working for at the time. It was, ironically, one of the best things to come out of my years working as an editor.
The following synopsis from the Pan Macmillan Australia Picador website is a good introduction to Three Dollars:
"At once humorous and dramatic, Three Dollars is about Eddie, an honest, compassionate man who finds himself, at the age of 38, with a wife, a child and three dollars.
...
"Three Dollars chronicles the present breach of the social contract and its effect on a home near you. It is a brilliantly deft portrait of a man attempting to retain his humanity, his family and his sense of humour in grim and pitiless times: times of downsizing, outsourcing and privatising. It is about the legacy of Thatcherism and its effects on people and their relationships.
"It is about us – now."
I probably wouldn't have read Three Dollars, except that I happened to pick it out from a Christmas "lucky dip" given to editing staff by the publishing company I was working for at the time. It was, ironically, one of the best things to come out of my years working as an editor.
March 11, 2017
Catching up on reading and will catch up on reviews soon I promise :)
August 31, 2012
"Remarkably well written..."
"Literary..."
"A catchy pop song..."
Forgive me if this sounds elitist, but when Time Out and Marie Claire say your novel is literary or well written, but the NYTBR says it's a pop-song, you've been middlebrowed. And so this novel is: fabulous escapism if you already think that neo-classical economics is a bad idea and that 'self-reliance' is a smoke-screen behind which a few million people get rich while wages stagnate. Now, I do think these things, and the novel is nice escapism. But literary? No.
Where to begin with the artistic flaws here? There's the 'three dollars' gimmick, which has no meaning or importance. It is a text-book literary 'symbol,' indeterminate but omnipresent. That's fine if you're a decadent fin-de-siecle poet, but not so much for someone writing at the fin de the next siecle. There's the 'I see this woman every 9.5 years' garbage and the associated coincidences: I lived in Melbourne for years, and trust me, there are too many people for this kind of 'it's fate that we meet again' garbage. How many times can Gerard - who is meant to be a hopeless moron - turn up in Eddie's life? Endless times.
Then there's the unnecessary quoting of, among others, Auden. That's forgivable- obviously we're meant to hate the narrator when he's a university student. But the completely literal use of "John Donne took metaphors literally and then saw where they took him" ENG101 nonsense? It gets old, and Perlman is no Donne. Cliches don't become interesting or get subverted when you push them a bit further; nor do bad puns.
This is all made worse by the po-po-mo first person narrative, which, as ever, allows insufficient space for irony and leads inevitably to my desire to punch the narrator in the face, no matter how wise or implausibly (i.e., very implausibly) saintly he be. It also encourages the narrative principle of "I wrote that because it happened like that", which means you get endless pointless digressions which are neither entertaining nor interesting, on everything from free will to the Tamil Tigers. The pulp novel plot is 'juxtaposed' with the high-brow rants, I guess, but again, juxtaposition is no organizing principle.
On the upside, you get lines like "The world was in the hands of animated self-parodies delivering Dale Carnegie wisdom to the bewildered from the mountain of their own banality." But even then you can see how cloying it gets.
All of which is to say: great beach read. Maybe I should have started with 'Seven Types of Ambiguity,' which at least has the balls to put its pseudo-literariness in the title.
To be fair, this is emotionally moving at times- you will feel the precariousness of middle-class careers.
"Literary..."
"A catchy pop song..."
Forgive me if this sounds elitist, but when Time Out and Marie Claire say your novel is literary or well written, but the NYTBR says it's a pop-song, you've been middlebrowed. And so this novel is: fabulous escapism if you already think that neo-classical economics is a bad idea and that 'self-reliance' is a smoke-screen behind which a few million people get rich while wages stagnate. Now, I do think these things, and the novel is nice escapism. But literary? No.
Where to begin with the artistic flaws here? There's the 'three dollars' gimmick, which has no meaning or importance. It is a text-book literary 'symbol,' indeterminate but omnipresent. That's fine if you're a decadent fin-de-siecle poet, but not so much for someone writing at the fin de the next siecle. There's the 'I see this woman every 9.5 years' garbage and the associated coincidences: I lived in Melbourne for years, and trust me, there are too many people for this kind of 'it's fate that we meet again' garbage. How many times can Gerard - who is meant to be a hopeless moron - turn up in Eddie's life? Endless times.
Then there's the unnecessary quoting of, among others, Auden. That's forgivable- obviously we're meant to hate the narrator when he's a university student. But the completely literal use of "John Donne took metaphors literally and then saw where they took him" ENG101 nonsense? It gets old, and Perlman is no Donne. Cliches don't become interesting or get subverted when you push them a bit further; nor do bad puns.
