The Millions discussion

In response to a recent column for National Affairs, Forbes' Bruce Upbin asks readers to name books which portray business in a positive light. He holds up Mildred Pierce as an example. Can you think of any others, or does literature consistently hate on capitalism?

(http://bit.ly/pRytWi)

I have been pondering this one all day! (I just joined the group today, so it was a new question for me.) I have come up with:


The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit - it's tricky about whether it truly fits, though. Certainly the main character is treated sympathetically and eventually rewarded (not a spoiler) but the idea about the struggles in both the business world & a materialistic society are there too. It's been way too long since I last read this, though, to comment more succinctly. It was the only thing I could think of that wasn't a total satire or insult to the business world.

That's a difficult one but the only recent book I have read that comes to mind would be "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo. True that most of the story focuses on the decline of the small town but it ends with the main character breaking out on his own in business. I would agree that most literature has the anti-capitalism vibe but literature generally reflects social trends and views and we are at a difficult time now in this country as well as around the world. "Bonfire of The Vanities" was a bestseller in the 80's for that reason.

Marzie wrote: "That's a difficult one but the only recent book I have read that comes to mind would be "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo. True that most of the story focuses on the decline of the small town but it ..."

I loved that novel, Marzie!

This question is so difficult, and I'm the one who asked it! I've been searching for the past few weeks, and haven't really come up with anything that's not been brought up already. Perhaps more people will chime in.

In the mean time, this New York Times review has a pretty great line in it:

"The paucity of thoughtful business fiction, I surmise, has to do with the novelist’s preference for matters of life and death, or at least love. Writers yearn to put their characters in jeopardy, whether actual or emotional, and at first glance the main thing at stake in most corporate dramas, real or otherwise, is money. If the crucial issue is whether Faceless Colossus makes its earnings estimate for the quarter, or whether young Ned gets that bonus, well, not many novelists want to go there.

Which is kind of a shame. Television, after all, has set all kinds of excellent tales in the business world. “Mad Men” jumps to mind; it actually finds drama in the gritty realities of account management. “L.A. Law.” Heck, even “Ally McBeal” had its moments."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/bus...

Jennifer wrote: "Marzie wrote: "That's a difficult one but the only recent book I have read that comes to mind would be "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo. True that most of the story focuses on the decline of the sma..."

I loved it too Jennifer! I just read it this month and I have no idea why it took me so long to get to it.

Nick wrote: ""The paucity of thoughtful business fiction, I surmise, has to do with the novelist’s preference for matters of life and death, or at least love..."

That is an interesting quote you pulled from the article, Nick, but I wonder if it's that simple? It seems a sweeping generalization when, likely, much more is going on with authors setting or considering stories tied to the business world. I think I agree with the point that money is the main thing at stake but, more broadly including the impact not having, acquiring or having money has on an individual or group. The trappings of success and the root of all evil sort of thing, coupled with how a character will act, react or behave?? Maybe?

Marzie wrote: "I loved it too Jennifer! I just read it this month and I have no idea why it took me so long to get to it."

Russo is actually one of my favourite contemporary authors. He has a brilliant ability to capture nuance and truth. All of his characters are relatable - flaws and all.

I just ran across a passage while reading Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Richard Hofstadter, 1962), which references an article in Fortune magazine written by John Chamberlain in 1948 that asks the very same question. Chamberlain could only find three novels that fit the bill. One goes unnamed, and the others are The Rise of Silas Lapham and Dodsworth. "But," Hofstadter writes, "the very transiency of these two exceptions confirms Chamberlain's complaint....five years later, Howells published A Hazard of New Fortunes, in which one of the characteristically saurian businessmen of fiction appears...And it was Sinclair Lewis, after all, who in Babbitt gave the world its archetype of the small-town, small-business American philistine." (p 233-4)

Hofstadter's explanation, in short: "...the portrait of the businessman offered in the social novel in this country conveys the general attitude of the intellectual community, which has been at various times populistic, progressive, or Marxist, or often some compound of the three. Since the development of industrialism after the Civil War, the estrangement between businessmen and men of letters has been both profound and continuous...In times of prosperity, when the intellectual community has not been deeply engaged with political conflict, it is content to portray businessmen as philistines. In times of political or economic discontent, the conflict deepens, and the businessmen become ruthless exploiters as well. The values of business and intellect are seen as eternally and inevitably at odds..." (p 234)

Erika wrote: "I just ran across a passage while reading Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Richard Hofstadter, 1962), which references an article in Fortune magazine written by John Chamberlain..."

Thank you for sharing that, Erika. Very interesting!!