Tim Combes’s Reviews > London Falling > Status Update

"Zac Brettler’s teenage years coincided with a period of history during which the texture of human existence subtly changed. . . Any momentary impulse he had, as expressed by his index finger on a touchscreen, could give rise to a kind of digital undertow, pulling him deeper into his own preoccupations. His interests—in supercars, rich people, luxury real estate—were compounded by the algorithm."

It's either coincidence or a very good writerly intuition on Radden Keefe's part that the very moment I thought to myself "how did he even hear about this story?" he answers that very question.

“London is the capital of pristine facades, often painted in wedding-cake shades of cream or ivory; the city’s dominant aesthetic is a literal whitewash.”

“'He called Dave Sharma a ‘Paki,’ even though he’s Indian, not Pakistani, and he called me a fat cunt,' Baker said, before adding, in a studiously neutral tone, 'He ended up getting attacked by a machete.'"

“Riverwalk’s interior was fitted out in the antiseptic fashion of today’s superrich, with gleaming surfaces, velvet sofas, and generic accent sculptures. Real wealth, this aesthetic seemed to imply, meant living full-time in the featureless splendor of a corporate hotel.”

Keefe’s prose oozes with barely concealed contempt for the rich.

If there's one thing Keefe does especially well it's find the threads that bind the personal and the political, deftly weaving between the micro and the macro. His books always feel personal and grand simultaneously.

"But if political instability can be great when you’re trying to make a fortune, it’s less attractive when you’re trying to hold on to one. So having acquired their riches in the hurly-burly of the former Soviet Union, the oligarchs started looking for safe havens abroad where law and order prevailed and they could securely park their money—and, if necessary, themselves."