This is all made worse by the po-po-mo first person narrative, which, as ever, allows insufficient space for irony and leads inevitably to my desire to punch the narrator in the face, no matter how wise or implausibly (i.e., very implausibly) saintly he be. It also encourages the narrative principle of "I wrote that because it happened like that", which means you get endless pointless digressions which are neither entertaining nor interesting, on everything from free will to the Tamil Tigers. The pulp novel plot is 'juxtaposed' with the high-brow rants, I guess, but again, juxtaposition is no organizing principle.
On the upside, you get lines like "The world was in the hands of animated self-parodies delivering Dale Carnegie wisdom to the bewildered from the mountain of their own banality." But even then you can see how cloying it gets.
All of which is to say: great beach read. Maybe I should have started with 'Seven Types of Ambiguity,' which at least has the balls to put its pseudo-literariness in the title.
To be fair, this is emotionally moving at times- you will feel the precariousness of middle-class careers.
September 13, 2013
I discovered Elliot Perlman’s ‘Three Dollars’ through Lisa (from ANZ Lit Lovers) who recommended it and other books by Perlman highly. I hadn’t heard of Perlman before and so was quite excited to discover a new-to-me author. I read the book over the last week and finished it yesterday. Here is what I think.
The story told in ‘Three Dollars’ is narrated by Eddie. Eddie meets Amanda every nine and a half years. She was his childhood friend and they studied in the same school together. After Amanda and her family leave the neighbourhood to live elsewhere, Eddie meets her again after nine and a half years under different circumstances, in a different stage of his life. This continues for a few times and looks like a predictable accident (Eddie says this – “Somewhere in Princeton, or maybe Cambridge, there are some very dedicated people on the verge of discovering what Amanda Claremont was doing in my life, orbiting me every nine and a half years…comforted only by the knowledge that any physical system that exhibits periodic behaviour should be predictable”). The present time when he bumps into Amanda, Eddie is married to the beautiful and feisty Tanya, has a beautiful daughter Abby, but has just lost his job, might lose his house and has only three dollars left with him. How did things get to this state? The story attempts to answer that.
Though the book starts with these accidental meetings between Eddie and Amanda, this really acts as the frame to the real story (like in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, how the story of the captain who takes a ship and crew and goes to explore the Arctic is only the frame within which Victor Frankenstein’s story is told). The main story is about Eddie and his wife Tanya – how Eddie meets her at university, how they fall in love, how after the usual trials and tribulations and distractions caused by other potential lovers they get together and get married and have a beautiful daughter Abby and how they all love each other inspite of everyday niggles and problems. The story is also about the ‘80s and the ‘90s, about Thatcherism and Reaganomics, how because of de-regulation and globalization many people lost their jobs and the world became a more uncertain place to live in and how individuals who worked hard still lost everything because of forces beyond their control. How the general and the particular interact in the life of Eddie, Tanya and their family and how it ends up with them being unemployed with a net worth of three dollars and whether they are able to rise from that abyss form the rest of the story.
Though the main part of the story of ‘Three Dollars’ is set in the ‘90s, it feels eerily like the present day world and the issues it explores are very current and contemporary. We might have got used to hearing frequently about some of the things described in the book that they don’t feel like surprises anymore – like the de-regulation of many of the sectors of the economy, privatization of public sector companies, management consultants being hired to reduce costs, restructuring of organizations making a significant proportion of the employees redundant, job security and long-term (permanent) jobs having disappeared permanently, hardworking (and meticulously saving) people getting their net worth wiped out overnight – but it doesn’t make things any less scary. We have heard of history repeating itself but who would have known that what Elliot Perlman wrote about in 1998, when the book was first published, would get repeated more than once in a big way in the past fifteen years?
I love books with beautiful sentences, and ‘Three Dollars’ has an abundance of them. There were beautiful sentences like this :
She cried until the tears were no longer able to meet the demands of her sadness…
And this :
If she was not with him she was attached to the telephone in an approximation of the alternative.
Humorous sentences like this :
Engineering in all its guises was difficult enough but even more difficult was to be interested in it.
And this :
If something were not a cliché it had every chance of escaping my attention.
And this :
Being judgmental must surely be one of the most joyful activities known to the species and it is cruel that other animals are denied this pleasure.
And this :
The distance between what you say in a daydream and what you actually say to a superior at your place of work is proportional to the number of adults unsuccessfully seeking full-time employment.
And this :
On hot days the car begged to be put out of its misery and on cold days it behaved as if it had been.
And Dickensian sentences like this :
…watching the clock impart the neutrality of time as only a clock can, it occurred to me that it was not ridiculous to contemplate the predication of courage, or of its absence, with respect to somebody in the circumstances in which I found myself.
And this :
It had displayed to Tanya every minute the day had on offer but not one of them had recommended itself to her as a fine moment for rising.
And this :
I had thought that I knew her affliction and not merely the fact of it. It was no stranger to me. I understood it emotionally, empathetically. But I had only ever touched down at its airport. She was a citizen of its vast interior.
In many places, I felt that that author was struggling to decide whether to write in contemporary English or in Dickensian English. The final result is a beautiful combination of both which brings a lot of delight to readers.
I also loved the literary references in the book – Auden (who is fast becoming one of my favourite poets), Wordsworth, Sophocles, Arthur Miller (is he the favourite playwright of Australian readers?) – some of which are used to make important observations in the story.
I enjoyed reading Elliot Perlman’s ‘Three Dollars’. It is many things at the same time – a love story, a commentary on the contemporary world, a philosophical look at the current economic system and the story of one normal family which tries to survive in difficult circumstances. I would love to read more books by Perlman. I am also reading a book by an Aussie author after a long time. I hope that I don’t wait, like Eddie does for his next meeting with Amanda, but that I make my acquaintance with another Aussie writer soon.
I will leave you with some of my favourite passages from the book.
Somehow your perception of the number of people ahead of you in a queue is inversely proportional to the number of people behind you. If there are six people ahead of you in the queue and nobody behind you, you might consider leaving. If there are six people ahead of you and six people behind you, you will not leave the queue. You cannot. It would seem like a tragic waste of a precious resource even though, as you stood there in the queue, you would not be able to name the resource.
There are moments when you see something happening so slowly it still has not really happened before you have finished seeing it and yet you are completely unable to alter it, or are unable to intervene.
‘If you stay in bed for long enough the sheets and blankets take on your own smell…but not all of it, not the whole of your smell, just the saltiest part. From inside the bed it seems that the air around the bed takes on your saltiness too. After a while it’s hard to know whether the sheets and surrounding air are making you smell that way even more than you’re making them smell that way. I’d never thought you could smell salt but you can when it’s a person’s salt. It’s a strong and intoxicating saltiness.’
If you have ever loved your parents, if you have ever been able to talk with them, then all you really want from life is someone you can talk to when your parents die. That is the unarticulated goal at the back of your mind when you choose a partner, at least for your first marriage. You might think that you are looking for all those other things, shared interests, values, goals, shared folk memories, sexual compatibility, the same taste in taste. But all of this, if you are lucky enough to have been loved as a child, is just a smokescreen that you put up as you crawl between the trenches of your life, a smokescreen to hide the need to find just one person you can always talk to after your parents have died, one person whom you can tell your employment contract has not been renewed.
Have you read ‘Three Dollars’ or other books by Elliot Perlman? What do you think about them?
The story told in ‘Three Dollars’ is narrated by Eddie. Eddie meets Amanda every nine and a half years. She was his childhood friend and they studied in the same school together. After Amanda and her family leave the neighbourhood to live elsewhere, Eddie meets her again after nine and a half years under different circumstances, in a different stage of his life. This continues for a few times and looks like a predictable accident (Eddie says this – “Somewhere in Princeton, or maybe Cambridge, there are some very dedicated people on the verge of discovering what Amanda Claremont was doing in my life, orbiting me every nine and a half years…comforted only by the knowledge that any physical system that exhibits periodic behaviour should be predictable”). The present time when he bumps into Amanda, Eddie is married to the beautiful and feisty Tanya, has a beautiful daughter Abby, but has just lost his job, might lose his house and has only three dollars left with him. How did things get to this state? The story attempts to answer that.
Though the book starts with these accidental meetings between Eddie and Amanda, this really acts as the frame to the real story (like in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, how the story of the captain who takes a ship and crew and goes to explore the Arctic is only the frame within which Victor Frankenstein’s story is told). The main story is about Eddie and his wife Tanya – how Eddie meets her at university, how they fall in love, how after the usual trials and tribulations and distractions caused by other potential lovers they get together and get married and have a beautiful daughter Abby and how they all love each other inspite of everyday niggles and problems. The story is also about the ‘80s and the ‘90s, about Thatcherism and Reaganomics, how because of de-regulation and globalization many people lost their jobs and the world became a more uncertain place to live in and how individuals who worked hard still lost everything because of forces beyond their control. How the general and the particular interact in the life of Eddie, Tanya and their family and how it ends up with them being unemployed with a net worth of three dollars and whether they are able to rise from that abyss form the rest of the story.
Though the main part of the story of ‘Three Dollars’ is set in the ‘90s, it feels eerily like the present day world and the issues it explores are very current and contemporary. We might have got used to hearing frequently about some of the things described in the book that they don’t feel like surprises anymore – like the de-regulation of many of the sectors of the economy, privatization of public sector companies, management consultants being hired to reduce costs, restructuring of organizations making a significant proportion of the employees redundant, job security and long-term (permanent) jobs having disappeared permanently, hardworking (and meticulously saving) people getting their net worth wiped out overnight – but it doesn’t make things any less scary. We have heard of history repeating itself but who would have known that what Elliot Perlman wrote about in 1998, when the book was first published, would get repeated more than once in a big way in the past fifteen years?
I love books with beautiful sentences, and ‘Three Dollars’ has an abundance of them. There were beautiful sentences like this :
She cried until the tears were no longer able to meet the demands of her sadness…
And this :
If she was not with him she was attached to the telephone in an approximation of the alternative.
Humorous sentences like this :
Engineering in all its guises was difficult enough but even more difficult was to be interested in it.
And this :
If something were not a cliché it had every chance of escaping my attention.
And this :
Being judgmental must surely be one of the most joyful activities known to the species and it is cruel that other animals are denied this pleasure.
And this :
The distance between what you say in a daydream and what you actually say to a superior at your place of work is proportional to the number of adults unsuccessfully seeking full-time employment.
And this :
On hot days the car begged to be put out of its misery and on cold days it behaved as if it had been.
And Dickensian sentences like this :
…watching the clock impart the neutrality of time as only a clock can, it occurred to me that it was not ridiculous to contemplate the predication of courage, or of its absence, with respect to somebody in the circumstances in which I found myself.
And this :
It had displayed to Tanya every minute the day had on offer but not one of them had recommended itself to her as a fine moment for rising.
And this :
I had thought that I knew her affliction and not merely the fact of it. It was no stranger to me. I understood it emotionally, empathetically. But I had only ever touched down at its airport. She was a citizen of its vast interior.
In many places, I felt that that author was struggling to decide whether to write in contemporary English or in Dickensian English. The final result is a beautiful combination of both which brings a lot of delight to readers.
I also loved the literary references in the book – Auden (who is fast becoming one of my favourite poets), Wordsworth, Sophocles, Arthur Miller (is he the favourite playwright of Australian readers?) – some of which are used to make important observations in the story.
I enjoyed reading Elliot Perlman’s ‘Three Dollars’. It is many things at the same time – a love story, a commentary on the contemporary world, a philosophical look at the current economic system and the story of one normal family which tries to survive in difficult circumstances. I would love to read more books by Perlman. I am also reading a book by an Aussie author after a long time. I hope that I don’t wait, like Eddie does for his next meeting with Amanda, but that I make my acquaintance with another Aussie writer soon.
I will leave you with some of my favourite passages from the book.
Somehow your perception of the number of people ahead of you in a queue is inversely proportional to the number of people behind you. If there are six people ahead of you in the queue and nobody behind you, you might consider leaving. If there are six people ahead of you and six people behind you, you will not leave the queue. You cannot. It would seem like a tragic waste of a precious resource even though, as you stood there in the queue, you would not be able to name the resource.
There are moments when you see something happening so slowly it still has not really happened before you have finished seeing it and yet you are completely unable to alter it, or are unable to intervene.
‘If you stay in bed for long enough the sheets and blankets take on your own smell…but not all of it, not the whole of your smell, just the saltiest part. From inside the bed it seems that the air around the bed takes on your saltiness too. After a while it’s hard to know whether the sheets and surrounding air are making you smell that way even more than you’re making them smell that way. I’d never thought you could smell salt but you can when it’s a person’s salt. It’s a strong and intoxicating saltiness.’
If you have ever loved your parents, if you have ever been able to talk with them, then all you really want from life is someone you can talk to when your parents die. That is the unarticulated goal at the back of your mind when you choose a partner, at least for your first marriage. You might think that you are looking for all those other things, shared interests, values, goals, shared folk memories, sexual compatibility, the same taste in taste. But all of this, if you are lucky enough to have been loved as a child, is just a smokescreen that you put up as you crawl between the trenches of your life, a smokescreen to hide the need to find just one person you can always talk to after your parents have died, one person whom you can tell your employment contract has not been renewed.
Have you read ‘Three Dollars’ or other books by Elliot Perlman? What do you think about them?
October 22, 2011
Not as good as 7 types, but still excellent. Have owned this for maybe 10 years. Funny, I started it, but didn't finish it then. I suppose there is times in your life for reading certain books, because I loved it this time.
April 22, 2012
I can hardly believe I'm abandoning this book. After reading The Street Sweeper I couldn't wait to read more of Perlman's work. But this felt so trivial in comparison, and a little glib. The voice got on my nerves. I couldn't connect. Sorry!
May 31, 2018
Three Dollars tells the story of Eddie, who is presented as an honest and sympathetic man with a brilliant wife and a beautiful daughter. He resides in a lovely house and has a strong moral conscience. As his world falls apart, with only $3 left, he reminisces and wonders whether he made the right decisions.
A subliminal message that the book presents is the how life passes so quickly as we struggle to keep up with the pace of change: "Everything happens too quickly to be understood while it is happening. Analysis is impossible until the event is over."
An underlying theme in the story is the obsession with material goods and how so many people soullessly pursue profit. This pursuit is never-ending, as there is never enough material wealth to satisfy them. So many sacrifices are made for this material wealth, but is it worth it? Eddie questions how highly valued material wealth is in the world he lives in.
Three Dollars is certainly a good read. Elliot Perlman has beautifully written this book and added touches of subtle and dark humour which make the negative situation hilarious. It’s criticism of capitalism provides new perspectives for the reader.
A subliminal message that the book presents is the how life passes so quickly as we struggle to keep up with the pace of change: "Everything happens too quickly to be understood while it is happening. Analysis is impossible until the event is over."
An underlying theme in the story is the obsession with material goods and how so many people soullessly pursue profit. This pursuit is never-ending, as there is never enough material wealth to satisfy them. So many sacrifices are made for this material wealth, but is it worth it? Eddie questions how highly valued material wealth is in the world he lives in.
Three Dollars is certainly a good read. Elliot Perlman has beautifully written this book and added touches of subtle and dark humour which make the negative situation hilarious. It’s criticism of capitalism provides new perspectives for the reader.
May 28, 2016
The events in this book portray a couple of my generation (10 years older than me, but this is negligent), living in Melbourne, both university graduates, the wife an academic in the area of literature, working on her PhD. thesis, while her husband (being also the narrator/protagonist) working as a chemical engineer. The story leads us gradually but surely into the economic recession of the early 1990s, where many people lost their jobs (rate of unemployment was close to 11%).
The book itself is quite poignant in its criticism of market economy and Neoliberalism. It describes how people of the hero's generation, as well as that of his parents, are struggling to make do but not going anywhere but backwards.
Despite the story being interesting as well as fascinating for someone like me who only arrived to Australia in 2003, 10 years after the events described above, there are a couple of problems to my mind, which, alas, prevent me from giving this book more than a 3 stars rating – I shall describe these forthwith:
1. The protagonist's wife is susceptible to bouts of depression that she had inherited it seems from her father's side. Whenever that happens the hero puts all us normal blokes to shame by being the most understanding, supportive and loving person in the universe. This is almost too good to be true, concerning the normal reaction of men is to try and fix things, even when this is the wrong approach. For example, when my wife was first suffering from GAD my immediate response was to ask her "but what are you exactly afraid of?"– since the narrator is not at any point described as someone possessing knowledge in psychology, I cannot but wonder...
2. In many junctures the author seems to sabotage the voice of his protagonist in order to express his own criticism of the systems, situations and dynamics in which his character finds himself in. When that happens the character goes sometimes into extremely lengthy philosophical wanderings and tangents which he and the author try to present as being only semi-philosophical in nature while at the same time mentioning names like Hobbes and Kant (and also alluding to theories by other known philosophers).
At some point, for example, the narrator develops on the spot a version of moral Compatibilism when entertaining the problem of free will. As the narrator is not supposed to be a professional philosopher this is very unreliable. For someone like me who actually read/studied the philosophers mentioned and the problems described the whole discussion appears to be quite shallow. On the other hand, I would not expect a layman lacking any such education (i.e. the protagonist) to come up with such thoughts and arguments ad hoc.
3. Last but not least I have a bit of a disliking to the spinelessness manifested by the figure the author constructs, a person so indecisive and uncertain, whose choices all since being a kid are fully determined by the people around him, facilitated through his aspiration to become the image he thinks he is expected by others to become. I mean I get allegory , symbolism and all that, but what is the message here in this case? Pessimistic Fatalism? I also, like the protagonist, have a degree in engineering. I was made redundant twice already, the last time during the 2008 GFC, while having a kid (the hero also has one), one pay slip and being a bit older than the hero (not to mention less Oz-y in appearance and speech). My reaction was not the panic/childish/all-is-lost mode exhibited by the protagonist. Indeed it was not easy - it took 3 months and I had to change industry and take a 30% pay cut - but I found a new job and kept on with life. No one ever promised us a garden of roses!
Having said that, I do not by all means disagree with the author's critique per se – yes, there is efficiency and money worship, shallowness abounds, Hollow men all around and education, let alone quality time with the kids, dwindles by the moment; and I could go on and on; however, my objection is first of all to adopting a defeatist and fatalistic approach to life (one needs to live in spite (whether or not they imagine Sisyphus happy)) and secondly to moulding oneself into nothing but a reflection.
And last point (promise): during the whole book the couple, who lives in Melbourne, cannot save anything and have to make do with a very old, moribund car despite the fact that they have at least one pay slip and the wife also works sporadically at the university. Was it so much worse back then?? As far as I know property nowadays, whether through buying or renting, is worse and less affordable than in any previous time in Australia. So I live in a townhouse 65 km from my workplace in the CBD and enjoy the longer reading sessions I get. How is it possible that back then it was so much worse, that people (in an equivalent socio/economic/demographic situation as myself) were so much the poorer? Either I am missing some vital dimension to this picture or else the picture portrayed by the author is somehow distorted. Not living here during when the story takes place I truly could not say.
The book itself is quite poignant in its criticism of market economy and Neoliberalism. It describes how people of the hero's generation, as well as that of his parents, are struggling to make do but not going anywhere but backwards.
Despite the story being interesting as well as fascinating for someone like me who only arrived to Australia in 2003, 10 years after the events described above, there are a couple of problems to my mind, which, alas, prevent me from giving this book more than a 3 stars rating – I shall describe these forthwith:
1. The protagonist's wife is susceptible to bouts of depression that she had inherited it seems from her father's side. Whenever that happens the hero puts all us normal blokes to shame by being the most understanding, supportive and loving person in the universe. This is almost too good to be true, concerning the normal reaction of men is to try and fix things, even when this is the wrong approach. For example, when my wife was first suffering from GAD my immediate response was to ask her "but what are you exactly afraid of?"– since the narrator is not at any point described as someone possessing knowledge in psychology, I cannot but wonder...
2. In many junctures the author seems to sabotage the voice of his protagonist in order to express his own criticism of the systems, situations and dynamics in which his character finds himself in. When that happens the character goes sometimes into extremely lengthy philosophical wanderings and tangents which he and the author try to present as being only semi-philosophical in nature while at the same time mentioning names like Hobbes and Kant (and also alluding to theories by other known philosophers).
At some point, for example, the narrator develops on the spot a version of moral Compatibilism when entertaining the problem of free will. As the narrator is not supposed to be a professional philosopher this is very unreliable. For someone like me who actually read/studied the philosophers mentioned and the problems described the whole discussion appears to be quite shallow. On the other hand, I would not expect a layman lacking any such education (i.e. the protagonist) to come up with such thoughts and arguments ad hoc.
3. Last but not least I have a bit of a disliking to the spinelessness manifested by the figure the author constructs, a person so indecisive and uncertain, whose choices all since being a kid are fully determined by the people around him, facilitated through his aspiration to become the image he thinks he is expected by others to become. I mean I get allegory , symbolism and all that, but what is the message here in this case? Pessimistic Fatalism? I also, like the protagonist, have a degree in engineering. I was made redundant twice already, the last time during the 2008 GFC, while having a kid (the hero also has one), one pay slip and being a bit older than the hero (not to mention less Oz-y in appearance and speech). My reaction was not the panic/childish/all-is-lost mode exhibited by the protagonist. Indeed it was not easy - it took 3 months and I had to change industry and take a 30% pay cut - but I found a new job and kept on with life. No one ever promised us a garden of roses!
Having said that, I do not by all means disagree with the author's critique per se – yes, there is efficiency and money worship, shallowness abounds, Hollow men all around and education, let alone quality time with the kids, dwindles by the moment; and I could go on and on; however, my objection is first of all to adopting a defeatist and fatalistic approach to life (one needs to live in spite (whether or not they imagine Sisyphus happy)) and secondly to moulding oneself into nothing but a reflection.
And last point (promise): during the whole book the couple, who lives in Melbourne, cannot save anything and have to make do with a very old, moribund car despite the fact that they have at least one pay slip and the wife also works sporadically at the university. Was it so much worse back then?? As far as I know property nowadays, whether through buying or renting, is worse and less affordable than in any previous time in Australia. So I live in a townhouse 65 km from my workplace in the CBD and enjoy the longer reading sessions I get. How is it possible that back then it was so much worse, that people (in an equivalent socio/economic/demographic situation as myself) were so much the poorer? Either I am missing some vital dimension to this picture or else the picture portrayed by the author is somehow distorted. Not living here during when the story takes place I truly could not say.
February 18, 2017
This book didn't flow as nicely as I'd hoped or even imagined. One Goodreads user had mentioned they needed a dictionary every few words. While I do not feel the same way, I do feel the author was very condescending to the reader.
This is a story where a main character, as sarcastic yet funny as he was, failed to capture my imagination. He was too intellectual and his wife I never truly liked. I found her to be overbearing. The use of one character I found to be kind of pointless to be honest as they play such a little part in the story.
Honestly, a man learns humility over the course of his life.
I found parts enjoyable, other parts I just wanted to "get through".
It was an alright read, but it was far from a spectacular one, and not something I'd brag about.
This is a story where a main character, as sarcastic yet funny as he was, failed to capture my imagination. He was too intellectual and his wife I never truly liked. I found her to be overbearing. The use of one character I found to be kind of pointless to be honest as they play such a little part in the story.
Honestly, a man learns humility over the course of his life.
I found parts enjoyable, other parts I just wanted to "get through".
It was an alright read, but it was far from a spectacular one, and not something I'd brag about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
December 6, 2012Ugh. UGH. I tried. Really. But if you spend most of your time rolling your eyes while reading, something is wrong.
For example:
Using the term "moistened the inside of her neck" instead of just saying "swallowed".
This is what did me in, though. After this line, my brain turned off.
"Usually I watched her flicker on the wall, remembering her from university, imagining that young woman screaming in horror at the absence of exhilaration in her mid-thirties self. It was too simple and therefore inaccurate to say that she cared nothing for Paul's money and recently exalted status in a world so desperate for high priests that it reward the neo-classical librettists of macro self-interest with nouveau mandarin status."
For example:
Using the term "moistened the inside of her neck" instead of just saying "swallowed".
This is what did me in, though. After this line, my brain turned off.
"Usually I watched her flicker on the wall, remembering her from university, imagining that young woman screaming in horror at the absence of exhilaration in her mid-thirties self. It was too simple and therefore inaccurate to say that she cared nothing for Paul's money and recently exalted status in a world so desperate for high priests that it reward the neo-classical librettists of macro self-interest with nouveau mandarin status."
January 20, 2009
Perlamn uses so many words to get his point across that at times it is almost easier to read him aloud to yourself. Being a verbal person myself, I was cool with it.
I was really enjoying the book, the descriptions, the character interactions...and then about 3/4 of the way through I got horribly depressed. I waded through the depression and then WHAM! the book was over. Just like that. Things are worse and worse until they are suddenly better and the curtain is coming down. Deus ex machina anyone?
I was really enjoying the book, the descriptions, the character interactions...and then about 3/4 of the way through I got horribly depressed. I waded through the depression and then WHAM! the book was over. Just like that. Things are worse and worse until they are suddenly better and the curtain is coming down. Deus ex machina anyone?
April 20, 2012
Very engaging novel about trying to make your life work and somehow remain human in the increasingly dehumanizing world of corporate greed and disenfranchisement. Although it is more than ten years old and set in Australia, if anything it is even more on point for 2012 USA. The protagonist is an amazingly likable and honest soul and you cringe for every humiliating experience he is forced to suffer. It leaves one feeling hopeful--if not for his immediate financial prospects (which seem grim), but at least for his heart (which remains pure.) Liked it a lot.
Read
March 4, 2015I am ambivalent about whether to assign a rating to this book. I don't think it would reflect any sort of equilibrium of reasons. It contains some great writing, including a few particularly fine bons mots. There's a couple of interesting and articulate characters (perhaps too articulate, at times), a story I could readily relate to, and the right attitude to neoliberalism. But I half wish I hadn't bothered. Maybe I didn't get it. Maybe it seems dated. Maybe I just didn't like the ending. Or maybe it's flawed. Dunno.
May 21, 2020
This book is delightful. It cleverly skewers neoliberal thinking by taking a look at the world from an intelligent, humanistic and empathetic man at several key stages of his life. It also helps if you're familiar with Melbourne and its suburbs.
Initially I was a little disappointed in the ending, as Eddie Harnovey's problems are solved in what superficially seems like a lazy deus ex machina- his friend Paul, on hearing that Eddie has lost his job, offers to find Eddie a well-paid position in HR at Paul's bank despite Paul not having any experience in HR, banking, at all. But on further reflection as I dropped off to sleep last night, I realised that's a central point; i.e. that Eddie's chemical engineering qualifications and considerable experience as a government bureaucrat are ultimately not as valuable as who he knows. Thus, this ostensibly weak ending is, in fact, a parting shot at the corrupt and disheartening neoliberal world of the late 90s and with which we still struggle.
Initially I was a little disappointed in the ending, as Eddie Harnovey's problems are solved in what superficially seems like a lazy deus ex machina- his friend Paul, on hearing that Eddie has lost his job, offers to find Eddie a well-paid position in HR at Paul's bank despite Paul not having any experience in HR, banking, at all. But on further reflection as I dropped off to sleep last night, I realised that's a central point; i.e. that Eddie's chemical engineering qualifications and considerable experience as a government bureaucrat are ultimately not as valuable as who he knows. Thus, this ostensibly weak ending is, in fact, a parting shot at the corrupt and disheartening neoliberal world of the late 90s and with which we still struggle.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2023
Eddie is an honest and compassionate 38 year old man with a wife and young daughter. He is a chemical engineer and his wife Tanya is a university tutor, however they struggle to keep afloat and seem always to be a mortgage payment away from losing their Melbourne home to the bank.
Things steadily go south for Eddie until the day he is left trying to take money out of the ATM, to discover he only has three dollars to his name. How did this happen?
The author is an excellent writer and this is a somewhat satirical look at life for a middle class family in the 1990s. It’s also an examination of society, business, employment and values.
Whilst I found the themes interesting and thought provoking, there was quite of lot of the book that felt quite mundane to me and these parts were a bit of a chore to get through. So oddly I’d have to say that it was observant and thoughtful, but also mundane and at times a little overwrought. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Things steadily go south for Eddie until the day he is left trying to take money out of the ATM, to discover he only has three dollars to his name. How did this happen?
The author is an excellent writer and this is a somewhat satirical look at life for a middle class family in the 1990s. It’s also an examination of society, business, employment and values.
Whilst I found the themes interesting and thought provoking, there was quite of lot of the book that felt quite mundane to me and these parts were a bit of a chore to get through. So oddly I’d have to say that it was observant and thoughtful, but also mundane and at times a little overwrought. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
January 7, 2024
my friend chose this for book club and had spoken its praises so i had high expectations.
unfortunately it fell flat for me at several times during the book even though i really wanted to love it.
it took me a while to finish the book (almost a month) and i’m usually a fast reader.
i had trouble connecting with the characters considering a lot of the book was eddie’s philosophical ramblings that made me enjoy the book a lot less and at times zone out. there were moments where the dialogue and story in general just felt really mundane but at the same time pretentious.
definitely could’ve been at least 100 pages shorter.
with that being said, it was a good tale of the human condition with quick wit, great writing, and a realistic story about an australian family going through real struggles. portrays mental illness and financial hardship very well and accurately. very relevant with today’s current climate with the cost of living crisis.
unfortunately it fell flat for me at several times during the book even though i really wanted to love it.
it took me a while to finish the book (almost a month) and i’m usually a fast reader.
i had trouble connecting with the characters considering a lot of the book was eddie’s philosophical ramblings that made me enjoy the book a lot less and at times zone out. there were moments where the dialogue and story in general just felt really mundane but at the same time pretentious.
definitely could’ve been at least 100 pages shorter.
with that being said, it was a good tale of the human condition with quick wit, great writing, and a realistic story about an australian family going through real struggles. portrays mental illness and financial hardship very well and accurately. very relevant with today’s current climate with the cost of living crisis.
March 23, 2021
The last third of this novel is very well written, as the author goes into full on attack mode at the failings of a deregulated economy and the quite profound effects it has on families, relationships & jobs. The last couple of chapters feature life on the streets and the struggles of homelessness. However I found the first half of the novel to be ponderous and very slow to get going. I didn't really care for the central characters; they came across as middle class complainers. It was only towards the end that the novel gathered momentum and I started to empathise with these characters. Having said that, there is some very clever & biting commentary here couched in wonderful language full of sarcasm and brutal honesty.
March 23, 2017
This is the best book I have read in ages. It's so good, I may have a book crush on Mr. Perlman. "What is it about men that make women lonely?" He then proceeds to dissect, both as a surgeon and an artist, the exact how's and whys. This book is plain. Plain and sturdy, fragile and tender, pragmatic and dreamy. He has given us a lovely gift. This story is a wondrous gaze into a hand mirror. It's is both reflection and voyeurism. He gives us all the human bits we take for granted and polishes them up, shiny and cool like rocks in our hands. He gives them newly scrubbed and polished, the same old rocks but new. Now with definition and refracted light. Veins of color and glittery sediment-jewels in our hands. This book is a delightful present. A plain paperback now read, shall take the center highest shelf. Next to my rock collection. I can't hug Mr Perlman, so instead I found my dog, asleep soundly on his bed, and hugged him, instead. Twice-once also, for Nick.
November 23, 2018
This Australian is not a prolific author (3 novels so far, in 20 years) but I read Seven Types Of Ambiguity last year & loved it so thought I'd go back to his 1st novel. Perlman has a fantastic ability to draw you (me) into his story on the 1st page &, although nothing much 'happens' to Eddie & his family over the course of 380 pages, the author's empathy with his characters keep heart & mind engaged. I now look forward to his 3rd novel, The Street Sweeper, which is nestled in my to-read pile. If you like a slice of real life in your fiction try this guy.
September 24, 2024
I read it twice, and obviously the first time I read it I must have liked it, otherwise I wouldn't have kept it. Anyway, the second time around I did not like it at all, it bored me nearly to death, nothing really happens, too many too long sentences, too many too long paragraphs, too much political bla bla, I could not finish it as I couldn't care less what happened in the end.
Not my cup of tea.
Not my cup of tea.
May 12, 2017
There's a correct number of times that vis-à-vis can appear in a novel, and the answer is not twice. However, once you move past the author's irritating pretension, there are some hidden gems of social commentary buried in between the pages.
August 22, 2019
I absolutely love this book. It was actually hard to read because it was so emotionally affecting.
May 12, 2020
DNF. Based on reading half the book, I found the story slow and unmemorable. Disappointing, but I’m too old to waste time on books which don’t appeal.
October 4, 2021
Beautifully and very intelligently written. Portrayed the moral bankruptcy of neoliberalism superbly.
Read
November 19, 2021Depressing stream of consciousness by narrator. Grabs you in an Australian setting and wonderful writing
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 20, 2024
Found this on the street. Really enjoyed it, though a bit depressing - rise of neoliberalism as seen in the 90s/noughties
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